Movie audiences have always found the lure of the crime genre irresistible. Stories about crooks and mobsters and the people who bring them to justice are undeniably thrilling, and cinephiles tend to find gripping. Indeed, it’s unsurprising that many of what are usually considered the greatest films ever happen to be stories about crime. The genre has also been around since the dawn of cinema, producing many all-time classics throughout the past 70+ years.
A good crime movie is entertaining and admirable enough, but a crime movie that’s based on true events might be even more commendable of an achievement. The best historical crime movies reveal something unknown about their real-life circumstances while remaining engaging. Whether the filmmakers are getting audiences to root for the criminal, like in The Irishman, or for the people uncovering the crimes, like in Spotlight, historical crime movies are in a league of their own, telling engrossing tales that never fail to shock and amaze viewers.
10 ‘Catch Me If You Can’ (2002)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Originator and king of blockbusters, Steven Spielberg is known for his ability to craft both incredibly entertaining genre films and surprisingly heartbreaking dramas. Sometimes, he makes movies that lie somewhere in between. Such is the case of Catch Me If You Can, a fun dramedy about 17-year-old Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), a master-of-disguise con man who revels in being pursued by an FBI agent obsessed with tracking him down.
Catch Me If You Can is one of Spielberg’s best films of the 21st century, bolstered by a terrific pair of lead performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. The story of Abagnale Jr. is unbelievable enough as it is, and with the director’s ability to make stories feel even more wonderful and larger-than-life, it’s no wonder why this has gone down in history as one of the most entertaining historical crime films ever.
Catch Me If You Can
- Release Date
- December 25, 2002
- Runtime
- 141 Minutes
- Writers
- Frank Abagnale Jr. , Stan Redding , Jeff Nathanson
9 ‘Papillon’ (1973)
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Though it’s not the best-known of history’s great prison break movies, the outstanding Papillon definitely deserves way more praise than it gets nowadays. Based on Henri CharriĆØre‘s memoir of the same title, it’s the story of how the French convict serving a sentence in the infamous Devil’s Island prison in French Guiana befriended a fellow criminal and plotted his escape.
There’s something special about prison break films: the thrill and suspense of the planning and the executing enchanting audiences who can’t wait to see the prisoners out of their shackles. Papillon delivers in those areas and then some, telling a powerful story about the unwavering human spirit and its strength in the face of adversity. Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman are effortlessly phenomenal in the lead roles, and the fact that the whole thing is based on a true story makes it even more enjoyable.
8 ‘The Irishman’ (2019)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
It’s not exactly common for a director’s career to span several decades and stay consistently strong throughout all those years; then again, there aren’t exactly many directors like Martin Scorsese. His most recent mobster movie (a genre he re-defined in his youth) is The Irishman, about hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) and his alleged involvement in the assassination of his close friend, labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Robert De Niro).
The Irishman is undoubtedly one of Scorsese’s best crime movies. Its 3-and-a-half-hour runtime is engrossing throughout every single minute, thanks to the fascinating character arcs anchored by actors of the caliber of De Niro, Pacino, and Joe Pesci. True crime docudramas don’t get more epic than the exceptional The Irishman, which mixes the profoundly compelling factor of the story of Frank Sheeran with Scorsese’s inimitable artistic sensibilities.
The Irishman
- Release Date
- November 27, 2019
- Runtime
- 209 minutes
- Writers
- Charles Brandt , Steven Zaillian
7 ‘In the Name of the Father’ (1993)
Directed by Jim Sheridan
The movie that earned the legendary Daniel Day-Lewis his second Oscar nomination, In the Name of the Father is one of the best legal dramas of the ’90s. It’s the story of Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis), whose coerced confession to an I.R.A. bombing he did not commit gets him and his father imprisoned. Thus starts a year-long legal fight to clear his and his father’s names.
Stories founded on miscarriages of justice always make for gripping movies that generate tension, frustration, and catharsis. The fact that In the Name of the Father is based on a factual miscarriage of justice makes it an even more potent experience, bolstered by Day-Lewis’s tremendously transformational performance. Patient and full of life, In the Name of the Father is as powerful as historical crime films get.
6 ‘Spotlight’ (2015)
Directed by Tom McCarthy
Made even more harrowing by the fact that it’s a relatively recent story and based on several magazine articles from the Boston Globe, Spotlight is one of the most emotionally devastating films of the 2010s. It’s about how the Boston Globe and its dedicated team of journalists uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up in the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the foundations of the entire Catholic Church.
Where many docudramas like this one focus so much on their story that they end up feeling like a Wikipedia article put on film, Spotlight never forgets to have compelling characters and a strong emotional core to anchor its extremely serious plot. This quality is what makes it one of the best historical crime movies of all time: it knows that to allow audiences to get invested in the subject matter and learn from it, it mustn’t neglect to tell a good story first.
