JuicyTalk
The Alto Knights is the latest in a long line of gangster movies starring the great Robert De Niro, and his efforts in this well-worn genre have ranged from forgettable duds to all-time masterpieces. Throughout De Niro’s storied career, he’s appeared in a wide variety of genres. He’s been in great comedies like Meet the Parents, great war movies like The Deer Hunter, and great action movies like Midnight Run.
But the genre that De Niro is most associated with is crime. He’s been in crime movies that have nothing to do with the mafia, like Jackie Brown and American Hustle. But since he’s an Italian-American A-lister and a frequent collaborator of Martin Scorsese, he’s often cast as mobsters, resulting in both timeless gems like The Godfather Part II and bitter disappointments like Analyze That.
13
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight
Comedic Crime Chaos
De Niro scored one of his earliest lead roles in the gangster comedy The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. The movie attempts to tell the life story of mobster Joe Gallo as an absurdist comedy, but James Goldstone’s direction is too heavy-handed for the humor to land. The performances are too broad and the gags are overplayed.
12
Analyze That
Therapy and Turf Wars
Analyze That
- Release Date
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December 6, 2002
- Runtime
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96 minutes
- Writers
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Kenneth Lonergan, Peter Tolan, Peter Steinfeld, Harold Ramis
Sequels to classic comedies rarely live up to their predecessors, because a joke is never as funny the second time, and that’s the case with Analyze That. Analyze That continues mob boss Paul Vitti’s psychiatric treatment by Dr. Ben Sobel, but there wasn’t much comedic mileage left in that one-joke premise. De Niro’s chemistry with Billy Crystal is just as great the second time around, but there are far fewer laughs.
11
Mad Dog And Glory
Romantic Mob Entanglements
De Niro’s unlikely team-up with Bill Murray in Mad Dog and Glory is marked by casting against type. De Niro plays the timid Chicago detective who’s never drawn his gun, while Murray plays the notorious local gangster.
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When the detective unwittingly saves the gangster’s life, the gangster offers the detective the “personal services” of his moll, played by Uma Thurman, as an unconventional thank-you gift. Mad Dog and Glory works surprisingly well as an oddball romcom, even if the casting isn’t always convincing.
10
The Alto Knights
Upcoming Period Crime Drama
5/10
- Release Date
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April 21, 2025
- Runtime
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120 Minutes
- Director
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Barry Levinson
- Writers
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Nicholas Pileggi
- Producers
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Irwin Winkler, Jason Sosnoff, Charles Winkler, David Winkler, Mike Drake, Barry Levinson
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Vito Genovese / Frank Costello
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Debra Messing
Bobbie Costello
De Niro’s latest gangster vehicle, The Alto Knights, casts him in two roles as rival mob bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Although there’s no dramatic reason for De Niro to play both parts, he nails these two characters — especially Vito, who De Niro plays as a hot-tempered Junior Soprano-esque curmudgeon.
Still, as far as Scorsese imitators go, it’s a very entertaining little gangster movie.
The Alto Knights is essentially Scorsese-lite, borrowing all the stylistic hallmarks of Scorsese’s crime films without replicating the depth or raw honesty. Still, as far as Scorsese imitators go, it’s a very entertaining little gangster movie.
9
Analyze This
Psychological Mob Comedy
The sequel may have been a bridge too far, but Analyze This still holds up as a comedy classic. De Niro and Crystal share a hilarious on-screen dynamic as a ruthless mafioso and his put-upon therapist. The script is full of great gags, courtesy of Ghostbusters’ Harold Ramis, but the character work is surprisingly strong, too, thanks to the contributions of legendary playwright Kenneth Lonergan. Analyze This is a prime example of a comedy that fulfills the potential of its juicy high-concept premise.
8
The Untouchables
Prohibition Era Showdown
- Release Date
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June 3, 1987
- Runtime
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1h 59m
- Director
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Brian De Palma
- Writers
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David Mamet
Long after he got his start in Brian De Palma’s early experimental comedies, De Niro reunited with the director to play Al Capone to Kevin Costner’s Eliot Ness in the crime epic The Untouchables. De Palma’s dramatization of the story deviates wildly from the real events, but it delivers some of the genre’s most iconic moments, like Capone savagely beating a lieutenant with a baseball bat. The Untouchables might not be the most accurate gangster movie of De Niro’s career, but it’s one of the most thrilling.
