The 1980s was a fine enough decade for the crime cinema. Brian De Palma switched to the crime genre from his thrillers and made classics like “Scarface” and “The Untouchables”. Michael Mann and Abel Ferrara were delivering great films in the genre, even though they were still the indicator of even better films to come.
Still, the films of that decade were more leaning into action rather than old-school straight crime stories. The people now wanted to see more films like “Lethal Weapon”. Even much-acclaimed films like “At Close Range” feel underrated in retrospect, let alone titles that will appear on this list. However, as usual, it was a decade full of very well-made stuff. Here are ten stories of crime from the 80s that you might have missed for some reason but they all are worth checking out for various reasons.
10. The Professor (1986)
Guiseppe Tornatore is perhaps best known for, well, his entire filmography except for this one. That’s understandable because it was his feature film debut and him getting worldwide recognition was for his second film “Cinema Paradiso”. Since then he made a lot of popular films, though never exactly came back to this genre in this way.
If we’re talking about underrated, we talk about Ben Gazzara. Cassavetes favorite whose credits include wonderful films like Peter Bogdanovich’s, “Saint Jack”, he plays a character based on Raffaele Cutolo. For those who don’t know, Cutolo was an Italian crime boss and leader of a criminal organization that built to renew the Camorra, a criminal society originating in the region of Campania in Italy. It starts off like a rags-to-riches type mafia story but Tornatore is very careful to not glorify the lifestyle and instead creates an authentic and gritty look on the crime world.
Gazzara’s performance is very effective, especially at the moments where his character starting to lose his mind. The film is long enough and it makes sense because it was supposed to be five hour-long television production at first. Then again, the pacing is so good that you don’t feel like the length at all. For mafia film lovers, this is a good one to check out.
9. True Confessions (1981)
The gruesome murder of Elizabeth Short, known as “Black Dahlia” is one of the oldest unsolved cases in Los Angeles County and one of the most famous of its kind that had a lasting cultural intrigue. Many films, books, songs, and so on were inspired by it. One of them was a noir novel by John Gregory Dunne which was later adapted into a film by Belgian-born director Ulu Grosbard, best-known for directing another great crime film “Straight Time”.
This film might have been better if Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro switched their roles but there’s something satisfying to watch these two acting legends together. This is not a film about who might have killed the Black Dahlia but it’s more of a character drama that focuses on relationships. Duvall plays the lieutenant who’s in charge of the case and De Niro is his brother with whom he’ll have to clash.
The film works well because the script is complex enough and so are the lead characters. They’re not some non-flawed heroes or anything, they all have their own bad sides and that’s what makes the film interesting. “True Confessions” is for those people who want to watch a thoughtful, atmospheric character study rather than a suspenseful genre flick.
8. Choice of Arms (1981)
Those who love French cinema would probably never miss a flick that stars Yves Montand, Catherine Deneuve, and Gerard Depardieu together but still, it’s important to remind them to check it out because it’s certainly an underrated one or maybe “underseen” is the better word for it. Depardieu plays an escaped convict who meets a former gangster and his wife. Things soon get out of control. It’s probably not the best way to describe the plot but it’s one of those films where it’s best to now know much about the plot and let yourself be surprised by the incredibly well-staged film.
One of the many things that makes the movie a rewarding experience is how well each character is written. There’s no character that feels like a plot device or anything, they’re fully realized and analyzed. It helps that Alain Corneau shines here as a director with such a personal style of filmmaking. It’s also impressive how he handles the story that zigzags all over the place. It’s not a film where you root for any character in particular, there are no good guys and bad guys necessarily. That’s what makes the film so fascinating. Avoiding typical genre structure might be off-putting for non-experienced viewers but the rest will appreciate it a lot.
7. White Mischief (1987)
We already had a film about a famous unsolved murder case. “White Mischief” is one of those films that deals with an unsolved murder. At least that’s how it was when it came out but for more than a half a century it fascinated the nation and kept the national interest. The film is about a British aristocrat who is shot dead. That person was Josslyn Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll, a British peer and a member of the British Union of Fascists.
The film is based on the investigation book which deals with his murder case in Kenya in 1941 and it was a very good one. The movie goes behind the murder which had no witnesses and the physical evidence that appears incriminating is also circumstantial but mostly, it explores the people involved with the case with well-written psychological analysis and witty dialogues. It helps that the movie also has an amazing cinematography and a great cast. The era where Greta Scacchi was more of a popular name is certainly missed and watch out for the appearances by John Hurt and Hugh Grant.
The film also works well because it takes you to the lifestyle and social posture of the British in colonies before they achieved their independence. Stylish crime film found its audience in the UK but deserved more recognition by international viewers.
6. Family Business (1989)
When we talk about great actor-director collaborations, we have to always mention Sean Connery and Sidney Lumet. “Murder on the Orient Express” was so much fun but the other two “The Hill” and “The Offence” might be the two of the absolute best performances Connery has ever given. Lumet knew how to take it from it, he was well aware of his strengths as an actor and was using this brilliantly. Their last collaboration, which co-stars Matthew Broderick and Dustin Hoffman was unfortunately a flop. Some deemed the script unsatisfying and some complained about the casting. This is why the film is ranked a little higher on the list than maybe it should have, not because it’s better than the many here but because it feels the reaction to it was harsh.
There’s almost a charming, warm quality about how family dynamics work out here. It becomes fun to watch these three actors interacting with each other or with the rest of the cast for that matter. Yes, they don’t look alike much and Connery was only seven years older than Dustin but it doesn’t matter Probably, people had too much expectation given the talent involved but their negative reviews/disappointment made many others to skip this, while this is a very good film about family royalty and also a fun caper story.