The Top 10 Best Mafia Movies

October 5, 2021October 5, 2021 Patrick Sessoms Al Pacino, assassins, Chazz Palminteri, criminals, Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesci, Johnny Depp, Kathleen Turner, Kevin Costner, Mafia, Mafia movies, Marlon Brando, Martin Scorsese, Michelle Pfeiffer, organized crime, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro

This List of Mafia Movies is Served Al Dente Like Mama Used to Make.

Gather round all you wiseguys and gals, because this week I’m taking a look at the best mafia movies of all time. Let’s be clear upfront, I’m talking about organized crime films with heaping handfuls of Italian-American, Scillian, or simply classic Italiano for flavor. Don’t worry, I’ll get around to giving other criminal organizations their due, but this list is just for the mafiosos. While I am going to insist that these mafia movies center around Italian-oriented organizations, the main characters don’t have to be strictly of Italian descent. After all, like many major organizations, the mafia human resources department instigates a strict non-discrimination policy in its hiring processes. With that aperitivo out of the way, let’s get down to this primo list of mafia movies, just like they used to make back in the old country.

10. Casino

Al Capone could have used a numbers man like him.

I’m kicking things off with a name you’re going to see a few times on this list of mafia movies, Martin Scorsese. The writer/director’s name is synonymous with mafia movies, and Casino is one of his more jarring features. It revolves around the Chicago Outfits dealings back in 70s Las Vegas, specifically the Tangiers Casino. They’ve been run out of there since then by the only thing scarier than the mob, sociopathic capitalism. The cast also features a few actors who built their reputations on playing hard-nosed mafioso, including Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, as a pair of mobsters tasked with keeping profits up by any means necessary. Their “enthusiasm” for their job quickly grows out of control thanks to the temptations of Sin City and the mafia’s control in the casino business slowly deteriorates.

9. Prizzi’s Honor

Mafia movies seem to have a very strange definition of family. On the one hand, family always comes first, and you never betray family… Unless it’s for the good of the family. Jack Nicholson’s Charley Partanna learns that the hard way in Prizzi’s Honor. Charley is a hitman for the Prizzi family sent to kill a man who double-crossed them in Las Vegas. In a twist of fate, he falls in love with his target’s wife, Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner). They two share a whirlwind romance before getting married before an even bigger twist of fate reveals that Irene is a hitwoman as well. Twists of fate must come in threes because they end up getting hired to off one another. This black comedy proves that when you’re mafioso, you’re family until the bitter end.

8. Married to the Mob

Only a class act hits on a widow at her husband’s funeral… Who he murdered.

Most mafia movies don’t show much of the wives, except to establish the toxic relationship they have with their idiota marito! Married to the Mob follows the taxing life of Angela de Marco (Michelle Pfeiffer), who has the worst luck with men. After marrying into the mob, her husband goes and gets himself offed by having an affair with Tony “The Tiger” Russo’s (Don Dean Stockwell) mistress. Unfortunately for Angela, she happens to be drop-dead gorgeous and newly single, which is exactly Tony’s type. Something the FBI picks up on and decides it would behoove them to surveil what appears to be his new mistress. Married to the Mob puts a comical twist on the “breaking away from the family” theme in mafia movies, making it a perfect addition to this list.

7. Donnie Brasco

Can you talk directly into the wir- Erm, I mean, into my shirt.

You can’t make a list of mafia movies without mentioning their archrivals, the FBI. Those meddling FBI agents always ruin the mobs’ fun, and one of the best killjoys of them all was Donnie Brasco (Johnny Depp). Donnie Brasco was actually Joe Pistone, an undercover agent who infiltrated the mafia in the late 70s. Endearing himself to a made-man (Al Pacino) in the operation, Brasco gathered information that helped lead to 200 indictments and over 100 convictions. Sure, the hero might not be a mobster, but Brasco was forced to play the role perfectly in order to survive his time undercover. It just goes to show that sometimes the FBI gets one over on the wiseguys.

6. The Untouchables

Mafia Dons tell their sons to behave or “Elliot Ness will get you!”

The FBI hasn’t always triumphed over the mafia, and in the 1930s Al Capone (Robert De Niro) ruled Chicago with a blood-soaked fist. The police couldn’t touch the guy, so the Feds sent in the notorious Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) to bring him down. Ness pulls together a team and does his best to catch Capone in the act, but just can’t seem to get charges to stick. That darned gangster always seems to be one step ahead. That is until Capone is undone by every organized crime syndicate’s greatest fear, taxes. You read that right, one of the most notorious criminals of all time was taken down because he fudged his taxes and a number cruncher caught it. Not only is this one of the best movies adapted from a tv series, but it’s also one of the all-time great mafia movies.

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