The “three best gangster films ever made,” according to Edward Norton

Posted On January 31, 2026January 31, 2026

There’s something about gangsters that simply makes for great films. It’s the power struggles, the treachery, the violence, the code of honour, and it has been that way throughout cinema, all the way back to films like Howard Hawks’ original Scarface in 1932. Picking the best examples isn’t easy, but it’s something that Fight Club star Edward Norton reckons he can do. 

While he isn’t known for a mob movie himself, he’s certainly excelled in some crime-based films over the years, including some stand-outs like Spike Lee’s 25th Hour, Primal Fear with Richard Gere (that rhymes!) and Marlon Brando’s final movie The Score and he certainly ranks alongside the very best actors active in Hollywood over the last thirty years or so.

Arguably, his most impressive performance, though, was the harrowing 1998 thriller American History X, the movie that earned him an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actor’ and that shone a light on underground neo-Nazi groups operating in America. 

Norton was scintillating alongside Terminator 2’s Edward Furlong, and in the subsequent 25 years, the film has been rated as important enough to have been used as an educational tool in some countries. 

And it was a 2009 film that was nominated for an Oscar for ‘Best Foreign Language’ film that Norton paid tribute to during his chat with writer Tim Ferriss, saying: “I’m a huge fan of this French filmmaker, (A Prophet director) Jacques Audiard.”

Adding, “I personally put A Prophet as one of the three best gangster films ever made. For me, The Godfather, Goodfellas, and A Prophet are, at this point, my three. If I had to pick three gangster films, I think they are the best ones.”

A Prophet is widely regarded as one of the best prison movies in recent times, it tells the story of an Algerian immigrant who is sent to jail as a petty thief but then works his way up via a drug-dealing mob before becoming a pivotal part of the Corsican mafia.

It was an instant hit for Audiard, who scooped countless awards around the world and led him to direct English-language films, including the recent musical Emilia Perez starring Zoë Saldaña, which won 13 Oscar nominations, winning two. 

As for Norton’s other two picks, The Godfather barely needs explaining; Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 epic immediately became the yardstick against which all other mafia films are judged and has remained so ever since. Adapted from Mario Puzo’s novel, its quality was acknowledged around the world on release, bringing in almost $300million at the box office against a spend of just $7m and collecting 11 Oscar nominations, winning three, including ‘Best Actor’ for Brando. 

Almost two decades later, and after his initial efforts, including 1973’s Mean Streets, Coppola’s close friend Martin Scorsese made his own historic mob movie in Goodfellas, starring The Godfather Part II’s Robert De Niro alongside Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. 

While it was not as much of an instant hit as Coppola’s film, it has become more and more renowned in the 35 years since it was released, now seen as one of the greatest films of all time. It was nominated for six Oscars, and Pesci picked up the win for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.

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