Charukesh Venkatraman
5. Training Day(2001)
‘Training Day’ is a well done film that brings out the best of both Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke in addition to a very interesting story of justice and corruption. For the first two thirds of the movie, the director makes us to snoop around the central characters. We get to observe these two very different people laugh, argue, help, and betray each other over the course of a single day and it makes for a truly great character study. It’s unfortunately during the last third when the film starts to falter. It requires a major suspension of disbelief and things become a little too convenient for otherwise such a realistic movie.
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4. Gangs Of Wasseypur(2012)
Anurag Kashyap’s experimental film, Gangs of Wasseypur breathed life into a dying genre of Indian cinema and was rewarded with astounding reviews from critics and audience alike. Centred on the coal mafia of Dhanbad, Gangs of Wasseypur captivated everyone with a tale revolving around vengeance, revenge, political struggle and power brawl between three families. Kashyap’s film took a detour from the usual crime thrillers. He adopted a Tarantino-style approach which dealt with gruesome and stomach-churning violence.
However despite this, the audience craved for it and this resulted in the film amassing an unprecedented following. Primarily written by Zeishan Quadri, the adrenaline-filled story spanned over sixty years – from the 1940s to the 2000s. The innovative directorial style which was quite new to the Indian viewers and critics.
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3. Goodfellas(1990)
Director Martin Scorsese grew up watching guys in his New York world. The small time mafia boys who ran the neighborhood. The film is based on the best-selling book about Henry Hill. He is a real life button man who betrayed his buddies and entered the Witness Protection Program. The film is a jaunty, almost bouncy journey through thirty years of life in the mafia. Hill saw it all and did it all. Working close with some of the most prolific crime figures of the time, portrayed in the film by Robert De Niro, Paul Sorvino, and Joe Pesci, who is terrifying as an out of control killer.
The picture beautifully captures the life of a mobster in their home. Including interactions with the wives and children, and the hell they experience when their men go away. The movement of the camera creates an energy that is infectious as we watch all of this unfold. One of the most remarkable American films ever made. Directed with sublime confidence by Scorsese.
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2. The Godfather(1972)
The one that revolutionized gangster films and the film industry itself, a massive success, soaring past Gone with the Wind (1939) as the highest money-maker of all time, and bringing to pop culture the mafia and Don Corleone. Francis Ford Coppola directed the film to perfection making both a film about the American Dream becoming perverse, and the story of a family whose business just happens to be crime. Presiding over the Corleone family is Don Vito (Marlon Brando). Who after being shot will come to realize his son Michael took revenge and is now working with him to be the chief of the family. They will take down the other families in New York to solidify their power.
Brando might have won the Oscar for Best Actor but Pacino dominates the film with an extraordinary performance. In fact like the sequel, the picture is loaded with great performances, from the two leads through to Robert Duvall as the loyal adopted son, John Cazale as Fredo, James Cann as hot-tempered Sonny, and Diane Keaton as Kay, the woman Michael will marry and betray.
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1. The Godfather Part 2(1974)
Arguably, the best American film ever made. Stunning performances from Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Lee Strasberg and John Cazale dominate this remarkable film. It explores the depth and reach of the Mafia as well as the immigrant experience. There are few more moving sequences like the boat sliding past the Statue of Liberty. Hope and awe etched on the faces of the new Americans. Pacino was never better, his dark intensity dominating the film, radiating danger as he never has before or since.
In every way this film is a masterpiece. From the acting, direction and writing, cinematography, score, art direction and editing, it is flawless. Watching De Niro become the character we know will be portrayed by Brando in the first film is startling. It is such an achievement of performance, while Pacino as Michael, grasps the power and cannot shake it. An astounding work of art, that has the sweep of a grand epic, and intimacy of a love story. Genius.
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