# The 32 Greatest Gangster Epic Films of All Time

> Sprawling crime sagas from Hollywood, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Naples, where loyalty costs more than any heist. Back the empire that still holds up.

*By YPB Team · Published October 25, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-32-greatest-gangster-epic-films-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Goodfellas** — score 1000/1000
   Martin Scorsese's 1990 rise-and-fall story of mob associate Henry Hill across three decades.
2. **The Godfather** — score 833/1000
   Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 saga of the Corleone crime family, starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.
3. **Nayakan** — score 833/1000
   Mani Ratnam's 1987 Tamil epic about a Bombay slum dweller who becomes a feared and beloved don.
4. **Gomorrah** — score 700/1000
   Matteo Garrone's 2008 Italian portrait of the Camorra's reach across Naples, from the bestselling exposé.
5. **The Godfather Part III** — score 676/1000
   Coppola's 1990 conclusion to the trilogy, with an aging Michael Corleone seeking legitimacy.
6. **Black Mass** — score 676/1000
   Scott Cooper's 2015 drama about Boston mobster Whitey Bulger and his FBI deal, starring Johnny Depp.
7. **City of God** — score 611/1000
   Fernando Meirelles's 2002 Brazilian epic charting decades of gang life in a Rio favela.
8. **Satya** — score 611/1000
   Ram Gopal Varma's 1998 Hindi film about a drifter drawn into the Mumbai underworld, a landmark of Indian gangster cinema.
9. **Gangs of New York** — score 611/1000
   Scorsese's 2002 epic of gang warfare in 1860s Manhattan, led by Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher.
10. **New World** — score 611/1000
   Park Hoon-jung's 2013 South Korean drama of an undercover cop caught in a crime syndicate's power struggle.
11. **Vada Chennai** — score 559/1000
   Vetrimaaran's 2018 Tamil gangster saga set across decades of feuds in north Chennai.
12. **The Godfather Part II** — score 500/1000
   Coppola's 1974 sequel intercutting Michael Corleone's rise with young Vito's story, the first sequel to win Best Picture.
13. **Casino** — score 500/1000
   Scorsese's 1995 portrait of the mob's grip on 1970s Las Vegas, starring Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone.
14. **Carlito's Way** — score 433/1000
   De Palma's 1993 drama of an ex-con, played by Al Pacino, trying to escape his gangster past.
15. **The Untouchables** — score 433/1000
   De Palma's 1987 Prohibition epic pitting Eliot Ness against Robert De Niro's Al Capone.
16. **A Prophet** — score 433/1000
   Jacques Audiard's 2009 French prison epic about a young inmate who rises to run a criminal empire.
17. **American Gangster** — score 433/1000
   Ridley Scott's 2007 story of Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington.
18. **Battles Without Honor and Humanity** — score 433/1000
   Kinji Fukasaku's 1973 Japanese yakuza epic tracing gang wars in postwar Hiroshima.
19. **The Traitor** — score 433/1000
   Marco Bellocchio's 2019 Italian epic about Tommaso Buscetta, the Mafia boss turned state witness.
20. **Once Upon a Time in America** — score 357/1000
   Sergio Leone's 1984 epic following Jewish gangsters in New York from the 1920s to the 1960s.
21. **The Irishman** — score 357/1000
   Scorsese's 2019 three-and-a-half-hour reflection on hitman Frank Sheeran and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.
22. **Scarface** — score 357/1000
   Brian De Palma's 1983 tale of Cuban refugee Tony Montana's bloody climb in the Miami cocaine trade.
23. **Gangs of Wasseypur** — score 269/1000
   Anurag Kashyap's two-part 2012 Indian saga of a coal-town blood feud spanning three generations.
24. **Road to Perdition** — score 269/1000
   Sam Mendes's 2002 Depression-era drama of a mob enforcer, played by Tom Hanks, on the run with his son.
25. **Donnie Brasco** — score 269/1000
   Mike Newell's 1997 true story of an FBI agent who goes undercover inside the Bonanno crime family.
26. **Miller's Crossing** — score 269/1000
   The Coen brothers' 1990 Prohibition-era tale of a mob adviser playing rival bosses against each other.
27. **Bugsy** — score 269/1000
   Barry Levinson's 1991 biopic of Bugsy Siegel, the gangster who dreamed up Las Vegas, starring Warren Beatty.
28. **Public Enemies** — score 269/1000
   Michael Mann's 2009 account of the hunt for bank robber John Dillinger, starring Johnny Depp.
29. **Romanzo Criminale** — score 269/1000
   Michele Placido's 2005 Italian epic of the Magliana gang's rise in 1970s and 1980s Rome.
30. **Scarface (1932)** — score 269/1000
   Howard Hawks's 1932 pre-Code classic about a Capone-like gangster, the template for the genre.
31. **The Departed** — score 0/1000
   Scorsese's 2006 Boston mob thriller of moles on both sides of the law, winner of Best Picture.
32. **Infernal Affairs** — score 0/1000
   Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's 2002 Hong Kong thriller of a triad mole and an undercover cop.

Tags: movies, classics, crime, mafia, gangster