7
Mean Streets
Early Urban Grit
De Niro’s first of many collaborations with Martin Scorsese, Mean Streets, is a character-driven two-hander about a young mafioso named Charlie, played by Harvey Keitel, trying to keep his reckless friend Johnny Boy under control in Little Italy.
De Niro turns in a gleefully sadistic performance as Johnny Boy, stealing every scene he’s in, and Keitel is a great deadpan foil. Scorsese and De Niro’s later gangster movies would get much leaner and more ambitious, but Mean Streets perfectly introduced their uniquely authentic take on the genre.
6
A Bronx Tale
Neighborhood Loyalty and Lessons
De Niro’s directorial debut, A Bronx Tale, is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story about a young Italian-American man torn between the working-class values of his father and the glamorous lifestyle of a mob boss who takes him under his wing. In the director’s chair, De Niro manages to evoke a wide range of emotions; it has funny moments, heartbreaking moments, and rage-inducing moments. Chazz Palminteri’s semi-autobiographical script, based on his own one-man show, makes A Bronx Tale much more personal than the average gangster movie.
5
Casino
Vegas Vice and Violence
Casino loses some points for being a stylistic rehash of Goodfellas, copying its cinematic approach to lesser effect. But it’s still a spectacular crime epic in its own right.
De Niro’s fraught on-screen dynamic with a career-best Sharon Stone is the highlight of the movie.
This one takes Scorsese to Las Vegas to examine the illicit ins and outs of the gambling industry, which he uses to tell another cautionary tale of a gangster’s rise and fall in organized crime. De Niro’s fraught on-screen dynamic with a career-best Sharon Stone is the highlight of the movie.
4
Once Upon A Time In America
Epic Gangster Saga
- Release Date
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June 1, 1984
- Runtime
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229 Minutes
- Director
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Sergio Leone
- Writers
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Harry Grey, Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, Stuart Kaminsky, Sergio Leone
Spaghetti western pioneer Sergio Leone finally managed to realize his long-gestating passion project as his final film. Once Upon a Time in America chronicles the lives of two Jewish gangsters, played by De Niro and James Woods, as they rise through New York’s criminal underworld. Clocking in at nearly four hours, Once Upon a Time in America isn’t as tight as Leone’s previous films — there are plenty of flaws in its disjointed pacing and unfocused narrative — but it’s an impressive artistic achievement nonetheless.
3
The Irishman
Late-Career Reflection
Scorsese and De Niro’s gangster movies are all cautionary tales warning viewers against a life of crime, but this thesis reached its apex in The Irishman. Every new character is introduced beside their grim cause of death.
De Niro plays Frank Sheeran, a mob hitman who claimed to have killed union boss Jimmy Hoffa.
Whether that’s true or not, the movie uses it as a springboard to explore the guilt of an aging gangster. The Irishman is much longer, slower, and more somber than Goodfellas, but that’s by design; it’s a meditation on the misery that awaits all career criminals.
2
The Godfather Part II
Expanding the Corleone Legacy
De Niro inherited the role of Vito Corleone from Marlon Brando in The Godfather Part II. Michael’s moral downfall in the sequel storyline is masterfully contrasted with his father’s rise to power in a prequel storyline.
The Godfather Part II is the go-to example of a superior sequel for a reason. It takes the first film’s grand scale even further, explores its poignant themes of morality even deeper, and uses Vito’s origin story to expand on the original movie’s depiction of the dark side of the American Dream.
1
Goodfellas
Iconic Mob Chronicle
The Godfather Part II comes very close, but Robert De Niro’s greatest gangster movie, and maybe the greatest gangster movie ever made, is Goodfellas. The manic energy of Scorsese’s direction — the freeze frames, the voiceover narration, the zippy editing, the ever-changing soundtrack, the dizzying camera movements — perfectly captures the delirious whirlwind of life in the mafia. De Niro’s Jimmy Conway isn’t the lead character, but he has some of De Niro’s finest acting moments, like when he kicks over a phone booth out of grief, or the giddy glint of murderousness in his eye when he decides to kill Morrie.
- Birthdate
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August 17, 1943
- Birthplace
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Greenwich Village, New York City, New York, USA
