The Greatest Crime Films of All Time
Crime has been a staple of the movies pretty much since filmmaking was invented. One of the earliest silent films is 1903’s The Great Train Robbery, a 12-minute Western that achieved unprecedented popularity and is often cited as the first narrative film (although that designation is debatable). It depicts a gang of outlaws robbing a train at gunpoint, setting the template for thousands of movies to come over the next 100-plus years. Since then, crime movies have evolved and matured, with intricate storytelling, complex characters, and dazzling technique. Here’s a sampling of the greatest crime films ever made, one from each decade from the 1930s through the 2010s.
M (1931)
Just as films were transitioning from silent to sound, German expressionist master Fritz Lang made this evocative crime drama, starring Peter Lorre as a serial killer who targets children. Although it’s a sound film, M still uses dialogue sparsely, relying as much on music and sound effects to tell the story. Lang’s camera captures the emotional reactions of both law enforcement and organized crime as they track the killer and enact mob justice. With its police procedural elements and focus on the hunt for a murderer, M became a key influence on the development of crime cinema.
Double Indemnity (1944)
Billy Wilder’s adaptation of James M. Cain’s novel is a perfect example of film noir, which reached its height in the 1940s. Barbara Stanwyck plays one of the most memorable femme fatales of all time, a seductive housewife who lures insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into a plot to murder her husband. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and the twisty plot finds Walter compromising every moral value he thought he had, all for a woman who is manipulating and using him. The movie itself is as alluring and dangerous as Stanwyck’s Phyllis.
Touch of Evil (1958)
Orson Welles’ crime drama opens with one of the most famous tracking shots in cinema history, as the camera follows a bomb in a couple’s car while they make their way down a busy road and across the U.S.-Mexico border. Charlton Heston plays a Mexican government agent who gets involved in the bombing investigation, clashing with a corrupt American police captain (Welles). Welles builds a tense, visually stunning film from the lurid material. Studio executives initially rejected his vision, but Touch of Evil has since been restored to take its place alongside Welles’ masterpieces.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
As the French New Wave was reshaping cinema in Europe, director Arthur Penn brought some of that formal experimentation to Hollywood with this take on the true story of bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty play the title characters in a fictionalized story that harnesses the desperation and anger of the Great Depression, when Bonnie and Clyde’s crime spree became a national sensation. The film’s explicit violence, which was shocking at the time, remains powerful, as do the performances from Dunaway, Beatty, Gene Hackman, and Oscar winner Estelle Parsons.
The Godfather (1972)
Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Mario Puzo’s gangster novel isn’t just one of the greatest crime films of all time — it’s considered by many to be the greatest movie ever made, in any genre. It’s a sweeping generational epic starring Al Pacino as the reluctant scion of an Italian-American crime family who’s pushed to take over the underworld empire run by his father (Marlon Brando). Coppola uses the crime story as a way to explore the history of immigrants in America, in a saga that is both quietly intimate and brutally intense.
Scarface (1983)
Al Pacino heads up another crime classic in this remake of the 1932 gangster movie. Director Brian De Palma and screenwriter Oliver Stone completely reimagine the story, turning it into a sprawling account of the rise and fall of Cuban-born crime lord Tony Montana (Pacino). De Palma depicts Montana’s cocaine-fueled takeover of Miami’s underworld with stylistic excess that matches the volatile characters. Like The Godfather, Scarface views the immigrant experience through the lens of crime and corruption, with Montana experiencing a violent and ultimately self-destructive version of the American dream.
Heat (1995)
Al Pacino teams up with fellow crime-movie icon Robert De Niro for director Michael Mann’s magnum opus. Pacino and De Niro play similar men on opposite sides of the law, as Pacino’s LAPD detective Vincent Hanna tracks De Niro’s master thief Neil McCauley. The mid-film meeting between the two characters is a masterclass in acting and direction, delivering on the promise of the two acting titans sharing the screen for the first time. Mann uses the crime story as a meditation on masculine identity and finding purpose in a chaotic world.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have made quite a few crime movies, from comedic to serious, but this Oscar-winning adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel stands above them all. It starts, as many crime stories do, with the discovery of an apparent financial windfall, when Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles on the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong. He takes a briefcase full of money, but that only makes him a target for terrifying hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). The Coens expertly capture McCarthy’s colorful existential dialogue and his harsh view of human nature.
Hell or High Water (2016)
Before he became a TV kingpin with Yellowstone and its spinoffs, Taylor Sheridan tapped into the Western tradition with this Texas-set crime drama full of gallows humor. Chris Pine and Ben Foster star as a pair of brothers who embark on a series of bank robberies out of desperation, taking fairly small amounts of money from a midsize regional institution. Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham play the Texas Rangers on their tail, in a manhunt that has no winners, only a grim march toward multiple tragic ends.
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Josh Bell is a freelance writer and movie/TV critic based in Las Vegas. He’s the former film editor of Las Vegas Weekly and the former TV comedies guide for About.com. He has written about movies, TV, and pop culture for Syfy Wire, Polygon, CBR, Inverse, Crooked Marquee, and more. With comedian Jason Harris, he co-hosts the podcast Awesome Movie Year.