Greetings from co-admin. How you doing? :) I ll be dealing with movies, sitcoms and try my hand of serious stuff as well... If it gets way too serious, you are welcome to ask me the iconic Why so serious? :P Here is my first post.. for all those who like Mafia movies, I am sure you ll dig this. Here we go .. The D-Attraction- My top 5 crime dramas. The movie industry has always given a diverse array of movies over the past many many years. We have had classic love stories like Victor Fleming’s Gone With The Wind, Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, thrillers like Psycho, (one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best), supernatural-horror movies namely the spine chilling William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and so on. That brings me to my most favourite genre. No not the sci-fi fantasy ones, not even the superhero movies (that comes second on my list of favourites), the crime-dramas. The mafia flicks as I like to call them. Here is my list of top 5 favourite crime dramas: 1. The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola) Ever since Francis Ford Coppola gifted this world with his timeless, indescribable cult classic ,The Godfather in 1972, which later spun out two sequels, namely The Godfather 2 and 3 respectively in the coming two decades, the subject surrounding mafia, drug-overlords, professional killers, or the “Don” have always been the favourites of both the masses and the makers. Countless flicks have been made based on this theme, with films exploring many subtopics, subplots and countless underlying profound themes. The Godfather was about the patriarch of the Corleone family, Don Vito Corleone and how his son, against his wishes and due to the twists and turns of fate and life joins his “family business” and later takes over as the new Don, the new patriarch of the Corleone mafia. The film set standards for adapted screenplay based movies ( based on a classic by Mario Puzo). It won many Academy Awards, Marlon Brando received the Best Actor statuette for his classic act as Don Vito Corleone, the patriarch of the Corleone family, the city’s biggest crime family, for Best Film (Today is ranked the second best film ever made, rightly placed behind Citizen Kane) and jointly to Copolla and Mario Puzo for Best Adapted Screenplay. I have watched this movie over 25 times till now and still find it amazing every time I watch it. 2. Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese) Second on my list is Henry Hill biopic by master story teller Martin Scorsese. Based on the life of gangster Henry Hill based on Wise Guy by Nicholas Pillegi, and the trials, tribulations and triumphs of his two partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito, climbing up the ladder of success in the world of the mafia. Ray Liotta as Henry Hill ,Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway and Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito, gave the world an amazing hard hitting mafia flick. It fetched high profile Academy Award nominations in almost every field, with Pesci taking home the award for Best Supporting actor. The movie still counts as one of the classic works of both Scorsese as well as the rest. 3. The Departed ( Martin Scorsese, 2006) Martin Scorsese came back one and half decade later with The Departed. With a stellar star cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg,Matt Damon,Vera Farmiga, and Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen and a killer story, it was a sure shot winner. It depicts the story of the Boston Police trying to take down organized crime in the city. DiCaprio as Billy Costigan is assigned the job of infiltrating the mafia run by Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), while Colin Sulivan (Matt Damon) belongs to Costello’s umbrella, planted in the Police Department. Both the officers try and chase each other down, discovering new and fatal stuff along the way, ultimately bringing each other down. This Scorsese masterpiece post its release, took everyone by storm, the audience, the critics and the box office et al. It became the first film that fetched Scorsese the Best Director statuette at the Oscars. It was also nominated to Best Picture and Wahlberg got a nomination for Best Actor in a supporting role. It is one of my all time favourites. 4. The Godfather Part 2 ( 1974, Francis Ford Coppola) Francis Ford Coppola, took forward Michael Corleone’s legacy in the second instalment of The Godfather. Rated as the best sequel ever made, it had two parallel story lines, one depicting Michael’s ruthless rise to power , as the new patriarch of the Corleone family, trying to consolidate his empire and saving himself from attacks while, the other goes into the escape from Sicily,inception and rise of Vito Corleone and his attempts and success in establishing a crime enterprise in New York. Robert De Niro stepped into Brando’s shoes to portray Don Vito Corleone , while Al Pacino reprised his role as Michael Corleone. It performed well at the box office, but couldn’t outdo its predecessor and was critically well received as well. Coppola walked home with a Best Director statuette, while DeNiro with The Best Actor in a Supporting Role at The Academy Awards. It also became the first sequel to bag the Best Picture award and Mario Puzo and Coppola once again got the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Al Pacino delivered to the outmost making Michael Corleone one of the best characters ever written and played. The fact that he wasn’t awarded as The Best Actor was surprising. 5. Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell,1997) The last on my list is Al Pacino-Johnny Depp starrer Donnie Brasco. Its based on the novel “Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia” by Joseph D. Pistone. Based on the real life incidents of FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone, on how he infiltrated into the mafia using the alias “Donnie Brasco”, to win the trust of the mob bosses. It depicts the trials and tribulations that follows into Pistone’s (Depp) life after he befriends Benjamin Lefty Ruggiero (Pacino), on their growing bond and how it goes on destroy him. It was rated as one of the finest mob based films made lately, with stellar performances by Johnny Depp and legend,Al Pacino. It was nominated for Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay..Its one of the few movies that I don’t mind watching over and over again. As a film goer, I dig a lot into this topic. The Godfather,being my all time favourite. Brando’s act, his classic dialogues and the action set-pieces still run a chill down my spine. Al Pacino delivered his finest in each of the films of the trilogy, right from the inception where he pretty much hated his “family business”, to taking over his father, ruthlessly rising to power and then passing away in the presence of his dog only, the man was a powerhouse. The fact that the Academy didn’t award him with a Best Actor trophy left me along with millions of fans throughout the globe saddened and flabbergasted. No wonder why the academy was so criticised. So, here we can conclude that, film industries across the globe have made countless mafia flicks though out he decades, some have become cults while some got buried in the lap of oblivion and be it in any era, people are always game for a true-blue mafia flick. A film with ample dosage of crime-drama, gangster antiques, guns, will always attract cine goers and filmmakers of various generations have capitalised a lot from this giving us some really timeless classics along the way. ~ Aky
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 14:22:54 +0000
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