Our list of 18 best Irish-American mob films of all time includes iconic films such as A History of Violence, that we have talked about at length here, as well as classic films like The Road to Perdition.
If you’re looking for our selection of best crime shows and movies across different streaming services, please check out our Watching Lists.
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Our 18 picks of the best Irish-American mob films of all time include the following titles:
- A History of Violence (2005)
- The Departed (2006)
- Kill the Irishman (2011)
- Live by Night (2016)
- Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
- Miller’s Crossing (1990)
- The Road to Perdition (2002)
- Run All Night (2015)
- State of Grace (1990)
- The Kitchen (2019)
- Black Mass (2015)
- Run All Night (2015)
- The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
- Southie (1999)
- Gangs of New York (2002)
- What Doesn’t Kill You (2008)
- On the Waterfront (1954)
- The Boondock Saints (1999)
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Overview of the Movies
A History of Violence (2005)
When a pair of petty criminals attempt to rob his small-town diner, Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) quickly and easily kills them both. In the flush of news coverage of Tom’s seemingly heroic actions, a threatening stranger named Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) comes to town, fingering the unassuming family man as long-missing Philadelphia mobster Joey Cusack.
To the horror of his wife, Edie (Maria Bello), and teenage son, Jack (Ashton Holmes), Tom finds he must confront his violent past.
The Departed (2006)
South Boston cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes under cover to infiltrate the organization of gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson).
As Billy gains the mobster’s trust, a career criminal named Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) infiltrates the police department and reports on its activities to his syndicate bosses. When both organizations learn they have a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin must figure out each other’s identities to save their own lives.
Kill the Irishman (2011)
The true story of Danny Greene, an impoverished but charismatic young Irish-American who rises to power as president of the longshoreman’s local union and is charged with corruption but evades serious jail time by becoming an FBI informant.
With fearless nerve he joins forces with a Mafia gangster to rise to power in Cleveland’s underworld, gaining the reputation of a Robin Hood-like figure with nine lives as he escapes countless assassination attempts.
Live by Night (2016)
It’s the Roaring `20s and Prohibition hasn’t stopped the flow of booze in an underground network of gangster-run speakeasies.
The opportunity to gain power and money is there for any man with enough ambition and nerve, and Joe Coughlin, the son of the Boston Police superintendent, long ago turned his back on his strict upbringing for the spoils of being an outlaw. But even among criminals there are rules, and Joe breaks a big one: crossing a powerful mob boss by stealing his money and his moll.
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connolly (Pat O’Brien) were brought up in one of New York’s toughest neighborhoods, Hell’s Kitchen.
While his buddy Rocky gets caught up in racketeering in reform school, Jerry decides to become a priest. Years later, Rocky is released from prison and returns to Hell’s Kitchen, where Jerry works with at-risk children. Rocky wants a temporary safe haven with his old friend before resuming his life of crime, but Jerry hesitates, testing their relationship.
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
When the Italian Mafia threatens to kill a crooked bookie (John Turturro), Irish mob boss Leo O’Bannon (Albert Finney) refuses to allow it, chiefly because he’s dating the bookie’s sister, crafty gun moll Verna Bernbaum (Marcia Gay Harden).
Leo’s right-hand man, Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne), is also seeing Verna on the sly, and when he’s found out is obliged to switch sides, going to work for the Italian mob amidst a dramatically escalating gang war over liquor distribution.
The Road to Perdition (2002)
Mike Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is an enforcer for powerful Depression-era Midwestern mobster John Rooney (Paul Newman).
Rooney’s son, Connor (Daniel Craig), is jealous of the close bond they share, and when Mike’s eldest son, Michael (Tyler Hoechlin), witnesses a hit, Connor uses the incident as an excuse to murder Sullivan’s wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and youngest son. Forced to flee, Sullivan and Michael set out on a journey of revenge and self-discovery.
Run All Night (2015)
Longtime hit man Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson), best friend of mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), has seen better days. He’s haunted both by the sins of his past and a police detective who’s been breathing down his neck for 30 years, and the only comfort Jimmy has is whiskey.
However, when his estranged son (Joel Kinnaman) becomes a mob target, Jimmy figures that the only way to atone for his past mistakes is to make sure that his son doesn’t wind up at the wrong end of a gun.
State of Grace (1990)
Gone for a decade, Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) is welcomed back into the fold in his Irish-American neighborhood in New York City. A one-time street tough, Terry is now an undercover officer targeting crime boss Frankie Flannery (Ed Harris).
In the name of duty, Terry rekindles his dormant friendship with Frankie’s younger brother, Jackie (Gary Oldman). But as Terry gets closer to his goal, his feelings for the youngest Flannery, his old flame Kathleen (Robin Wright), complicate his mission.
The Kitchen (2019)
Between 8th Avenue and the Hudson River, the Irish mafia runs 20 blocks of a tough New York City neighbourhood known as Hell’s Kitchen.
But for mob wives Kathy, Ruby and Claire, things are about to take a dramatic and radical turn. When the FBI sends their husbands to prison, the three women take business into their own hands by running the rackets and taking out the competition.
Black Mass (2015)
While his brother Bill (Benedict Cumberbatch) remains a powerful leader in the Massachusetts Senate, Irish hoodlum James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp) continues to pursue a life of crime in 1970s Boston.
Approached by FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), the lawman convinces Whitey to help the agency fight the Italian mob. As their unholy alliance spirals out of control, Bulger increases his power and evades capture to become one of the most dangerous gangsters in U.S. history.
Town (2010)
Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) leads a band of ruthless bank robbers and has no real attachments except for James (Jeremy Renner), who — despite his dangerous temper — is like a brother. Everything changes for Doug when James briefly takes a hostage, bank employee Claire Keesey.
Learning that she lives in the gang’s neighborhood, Doug seeks her out to discover what she knows, and he falls in love. As the romance deepens, he wants out of his criminal life, but that could threaten Claire.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
Aging Boston gunrunner Eddie Coyle (Robert Mitchum) is looking at several years of jail time for a hold-up if he doesn’t funnel information to Dave Foley (Richard Jordan), an ATF agent.
Eddie buys some guns from another gunrunner, Jackie Brown (Steven Keats), then gives him up to Foley, but the agent isn’t satisfied. Conflicted, Eddie decides to also give up the gang of bank robbers he’s been supplying, only to find that Foley already knows about them, and the mob believes Eddie snitched.
Southie (1999)
A young man returns to his South Boston neighbourhood to find that crime and alcoholism have taken hold of his family.
Gangs of New York (2002)
Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a young Irish immigrant released from prison. He returns to the Five Points seeking revenge against his father’s killer, William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader.
He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting’s inner circle. Amsterdam’s journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people in 1860’s New York.
What Doesn’t Kill You (2008)
Friends since childhood, Brian (Mark Ruffalo) and Paulie (Ethan Hawke) do whatever it takes to survive in their hardscrabble South Boston neighborhood. Crime has always been part of their lives, and now they find themselves on the payroll of a hoodlum named Pat Kelly (Brian Goodman).
While Brian sinks deeper into the criminal cesspool, Paulie plans one last heist, one that he hopes can pull them both out of their dead-end lives.
On the Waterfront (1954)
Dockworker Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) had been an up-and-coming boxer until powerful local mob boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) persuaded him to throw a fight.
When a longshoreman is murdered before he can testify about Friendly’s control of the Hoboken waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man’s sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint) and the streetwise priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) to testify himself, against the advice of Friendly’s lawyer, Terry’s older brother Charley (Rod Steiger).
The Boondock Saints (1999)
Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice.
As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe), an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.