Spotlight
- Release Date
- November 6, 2015
- Runtime
- 127 minutes
- Writers
- Tom McCarthy , Josh Singer
5 ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ (2023)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese’s most recent film (unsurprisingly, another one of his many masterpieces) is Killers of the Flower Moon, a 3-and-a-half-hour historical epic like they don’t make them anymore. It’s about the infamous Osage murders, which were mysteriously carried out after oil was discovered in their territory in 1920s Oklahoma, leading the FBI to step in and investigate.
Killers of the Flower Moon is one of Scorsese’s most ambitious efforts, telling this incredibly powerful and gut-wrenching story while simultaneously acknowledging that it’s a story that belongs to a culture whose voice has for too long been silenced. The runtime and slow pacing certainly make it a daunting experience, but one that’s worth every bit of effort. Killers of the Flower Moon is among the most powerful historical crime movies, a harrowing yet rewarding experience and a must-watch for cinephiles.
4 ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ (1969)
Directed by George Roy Hill
Though it had been a while since the end of the genre’s boom, the ’60s still saw the release of multiple of the most iconic Westerns ever made. One such film is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, based on the adventures of the two titular characters who led a successful band of outlaws in 1890s Wyoming. After a train robbery gone wrong, they found themselves fugitives on the run with the law hot on their heels.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has one of the most iconic actor duos ever in the effortlessly cool Paul Newman and Robert Redford, and an impeccable script by William Goldman, making it one of the best movies based on true crimes. Quotable, humorous, and incredibly fun, the film is proof of how entertaining and revealing the Western and historical crime genres can be.
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3 ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
One of the most versatile filmmakers of all time, the great Sidney Lumet had an illustrious career full of acclaimed films that have gone down in history as some of the best of his time. One of the best examples is Dog Day Afternoon, about three amateur robbers with a supposedly simple plan to rob a bank. When the heist suddenly goes south, the experience becomes a nightmare.
Dog Day Afternoon is one of those movies where everything that could go wrong does, indeed, go wrong. Darkly humorous, marvelously directed, and so suspenseful that you could practically slice through the tension with a butter knife, this is remembered as one of Al Pacino‘s best movies for a reason. Lumet was truly a master, and with a perfect balance of drama and absurd humor, he proved it when he made such an extraordinary heist film. Dog Day Afternoon is angry, desperate, and enthralling, one of the best movies the crime genre has ever produced.
Dog Day Afternoon
- Release Date
- December 25, 1975
- Cast
- Al Pacino , John Cazale , Penelope Allen , Carol Kane
- Runtime
- 125 minutes
- Writers
- Frank Pierson , P.F. Kluge , Thomas Moore
2 ‘Memories of Murder’ (2003)
Directed by Bong Joon-ho
One of the best South Korean filmmakers working today, Oscar-winner Bong Joon-ho has made plenty of outstanding movies both in his native country and in Hollywood. One of his best works is Memories of Murder, perhaps the greatest film about a real-life serial killer ever made. It’s set in a small Korean province in 1986, where two detectives are struggling to solve a case involving several young women being found murdered by a mysterious culprit.
By the time the movie was made, the killer hadn’t been caught yet. So, Bong imbued his film with a terribly bleak atmosphere that, culminating in a surprisingly meta ending, made the story pack even more of a punch. Historical crime films aren’t usually this discomfortingly dark, but the result is one of the most memorable and impactful thrillers the 21st century has seen thus far.
Memories of Murder
- Release Date
- May 2, 2003
- Cast
- Kang-ho Song , Sang-kyung Kim , Roe-ha Kim , Jae-ho Song , Hie-bong Byeon , Seo-hie Ko
- Runtime
- 129 minutes
- Writers
- Bong Joon-ho , Kwang-rim Kim , Sung Bo Shim
1 ‘Goodfellas’ (1990)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
What other movie could be considered the greatest historical crime film than the one that’s never, ever missing from a list of the best crime movies of all time? Scorsese’s Goodfellas is the story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and his life in the mafia, covering his bumpy relationship with his wife (Lorraine Bracco) and his mob partners Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci).
The cast is phenomenal; the script is dark, funny, profound, and endlessly entertaining all at the same time, and Scorsese’s direction is so legendarily amazing that it comes as no surprise that he’s so often considered the king of crime movies. Goodfellas is every good thing that the genre is supposed to be, revealing new things about its subject while portraying a vivid portrait of life in the mafia, and its highly influential contributions to American cinema can’t be overstated.
Goodfellas
- Release Date
- September 12, 1990
- Runtime
- 145 minutes
- Writers
- Nicholas Pileggi , Martin Scorsese
