This is seen to be the oldest surviving mafia movie directed by Wallace McCutcheon. This short, silent film isn't exactly the beginning of gangster/mob revolution but the first movie that hand the theme of gangster culture.
This was a short, silent film about the crime on the streets of New York City which was rumoured to have real gangster as extras. Mob movies has their roots from silent films but was truly defined in the 1930s.
The genre as defined in this era due to the social and economic instability caused by the Great Depression with organised crime all around the metropolitan areas. This era produced classics such as Little Caesar and Scarface and represented the genre in it's purest form. Most people in the Depression were able to identify with the anti-hero who worked hard to gain his way just to get it taken away from him. Many films implied that the criminals were the creation of society, evoke sympathy and admiration out of the viewer, who often will not place the blame on the criminal's shoulders, but rather a cruel society where success is difficult.
The 40s and 50s gave birth to the film noir movement, which made uses of plot elements, shadows, camera angles, and lighting contrast to give gangster films a distinctive, common feel and look about them.
The 70s brought the revival of gangster and mob films with the notable success of The Godfather, The Godfather II and The Godfather III which inspired many more mob movies.
The Godfather was a 1972 gangster/mob movie set between 1945-55 in New York staring Al Pacino. It received 3 Oscars and the success spawned the 2 sequels. Other films have paid homage to the trilogy or made direct and indirect references. Movies such as Analyze This and The Freshman made references and even Shark Tale and Rugrats in Paris.
Although it wasn't received at the time of it's release, it came to be a classic mob film and inspired films such as King Of New York. It also starred Al Pacino but now as a more established star.
The 1990’s gave some of the most notable and critically acclaimed gangster films. Goodfellas and Casino, both of which were directed by Martin Scorsese, and Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin Tarantino where amongst them.
An American crime film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy. It received 6 Academy Awards and is considered one of the greatest movies of all time.
An American crime film which depicts the events before and after a diamond heist. This was the debut of Quentin Tarantino and was named "Greatest Independent Film of All Time' by Empire Magazine.
This decade continued to provide box office classics such as Road to Perdition, Public Enemies and most notable, The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese.
This 2006 American crime drama is a remake of the Hong Kong film Internal Affairs which won 4 Oscars and was Scorsese's return to the mob genre.
Like the decade prior, 2010s continues to produce post-WWII real life mob incidents with Lawless (2012) being the latest release.
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