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The Second "Golden Age of Gangster Films" 1990-2010

posted 4 years ago by christomacin (4660)
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(1990's)

Goodfellas (1990) d. Martin Scorsese
The Godfather Part III (1990) d. Francis Ford Coppola
Miller's Crossing (1990) d. Coen Brothers
State of Grace (1990) d. Phil Joanou
The King of New York (1990) d. Abel Ferrara
Men of Respect (1990) d. William Reilly
The Grifters (1990) d. Stephen Frears
The Freshman (1990) d. Andrew Bergman
The Krays (1990) d. Peter Medak
Boiling Point (1990) d. Takeshi Kitano
Bullet in the Head (1990) d. John Woo
Bugsy (1991) d. Warren Beatty
Billy Bathgate (1991) d. Robert Benton
Mobsters (1991) d. Michael Karbelnikoff
A Rage in Harlem (1991) d. Bill Duke
Boyz n the Hood (1991) d. John Singleton
New Jack City (1991) d. Mario Van Peebles
Oscar (1991) d. John Landis
Johnny Stecchino (1991) d. Roberto Begnini
American Me (1992) d. Edward James Olmos
Reservoir Dogs (1992) d. Quentin Tarantino
Blood In Blood Out (1993) d. Taylor Hackford
Carlito's Way (1993) d. Brian De Palma
A Bronx Tale (1993) d. Robert De Niro
Boiling Point (1993) d. James B. Harris
Mi Vida Loca (1993) d. Allison Anders
Sonatine (1993) d. Takeshi Kitano
Pulp Fiction (1994) d. Quentin Taratino
Casino (1995) d. Martin Scorsese
Heat (1995) d. Michael Mann
Clockers (1995) d. Spike Lee
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995) Gary Felder
Get Shorty (1995) d. Barry Sonnefeld
Assassins (1995) d. Wachowski Brothers
Gonin (1995) d. Takashi Ishii
Shanghai Triad (1995) d. Zhang Yimou
Mad Dog TIme (1996) d. Larry Bishop
Gotti [TV movie] (1996) d. Robert Harmon
The Last Man Standing (1996) d. Walter Hill
Hana-bi (1996) d. Takeshi Kitano
Donnie Brasco (1997) d. Mike Newell
Jackie Brown (1997) d. Quentin Tarantino
Hit Me (1997) Steven Shainberg
Playing God (1997) d. Andy Wilson
8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997) d. Tom Schulman
Brother (1997) d. Aleksei Balabanov
Assassin(s) (1997) d. Mathieu Kassovitz
Perdita Durango, a.k.a. Dance with the Devil (1997) d. Álex de la Iglesia
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) d. Guy Ritchie
Mafia! (1998) d. Jim Abrahams
Gloria (1999) d. Sydney Lumet
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) d. Jim Jarmusch
The Limey (1999) d. Steven Soderbergh
Analyze This (1999) d. Harold Ramis
The Sopranos - Season One [TV series] (1999)

(2000's)

The Sopranos - Season Two [TV series] (2000)
Traffic (2000) Steven Soderbergh
Cement (2000) d. Adrian Pasdar
Get Carter (2000) d. Stephen Kay [remake of Get Carter (1971)]
The Whole Nine Yard (2000) d. .Jonathan Lynn
Gangster No. 1 (2000) d. Paul McGuigan
The Way of the Gun (2000) d. Christopher McQuarrie
Sexy Beast (2000) d. Jonathan Glazer
Snatch (2000) d. Guy Ritchie
Brother (2000) d. Takeshi Kitano
Brother 2 (2000) d. Aleksei Balabanov
The Sopranos - Season Three [TV series] (2001)
Training Day (2001) d. Antoine Fuqua
Blue Hill Avenue (2001) d. Craig Ross, Jr.
Protection (2001) d. John Flynn
Ichi the Killer (2001) d. Takashi Miike
Family (2001) d. Takashi Miike
Family 2 (2001) d. Takashi Miike
Pistol Opera (2001) d. Seijun Suzuki
The Sopranos - Season Four [TV series] (2002)
Gangs of New York (2002) d. Martin Scorsese
The Road to Perdition (2002) d. Sam Mendes
Ash Wednesday (2002) d. Edward Burns
The Good Thief (2002) d. Neil Jordan [remake of Bob le Flambeur (1956)]
Empire (2002) d. Franc Reyes
State Property (2002) d. Abdul Malik Abbott
City of God (Fernando Meirelles)
Infernal Affairs (2002) d. Andrew Lau & Alan Mak
Graveyard of Honor (2002) d. Takashi Miike
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002) d. Takashi Miike
Infernal Affairs II (2002) d. Andrew Lau & Alan Mak
Infernal Affairs III (2002) d. Andrew Lau & Alan Mak
The Sopranos - Season Five [TV series] (2004)
Layer Cake (2004) d. Matthew Vaughan
Revolver (2005) d. Guy Ritchie
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) d. Jacques Audiard [remake of Fingers (1978)]
The Ice Harvest (2005) d. Harold Ramis
Dead Man's Bluff (2005) Aleksei Balabanov
A Bittersweet Life (2005) d. Kim Jee-woon
Election (2005) d. Johnnie To
The Sopranos - Season Six [TV series] (2006-7)
The Departed (2006) d. Martin Scorsese
Running Scared (2006) d. Wayne Kramer
Lucky Number Slevin (2006) d. Paul McGuigan
Smokin' Aces (2006) Joe Carnahan
John Was (2006) d. Mark Hammond
Election 2 (2006) d. Johnnie To
American Gangster (2007) d. Ridley Scott
Eastern Promises (2007) d. David Cronenberg
We Own the Night (2007) d. James Gray
Flash Point (2007) d. Wilson Yip
The Show Must Go On (2007) d. Han Jae-Rim
In Bruges (2008) d. Martin McDonagh
Mesrine (2008) d. Jean-François Richet
Gomorrah (2008) d. Matteo Garrone
Public Enemies (2009) d. Michael Mann
Bangkok Dangerous (2008) Pang Brothers
Staten Island (2009) d. James DeMonaco
Killshot (2009) d. John Madden
A Prophet (2009) d. Jacques Audiard
Le Premier Cercle (2009) d. Laurent Tuel
Vengeance (2009) d. Johnnie To
Animal Kingdom (2010) d. David Michôd
Brighton Rock (2010) d. Rowan Joffé [remake of Brighton Rock (1947])
London Boulevard (2010) d. William Monahan
Outrage (2010) d. Takeshi Kitano

