The Godfather/The Godfather Part II (1972, 1974)
Look, this is a list about crime movies, so of course we need to break some rules. Honestly, we’re lumping the two Godfathers together in one entry, not because they don’t stand alone as individual films (they certainly do), but because Francis Ford Coppola‘s epics loom so large over this list that we wanted to acknowledge them while making room for others.
Everything you need to know about The Godfather and its sequels is established in the opening scene of the first movie, in which a desperate undertaker (Salvatore Corsitto), bathed in shadow (thanks to the glorious cinematography of Gordon Willis) declares his belief in America, but seeks justice via the only path available to Italian immigrants like him, through organized crime. That rationale helps understand everything that Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and his father Vito (Marlon Brando) do throughout the six-plus hours of story that follow. Every time Michael tries and fails to make his father’s organization into something legitimate, we’re reminded of the non-existent line between American capitalism and organized crime.
Foxy Brown (1974)
As this list makes plain, the crime movies of the ’70s were mostly concerned with men behaving badly. However, women did occasionally get the chance to break some rules themselves, none more so than Pam Grier, who starred in several Blaxploitation movies of the era, including Coffy and Sheba, Baby. Grier shines in every entry, fully embodying her characters’ toughness and vulnerability, especially in 1974’s Foxy Brown, written and directed by Jack Hill.
After her DEA agent boyfriend is killed by a drug ring masquerading as a modeling agency, Foxy goes undercover to infiltrate the organization and get revenge. Working her way up to the ring’s leaders, Stevie Elias (Peter Brown) and Miss Katherine Wall (Kathryn Loder), Foxy gets a new mission to save those forced into the trade… until she too gets captured, leading to her own escape and bloody confrontation. Trashy as the plot may often get, Foxy Brown never feels demeaning, thanks to Grier’s powerful performance.
Chinatown (1974)
No movie has ever ended on a bleaker note than Chinatown, in which protagonist Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) faces the full extent of the inhumanity and corruption in 1930s Los Angeles, and is simply told, “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” Director Roman Polanski and co-writer Robert Towne pull heavily from noir films of the 1940s and ’50s to tell their story, channeling the down-trodden gumshoes played by Humphrey Bogart. But where those films could only gesture at the horrors committed by those in power, Chinatown shouts the ugly truth.
Chinatown begins simply enough, with a woman named Evelyne (Faye Dunaway) hiring Gittes to find her missing husband, an employee at the Department of Water and Power. From there, Gittes gets pulled into a conspiracy about land and water rights, one that forces him to confront some of the most powerful people in the city and their horrific appetites. Even a cynical movie would at least hint at Gittes’s ability to make a difference, but not Chinatown. Anyone who comes to the movie looking for something like hope, redemption, or decency should just forget it.
