The 30 Best Crime Drama Films of All Time

Mob dynasties, crooked cops and detectives who cannot let a case go. The sprawling epics argue with the tight little thrillers.

1. 1
   The Godfather

   Coppola's 1972 saga of the Corleone family and its reluctant heir.
   1000pts
2. 2
   The Godfather Part II

   The 1974 sequel that intercuts Michael's rise with young Vito's immigrant ascent.
   708pts
3. 3
   Fargo

   The Coens' 1996 dark comedy of a kidnapping plot in snowy Minnesota.
   675pts
4. 4
   Scarface

   Brian De Palma's 1983 tale of a Cuban refugee's bloody rise in Miami's drug trade.
   619pts
5. 5
   The Silence of the Lambs

   A young FBI trainee seeks a killer's profile from Hannibal Lecter in 1991.
   619pts
6. 6
   Sicario

   Denis Villeneuve's 2015 descent into the cartel war on the US-Mexico border.
   582pts
7. 7
   Drive

   Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 neon-lit tale of a getaway driver.
   541pts
8. 8
   Dog Day Afternoon

   Al Pacino plays a desperate bank robber in Lumet's 1975 hostage drama.
   494pts
9. 9
   Goodfellas

   Scorsese's 1990 rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill.
   494pts
10. 10
    The Departed

    Scorsese's 2006 Boston thriller of a cop and a gangster each infiltrating the other's world.
    494pts
11. 11
    Casino

    Scorsese's 1995 portrait of mob-run Las Vegas in the 1970s.
    442pts
12. 12
    Once Upon a Time in America

    Sergio Leone's sprawling 1984 epic of Jewish gangsters in New York.
    383pts
13. 13
    Serpico

    Sidney Lumet's 1973 true story of an honest cop exposing NYPD corruption.
    383pts
14. 14
    Training Day

    Denzel Washington's corrupt LAPD narcotics cop breaks in a rookie in 2001.
    383pts
15. 15
    A History of Violence

    David Cronenberg's 2005 story of a small-town man whose past comes calling.
    383pts
16. 16
    Carlito's Way

    Brian De Palma's 1993 film of an ex-con trying to leave Harlem's underworld.
    383pts
17. 17
    Reservoir Dogs

    Tarantino's 1992 debut about a jewel heist gone wrong and a hunt for the traitor.
    383pts
18. 18
    Infernal Affairs

    The 2002 Hong Kong thriller about a cop and a mole that inspired The Departed.
    383pts
19. 19
    City of God

    Fernando Meirelles' 2002 kinetic portrait of gang life in a Rio favela.
    316pts
20. 20
    Donnie Brasco

    Johnny Depp goes undercover with the Bonanno family in this 1997 true story.
    316pts
21. 21
    Pulp Fiction

    Tarantino's 1994 interwoven stories of hitmen, a boxer and a gangster's wife.
    316pts
22. 22
    Heat

    Michael Mann's 1995 cat-and-mouse thriller between a master thief and an obsessive detective.
    238pts
23. 23
    Se7en

    David Fincher's 1995 hunt for a killer staging crimes after the seven deadly sins.
    238pts
24. 24
    Mean Streets

    Scorsese's 1973 breakthrough about small-time hoods in Little Italy.
    238pts
25. 25
    Memories of Murder

    Bong Joon-ho's 2003 story of detectives chasing a serial killer in 1980s Korea.
    238pts
26. 26
    Mystic River

    Clint Eastwood's 2003 drama of three childhood friends reunited by a murder.
    238pts
27. 27
    No Country for Old Men

    The Coen brothers' 2007 chase across West Texas after a drug deal gone wrong.
    238pts
28. 28
    Chinatown

    Polanski's 1974 neo-noir of a private eye drawn into a corrupt Los Angeles.
    147pts
29. 29
    L.A. Confidential

    Curtis Hanson's 1997 neo-noir of three very different cops in 1950s Los Angeles.
    147pts
30. 30
    The French Connection

    William Friedkin's 1971 gritty chase through New York after a heroin pipeline.
    0pts

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