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Best Mobster Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of mobster cinema — measured across 1,249 indexed frames from 15 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Mobster films over-index on handgun, dress shirt and trench coat — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Batman (1989)

    Tim BurtonDP Roger PrattIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    Gotham City. Crime boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance) effectively runs the town but there's a new crime fighter in town - Batman (Michael Keaton). Grissom's right-hand man is Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson), a brutal man who is not entirely sane... After falling out between the two Grissom has Napier set up with the Police and Napier falls to his apparent death in a vat of chemicals. However, he soon reappears as The Joker and starts a reign of terror in Gotham City. Meanwhile, reporter Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) is in the city to do an article on Batman. She soon starts a relationship with Batman's everyday persona, billionaire Bruce Wayne.

  2. 2

    The Departed (2006)

    Martin ScorseseDP Michael BallhausIMDb 8.5TMDB 8.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    In this crime-action tour de force, the South Boston state police force is waging war on Irish-American organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Frank Costello. While Billy quickly gains Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan, a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the state police as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by their double lives, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations they have penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there is a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy - and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save themselves. But is either willing to turn on their friends and comrades they've made during their long stints undercover?

  3. 3

    The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

    Alan TaylorDP Kramer MorgenthauIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Young Anthony Soprano is growing up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark's history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters begin to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family's hold over the increasingly race-torn city. Caught up in the changing times is the uncle he idolizes, Dickie Moltisanti, who struggles to manage both his professional and personal responsibilities and whose influence over his nephew will help make the impressionable teenager into the all-powerful mob boss we'll later come to know: Tony Soprano.

  4. 4

    Killing Them Softly (2012)

    Andrew DominikDP Greig FraserIMDb 6.2TMDB 6.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    Three amateurs stickup a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse. Brad Pitt plays the hitman hired to track them down and restore order.

  5. 5

    Run All Night (2015)

    Jaume Collet-SerraDP Martin RuheIMDb 6.6TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon has seen better days. Longtime best friend of a mob boss, Jimmy is haunted by the sins of his past—as well as a dogged police detective who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years. But when Jimmy’s estranged son becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago. Now, with nowhere safe to turn, Jimmy has just one night to figure out exactly where his loyalties lie and to see if he can finally make things right.

  6. 6

    A History of Violence (2005)

    David CronenbergDP Peter SuschitzkyIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    Leading a happy and quiet life with his lawyer wife and their two children in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, mild-mannered Tom Stall cherishes his simple, uneventful existence. However, their idyllic lifestyle is shattered when, one night, Tom saves his customers and friends in self-defence, foiling a vicious attempted robbery in his diner by two violent wanted criminals. Now, heralded as a local hero, Tom's life is changed overnight, attracting unwanted attention, and a national media feeding frenzy. Uncomfortable with his newfound celebrity, Tom tries to return to normalcy, only to find himself confronted by a mysterious man who arrives in town believing Tom is the man who wronged him in the past. More and more, as Tom and his family struggle to cope with their new reality and this case of mistaken identity, they have no other choice but to fight back and protect all that they hold dear. But, is there more to Tom than meets the eye? Does he have, indeed, a history of violence?

  7. 7

    American Hustle (2013)

    David O. RussellDP Linus SandgrenIMDb 7.2TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that's as dangerous as it is enchanting. Jeremy Renner is Carmine Polito, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving's unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down.

  8. 8

    The Mexican (2001)

    Gore VerbinskiDP Dariusz WolskiIMDb 6.1TMDB 5.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    Jerry Welbach is given two ultimatums. His mob boss wants him to travel to Mexico to get a priceless antique pistol called "The Mexican" or he will suffer the consequences. The other ultimatum comes from his girlfriend Samantha, who wants him to end his association with the mob. Jerry figures that being alive, although in trouble with his girlfriend is the better alternative so he heads south of the border. Finding the pistol is easy but getting it home is a whole other matter. The pistol supposedly carries a curse - a curse Jerry is given every reason to believe, especially when Samantha is held hostage by the gay hit man Leroy to ensure the safe return of the pistol.

What mobster films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a mobster frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — handgun is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • handgun4.4×
  • dress shirt3.3×
  • trench coat2.8×
  • fedora2.7×
  • leather jacket2.5×
  • doorway2.4×
  • tie2.0×
  • suit2.0×

How mobster films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate mobster from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 30%naturalvs 44% baseline
  • 55%low keyvs 39% baseline
  • 57%nightvs 42% baseline
  • 32%dayvs 43% baseline
  • 85%eye levelvs 69% baseline

What breaks the pattern

After Hours (1985) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,249 frames from 15 films carrying the mobster label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/mobster

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