The Godfather is one of the best films ever made. The rest are not. The choice is an easy one.

Everyone who has seen "Internal Affairs", the Hong Kong film that "The Departed" is based on, all say that "Internal Affairs" is supeior. "The Departed" ain't so bad, because it has Ray Winstone in it, who's also in the awesome "Sexy Beast".

I have never been comfortable with objective choices in art/music/film/literature/etc. (what is the best ... ?), so now I always tend to go with subjective choices (what is my favourite...?)... Not that it makes the choice easier for me in the present case.

(Of course, I guess you could say that me resorting to subjectivity/emotionality only goes to show my incapacity to appreciate art/music/film/etc. ... or that I am off-topic for turning around the question asked by the thread and not replying to it properly...)

gangster movies.....

isnt it ironic that the film GANGSTAR NO.1 is total shite! surely a trade descriptions act breach!

favourites

sexy beast
thesting
the one with italians and guns and overstated nooyaaark accents

I'm gonna watch those Japanese thingys !@#$%! posted and i'll come back with a new poll in abt a month or so...

Goodfellas. haven't seen any of the Godfathers yet.

i've seen all of the films you listed -- goodfellas wins. the godfather, by the way, is quite a lame movie. the second one is okay, but the third one is fucking terrible too. those films are amongst the best films ever for WHAT reason? I just think people haven't seen enough movies. most of the films you listed are quite good, though. i actually really enjoyed donnie brasco.

i saw: just watch yakuza movies.

I know we're talking mostly American gangster films, but how can we not mention Seijun Suzuki of "Tokyo Drifter" and "Youth of the Beast" fame? definately a pre-cursor to Sorcese.

The Muthafkin Godfather

the godfather is alright. the godfather pt 2 is great. the godfather pt 3 is a pile of piss.........

well it's not really a pile of piss-- it's a pile of piss by comparison. i watched it expecting a total debacle, but it was in fact an acceptable movie, much better than most of the crapola out there. of course it doesn't measure up to the other two, but it's not an indecently bad film. underrated.

It depends. I love the meticulous detail of Sicilian mob life in The Godfather (The wedding was spot on).
Ghost Dog or Bugsy Malone for their humor.
Scarface for the Cuban side of the story.
Millers Crossing and Gangs of New York for their Irishness and periods.
So on and so on.

Out of that list I'd go for Goodfellas because it's gory and has most of the things I've mentioned above.

I'd also like to say that Sam Fuller's House of Bamboo (1955) is another good one with a very different story of a Japanese/GI gang in the years following WWII. Not a traditional mob movie though.
It's also romantic.

Before I forget, The Krays could've been good if it weren't for the Kemp brothers and Peter Medak's poor directing.

Also, I watched all three Godfathers in a row this week, and decided that Al Pacino's performance wasn't convincing enough after the first one. The makeup crew did a bad job of the character's ageing process.

I don't like films that glorify the mob. They have to end tragically, like the real thing.

i just saw someone mentioned infernal affairs. excellent film. one of the dudes in that is in fulltime killer, another awesome film...

Donnie Brasco or Scarface I'd pick out of the ones I've seen in that list.

From the list I chose The Godfather, although my favourite is probably Mean Streets; which is a bit like The Godfather Unplugged, if that makes any sense. The other one would be The Long Good Friday, which proved that there was plenty of life in British gangster films before Guy Ritchie arrived with his bag full of cliches.

i voted for goodfellas, but the sopranos is better... since it's a series, they can put in more detail, more subplots, flashbacks to the sixties like godfather in the 20s, etc...

I voted Public Enemy because James Cagney is the shit.
I love all of his gangster movies including Roaring 20's, Angels with Dirty Faces, and White Heat.


Also, there's definitely not enough Chow Yun Fat mentioned here. Hard Boiled, The Killer, and A Better Tomorrow are just three of his best.


Finally one of the greatest gangster films that hasn't been mentioned is Little Caesar starring Edward G. Robinson. His portrayal of Rico is unparralled and set the standard for gangster movies throughout the 30's.
It's a fantastic rise and fall story.

you could totaly be an ass kicking gangster kegmama. kind of a cross between uma in kill bill and mallory in natural born killers. the mobs most deadly assasin!