Cops & Robbers

Top Ten Cops & Robbers Movies

In his wisdom, Chuck realized no mere top ten list could contain both cop and robber genres -- so he did two.

As always, if you're interested in checking out the flicks for yourself, just click on the title to be whisked away to Amazon...

Top Ten Cop Movies

The French Connection (1971)
Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, et al.

One of the most influential crime films of all time. William Friedkin takes a page from French police thrillers and creates an American masterpiece. Spare, brutal and embued with a feeling of reality that never seems forced or contrived. This film is timeless, and while one of the most imitated movies of all time, and still seems fresh today. Gene Hackman leads a great cast as a cop obsessed witb catching a French drug smuggler.

Dirty Harry (1971)
Starring Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, et al.
Clint Eastwood's most famous role next to The Man With No Name. Harry Callahan is a cop who scoffs at Miranda warnings and plays way outside the book in his pursuit of justice. He's almost demonic in his portrayal of a San Francisco homicide detective hunting down a serial killer. Another incredibly influential film with one of the most quotable takeaway lines in cinema history.

Manhunter (1986)
Starring William L. Petersen, et al.
Michael Mann takes on Thomas Harris' first Hannibal Lector novel in a stylish film that is endlessly absorbing. William Friedkin plays a man haunted by his encounter with Dr Lector but who must enlist the madman in the search for a vicious serial killer/stalker dubbed the Tooth Fairy. The cat and mouse between the three characters is astonishing in its pacing and cleverness. The forensics stuff is fascinating. One of the few cinema mysteries worth unraveling. There's no disappointments here. I'm looking forward to the new restored DVD that puts in the important penultimate scene that was cut from the theatrical version

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, et
Lector again. But this time it's Jody Foster who must match wits with him in order to capture another serial killer. The emphasis is different from the Mann film and delves more into the horror genre than the other film. But it's a solid cop film as we see the price to be paid for hunting madman is to risk madness yourself.

The Big Heat (1953)
Starring Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin, Gloria Grahame, et al.

A great Fritz Lang film. Glenn Ford is a tough, incorruptible cop who's assigned to bring down a mob led by sicko Lee Marvin. Another much-copied film. Unflinching and realistic with pacing like a high speed chase.

Full Alert (1997)
Directed by Ringo Lam
A Hong Kong product by Ringo Lam. One hell of a police flick. A brazen and violent heist gang is in HK to pull down a score. But where? And when? And even when the cops find out they're helpless to stop it. A terrific film with lots of heart and no cliched John Woo style shootouts. There's a sombre theme about the violent life that brings cops and robbers together and takes its toll on both.

Laughing Policeman (1985)
Starring Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern
Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern are San Francisco homicide detectives investigating a mass murder aboard a city bus. Dour and insightful. This one packs a punch. One of the few decent cop flicks to come out in the flurry of police thrillers churned out after The French Connection. This one is based on one of the Martin Beck police novels from Sweden/ And it translates well from hedonistic '60s Stockholm to hedonistic '70s SF.

Not yet available on DVD.

The French Connection Collection 2 (1975)
Starring Gene Hackman
One of the few worthy sequels in cinema. Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle pursues that French smuggler to Marseilles. There's a terrific action sequence in a drydock in a shipyard. The scenes of heroin addiction and its consequences are nightmarish and as realistic as you'll ever see in a Hollywood film.

Currently only available on DVD in a collector's set with The French Connection.

L.A. Confidential (1997)
Starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger, and Danny DeVito
A brilliant adaptation of James Ellroy's epic police novel of Los Angeles in the 1950s. A massacre at the Nite Owl Café uncovers a web of corruption that runs high and low through the seamy and steamy faultlines of the City of Angels. (talk about mixed metaphors!) The cast is brilliant. Kevin Spacey actually DIES on screen.

