Originally Posted by JBriscoe
Im a die hard fan for crime dramas so my top 10 might be...
Casino, Donnie Brasco, Godfather, Godfather 2, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Scarface
"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster..."
Your topic title says "drama", which is a broad term and can include just about anything outside of all-out comedy, but in the post you then narrow that more to "crime drama". Considering of those ten movies seven are about the Mafia, one is a prison flick and the two Tarantinos are a heist picture and one about general criminality of all sorts, even your definition of crime drama is all over the place.
So, going by each type of movie...
Some good modern (from the past twenty-five years or so) organized crime movies you don't have listed include
Once Upon A Time in America (1984 - Sergio Leone),
Bugsy (1991 - Barry Levinson),
Carlito's Way (1993 - Brian DePalma),
The Long Good Friday (1980 - John Mackenzie),
A Bronx Tale (1993 - Robert DeNiro) and
State of Grace (1990 - Phil Joanou). Going back further to the true classics, you'd have to include
The Roaring Twenties (1939 - Raoul Walsh),
Scarface (1932 - Howard Hawks),
Little Caesar (1931 - Mervyn LeRoy),
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938 - Michael Curtiz),
Public Enemy (1931 - William Wellman) and
White Heat (1949 - Raoul Walsh) for starters.
An existing thread on Mob movies can be found
HERE.
The must-sees for prison movies include
Cool Hand Luke (1967 - Stuart Rosenberg),
Escape from Alcatraz (1979 - Don Siegel),
Midnight Express (1978 - Alan Parker),
Papillon (1973 - Franklin J. Schaffner),
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932 - Mervy LeRoy),
You Only Live Once (1937 - Fritz Lang),
Each Dawn I Die (1939 - William Keighley),
Brute Force (1947 - Jules Dassin),
Down by Law (1986 - Jim Jarmush),
In the Name of the Father (1993 - Jim Sheridan) and
Dead Man Walking (1995 - Tim Robbins). If you want to include military Prisoner of War movies as well, then you'd have to get a hold of
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957 - David Lean),
Stalag 17 (1953 - Billy Wilder) and
The Great Escape (1963 - John Sturges).
An exisiting thread devoted to prison flicks can be found
HERE.
As for heist flicks, top of the tops for me is
The Killing (1956 - Stanley Kubrick) and the best of the rest include
The Anderson Tapes (1971 - Sidney Lumet),
Bob the Gambler (1955 - Jean-Pierre Melville) and its re-make
The Good Thief (2002 - Neil Jordan),
Rififi (1955 - Jules Dassin),
The Asphalt Jungle (1950 - John Huston),
Heat (1995 - Michael Mann),
Harry & Walter Go To New York (1976 - Mark Rydell),
Quick Change (1990 - Franklin & Murray),
The Hot Rock (1972 - Peter Yates),
Topkapi (1964 - Jules Dassin),
Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (1974 - Michael Cimino),
Kelly's Heroes (1970 - Brian Hutton),
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973 - Peter Yates),
The Brink's Job (1979 - William Friedkin),
How to Steal a Million (1966 - William Wyler),
Charley Varrick (1973 - Don Siegel),
Sexy Beast (2000 - Jonathan Glazer),
Bottle Rocket (1996 - Wes Anderson), the original
The Italian Job (1969 - Peter Collinson) and
Die Hard (1988 - John McTiernan).
As for a necessary ingredient of crime movies that you left off your original list, there's also the law enforcement side of things - be they diligent, crooked or both. Some of the best police movies ever made include
The French Connection (1971 - William Friedkin),
L.A. Confidential (1997 - Curtis Hanson),
Stray Dog (1949 - Akira Kurosawa),
To Live & Die in L.A. (1985 - William Friedkin),
Serpico (1973 - Sidney Lumet),
Touch of Evil (1958 - Orson Welles),
In the Heat of the Night (1967 - Norman Jewison),
The Onion Field (1979 - Harold Becker),
The Big Heat (1953 - Fritz Lang),
Dirty Harry (1971 - Don Siegel),
Panic in the Streets (1950 - Elia Kazan),
Detective Story (1951 - William Wyler),
SE7EN (1995 - David Fincer),
Q&A (1990 - Sidney Lumet),
Prince of the City (1981 - Sidney Lumet),
The Laughing Policeman (1973 - Stuart Rosenberg),
Rush (1991 - Lili Fini Zanuck),
Bad Lieutenant (1992 - Abel Ferrara),
CopLand (1997 - James Mangold) and
Bullitt (1968 - Peter Yates).
In addition to the cops, there's also the private dick. Some of the best films ever made about gumshoes include
Chinatown (1974 - Roman Polanksi),
The Long Goodbye (1973 - Robert Altman),
The Big Sleep (1946 - Howard Hawks),
The Maltese Falcon (1941 - John Huston),
Night Moves (1975 - Arthur Penn),
Out of the Past (1947 - Jacques Tourneur),
Angel Heart (1987 - Alan Parker),
Kiss Me Deadly (1955 - Robert Aldrich),
Dead Again (1991 - Kenneth Branagh),
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005 - Shane Black) and
The Drowning Pool (1975 - Stuart Rosenberg) for starters.
I could list another hundred movies or so and a few more subcategories, but that's a good start. But "drama" and "crime drama" are terms that are both way too broad. As for another whole thread where another poster likewise had no firm definition of "crime movie", there's
THIS thread as well.
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