[–] WuchakTheBitch (100) 4 years ago

I would call it the Bronze Age

[–] christomacin (4660) 4 years ago

It was definitely an age of some sort.

[–] WuchakTheBitch (100) 4 years ago

For me golden age of gangster movies began sometime around 1930 (Little Caesar, Scarface, The Public Enemy) and ending somewhere around the early to mid ‘50s (Asphalt Jungle, The Big Heat, The Killing).

After that the second golden age, or maybe silver age, began in late 60s/early70s (Bonnie & Clyde, The Godfather, Mean Streets, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Killing of a Chinese Bookie etc.) and ended mid 70s.

Then the third age started up in the 1980s with films like Atlantic City, Long Good Friday, Scarface, Once Upon a Time in America, The Untouchables, Goodfellas, Carlito’s Way, Casino, etc. and lasted until around the mid to late 90s.

So for me it goes:
1930 —> 1955-ish
1967 —> 1976-ish
1980 —> 1998-ish

[–] christomacin (4660) 4 years ago

Quality-wise, the gang films from the 1980s were probably better, but I feel their influence grew slowly over time rather than being massive upon release. That is certainly true of Once Upon a Time in America, and Scarface to some extent, which were critically savaged at the time (in the U.S. anyway) and did mediocre to poor business. Atlantic City and The Long Good Friday were smallish arthouse films, and their influence was a slow burn. The Untouchables, on the other hand, was a true blockbuster and definitely a game changer. It didn't have to wait a decade or so for its legend to build... it happened immediately. I also think the 1989 Batman was an influence. Even though Nicholson's Joker wasn't the main character, he did steal the show and he was a gangster. You're correct, there have been several booms, or at least boomlets, in production of gangster films. There has never been a period when there WEREN'T gangster films, but their importance has waxed and waned during different periods. I am primarily basing my ideas on the number of films being greenlighting, and not the artistic quality or influence as much. If you research, I think you will find the latest gangster boom continued on unabated well into the first decade of the 2000s, when it started to wane a bit due to oversaturation - and when the quality level dipped. They were simply making too many.

I thought about the 1967 to 1974 period starting with Bonnie and Clyde (and Point Blank and Le Samourai) and ending with Godfather Part II. It's a short period, but an influential one. So, calling it a "Silver Age" isn't off the mark. The Godfather was a big reason why Mean Streets, The Don Is Dead, and Lucky Luciano got made, not to mention Godfather Part II. Bonnie and Clyde probably had more contemporary imitators than the Godfather movies, spawning such films as The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, The Grissom Gang, Dillinger, Big Bad Mama, Crazy Mama, The Getaway, Alfredo Garcia (which you mention), etc. I think of those as a subgenre of the gangster film - the backwoods gangland film. Quite a few blaxploitation films had gangland elements as well. Anyway, Melville, Point Blank, Bonnie and Clyde, Godfathers I and II and Mean Streets threw down the gauntlet, but to me it seems few other major film makers really attempted to pick it up, including Scorsese and Coppola themselves. It seems trends came and went a lot faster in the 70s. John Boorman only returned to the gangster film once "(The General in the 1990s), while Melville died in 1973. What brought Coppola and especially Scorsese back to the genre in such a big way in the 1990s?