While many successful organized crime films have been made in cinema history, there are numerous great gangster films that remain overshadowed by these two classics from Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. As the crime film genre experiences a cultural momentum with new releases like Crime 101 and The Immortal Man in 2026, it is evident that legendary works from previous years still rank among the best crime films in cinema history. Notable examples of the genre include works by names like the Coen Brothers and David Cronenberg.

Donnie Brasco follows in the footsteps of Goodfellas, telling the story of an undercover agent who brings down organized crime from within. The protagonist here is not a mafia member but an FBI agent who will shake the gang to its core. Johnny Depp plays the role of Donnie Brasco, while Al Pacino portrays the aging criminal Lefty Ruggiero. Both characters are inspired by real individuals who witnessed the downfall of the Bonanno crime family. Based on Joe Pistone's book, the film tells the story of the agent who used the alias Donnie Brasco, powerfully depicting the emotional burden of police officers on undercover assignments and the contradiction of finding friendship while tasked with bringing someone down.

Once Upon a Time in America, directed by Sergio Leone, is an epic that chronicles the lives of the Jewish-American mafia in New York over five decades. Robert De Niro plays the character David "Noodles" Aaronson, while James Woods portrays his closest friend Max. The restored version of the film runs for over four hours and is regarded as one of Leone's masterpieces alongside The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, boasting an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In this film, Leone approaches the life of organized crime as a grand tragedy, much like Coppola did in the Godfather series. However, he adds a hypnotic trance-like atmosphere felt by criminals as time progresses. While it is more ambitious than the Godfather, it is important to emphasize that the extended version is far superior to the theatrical cut, as the original version loses much of the film's grandeur.

Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas is considered one of the best organized crime films in cinema history, and it is no surprise that Scorsese began making productions in this genre. Scorsese achieved cinematic success with Mean Streets in 1973, which, while much smaller in scale than Goodfellas, more clearly reflects the influences Scorsese drew from 1930s classics like Scarface and The Public Enemy.