The Onion Field (1979)
Starring John Savage, James Woods, et al.
Based on Joseph Wambaugh's classic of American crime and punishment. Two smalltime crooks collide with two LA cops and the end result made history with the longest murder trial ever. A study of courage and fear and the depths of depravity. James Woods is incredible in one of his earliest roles. Ted Danson and John Savage are equally good. A film that stays with you LONG after the end credits.

Top Ten Robber Movies

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Starring Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Marilyn Monroe (minor role) et al.
A John Huston masterpiece on American crime. Sterling Hayden is the muscle behind a jewel heist that goes all wrong. The tension is excrutiating as the heat comes down on the hoods. There's a sense of loneliness and estrangement in this movie that few others have ever matched. These characters are true outlaws. The movie is deep and resonant with new rewards for each viewing.

Not yet available on DVD.

The Killing (1956)
Starring Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, et al.
Sterling Hayden leads a heist again in an early Stanley Kubrick film. This time the target is a racetrack. And it's not the law that does the hoods in. It's each other. Loyalties shift and wills weaken and greed takes hold as the crime implodes in a violent flashpoint. Edge of the seat stuff.

The Godfather (1972)
Starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall, et al.

Not just a crime classic, an American classic. I can't add much to what's been said about this movie. Everything about it is near perfection. This set the gold standard for films about the mafia that has seldom been equaled.

Point Blank (1967)
Starring Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, et al.
Lee Marvin's partner and his woman take his cash and leave him for dead. Big mistake. Lee hunts them down with a vengeance. Bssed on the first of the fantastic Parker novels by Richard Stark. (Note: Mel Gibson's 1999 film Payback was a remake of this film.)

White Heat (1949)
Starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, et al.
James Cagney in his least favorite role as Cody Jarrett, a murderous mama's boy on a cross-country crime spree. The pacing is killer and the direction by Raoul Walsh is some of his best. A study of the criminal mind that's still daring today. And the spare dialogue and restrained performances (by everyone other than Cagney who's at his scene-stealing peak here) only add to the fun.

Not yet available on DVD.

Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Christopher Penn, Quentin Tarantino, et al.
Tarantino's heist film without the heist. Here the emphasis is on loyalty with Harvey Keitel trapped in a nightmare scenario following a botched robbery. He doesn't know who to trust. He's a guy pushed to question his own code as things go from bad to worse to living hell. Great dialogue and great characterization.

Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
Starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, et al.
I've met a few hoods in my day. And I don't mean double parkers or litterbugs. I mean lowlifes. And this film presents them as they are better than any movie ever made. Matt Dillon leads a cast of cowardly, stupid, venal pillheads in a confused journey driven by paranoia and fear. Part crime drama and part darkest, darkest comedy. This movie is as close to the real face of American crime as I've ever seen.

Gun Crazy (1949)
A 50's noir cheapie and very influential crime film. A young couple go on a bloody robbery spree across several states. The guy's obsession with guns is so Freudian it made even me nervous. Their casual attitude toward murder and weird attraction for each other is still disturbing. I can't imagine what people thought back then. Bonnie And Clyde, Badlands, Thieves Like Us and a whole cellblock full of boy/girl killer flicks owe their souls to this one.

Not yet available on DVD.

The Getaway (1972)
Starring Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, et al.
Not the Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger remake! Instead, the one with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw from 1972.

Sam Peckinpah's chase opus about a Texas bank robbery that runs sour as Steve McQueen discovers that what you don't know CAN hurt you. It's a Peckinpah film so the theme of loyalty and friendship are at the heart of it. You can also bet there's plenty of shoot-outs. Based on the Jim Thompson novel of the same name. I only wish the studio had let Sam keep Thompson's ending.

GoodFellas (1990)
Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, et al.
A film that bears watching over and over again. Martin Scorcese makes a flawless jewel of a movie based on true events surrounding the mob in New York City. Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci are born for their roles as a trio of low level Mafia soldiers. It covers the period when the Italian mobs began to devolve in the face of federal prosecutions and their own corruption. Unforgiving, unromantic and violent with some of the funniest, darkly humorous, scenes ever put on film. "You think I'm funny?"

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