By Marla Eggar (Who else would it be by?)

I know this may only be only my opinion but gangster movies are one of the most popular and fascinating in today’s cinema. Their compelling, provocative and comical, at times. While it’s hard to combine my list to just five I went with the ones that overall kept my attention and had a interesting plot.

Here we go…

5. The Departed – To summarize, the movie takes place in South Boston where the state police is waging war on the Irish-American mob. Billy Costigan, a young undercover cop, is assigned to infiltrate Frank Costello’s crime syndicate. While Costigan quickly gains Costello’s confidence, Colin Sullivan, Costello’s informer inside law enforcement, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man is consumed by his double life and when it becomes clear to both sides that there’s a rat in their midst, both Costigan and Sullivan are in danger of being caught and exposed. At first I wasn’t sure if this was really a true story, however, it’s my understanding that the movie is “loosely” based off of actual events.

4. Once Upon A Time In America – Before I give you the plot, I want to let you know that this movie is one of the longer ones, so be prepared. This story expands over four decades and follows an ex gangster during the prohibition era. David “Noodles” Aaronson returns to his old stomping ground to ponder some of his deepest regrets. The movie takes an unconventional approach by focusing more on the aftermath of mob life, examining the pain of both lost love and lives.

3. Goodfellas- This movie needs no introduction but if you need one here it goes. This movie focuses on Henry Hill, who as a kid, always wanted to be a gangster. The movie narrates how Henry grows up in the mob and works very hard to advance himself through the ranks. The movie details how he enjoyed his life of money and luxury. Then the twist. Henry makes a series of bad mistakes, the first being his drug addiction. This is a true story and really shows how tainted your ethics have to be to become involved with the mob.

2. The Town – The story begins in a Charlestown neighborhood in Boston. This area is renowned for churning out a high number of armed robbers. The set of thieves in this story are Doug MacRay, James Coughlin, Albert ‘Gloansy’ Magloan and Desmond Elden. Doug and James are more like family then friends. James’ sister Krista Coughlin and Doug are friends with benefits. The foursome carry out a (mostly) successful bank robbery and from there things get interesting.

1.The Godfather – The cult classic, the movie that still reigns supreme after 45 years and till this day has mob enthusiasts uttering the phrase “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse” and is my all-time favorite gangster movie!

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