What to stream: Become part of the family with these Robert De Niro gangster films
Published in Entertainment News
While watching “The Alto Knights,” Barry Levinson’s tribute to the mob movie starring not one but two Robert De Niros, it feels like a meta commentary on the gangster films that made De Niro an iconic actor and that he made an iconic part of American cinema, working with directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. This film is in conversation with his other work, so you may be interested in revisiting some of De Niro’s classic mob movies. Here’s a guide on where to stream them.
First up, with De Niro reuniting with frequent collaborators Levinson and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, it calls to mind his reunion with longtime creative partner Scorsese in 2019’s “The Irishman,” which is another epic about a gangster looking back on his life and career and a meditation on violence. De Niro played real-life labor union official and Bufalino crime family enforcer Frank Sheeran, in the film based on the book “I Heard You Paint Houses” by Charles Brandt. Stream “The Irishman” on Netflix.
“The Alto Knights” isn’t the first time that De Niro has played a famous real-life mobster. In 1987, he played perhaps the most famous of all, Al Capone, in Brian De Palma’s “The Untouchables,” opposite Kevin Costner as Prohibition agent Eliot Ness. The Oscar-nominated film scored Sean Connery the best supporting actor Academy Award. Stream it on Paramount+.
In his first collaboration with Scorsese, De Niro co-starred as the degenerate Mafia-connected Johnny Boy in Scorsese’s breakout film “Mean Streets” (1973). Harvey Keitel plays Charlie, Johnny Boy’s close friend attempting to wrangle the feckless and reckless youth. Rent “Mean Streets” on all available platforms.
Just one year later, De Niro stepped into the iconic role of Vito Corleone in “The Godfather Part II,” made famous by Marlon Brando in “The Godfather,” playing the young Vito in the prequel sections of this sequel, which also follows Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) running the family business in 1958. De Niro and Pacino share this film, but they wouldn’t share a scene until Michael Mann’s 1995 crime drama “Heat” (not a mob movie so it doesn’t count here). Stream “The Godfather Part II” (as well as the first film and “Part III”) on Paramount+.
Spaghetti Western auteur Sergio Leone tackled organized crime with the 1984 film “Once Upon a Time in America,” with De Niro playing Jewish gangster David “Noodles” Aaronson. The film chronicles his friendship with Max Bercovicz (James Woods) in Prohibition-era New York. Stream it on Prime Video.
It would be wrong not to mention here perhaps the ne plus ultra of the gangster film, “Goodfellas,” directed by Scorsese and starring De Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta, based on Pileggi’s book “Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family.” This rollicking, cocaine-fueled romp stars Liotta as Henry Hill, a Mafia associate turned informant. De Niro stars as James “Jimmy the Gent” Conway, a real member of the Lucchese crime family. No matter how many times you’ve seen it, “Goodfellas” is always worth the rewatch. Stream it on Max.
De Niro made his directorial debut with the 1993 film “A Bronx Tale,” though he declined to play a mobster in this coming-of-age story, opting instead for the role of the bus-driving father Lorenzo. The film is based on the one-man show by Chazz Palminteri, who co-stars as mob boss Sonny, whose lifestyle intrigues Lorenzo’s son Calogero. Stream “A Bronx Tale” on Kanopy.
In 1995, Scorsese, De Niro, and Pesci explored the mob life out West with the Las Vegas-set “Casino,” which also co-starred Sharon Stone. De Niro starred as Sam Rothstein (based on the real-life Frank Rosenthal), dispatched by the Chicago mob to oversee goings on at the Tangiers casino. Stream it on AMC+ or rent on other platforms.
Things got meta — and comical — in the form of a pair of comedies from Harold Ramis, “Analyze This” (1999) and “Analyze That” (2002) in which De Niro stars as a mob boss who seeks out therapy for treatment of his panic attacks. Billy Crystal co-stars as his therapist in the pair of comedies that riff on De Niro’s persona (and sound a bit like “The Sopranos”). Rent them on all platforms.
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