This weekend, with the paint still wet from its Venice Film Festival premiere, you get to check out Scott Cooper’s “Black Mass” for yourselves (our review is here). The story of notorious Boston crime lord James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp), his rise to FBI-aided prominence as the city’s most feared gangster, his fall from grace after his associates turned on him, his decades-long subsequent reign on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, it’s part a genre we’re eternally fascinated with, whether based in truth or not. The fact is, mob movies exert a powerful influence over our cinematic imaginations because of the glimpse they show us of the dark side, the underbelly of polite society, and the codes that are practiced, and broken, there. Some “mobs” are little more than glorified street gangs, while others have reach and influence extending so far they’ve wormed their way into the very fabric of the societies they prey on, but they’re all characterized by tribalism and arcane ethical rules, and all orbit around the magnetic pull of the boss.
With Depp’s interpretation of Bulger soon hitting screens, we thought it was time to take a look at his competition, new and old, on big screens and small, in the battle for who should be crowned King of the Kingpins, Lord of the Crime Lords, Donnest of the Dons. Bearing in mind that we tried to work to only one entry per film or TV show, here are our 22 favorite onscreen mob bosses.
Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) in “The Sopranos”
New millennium dad. Unfaithful husband. Needy husband. Tough-ass mob boss. The many sides of Tony Soprano, New Jersey’s most-feared and insecure Mafioso, required a whole lot of time to cover — six groundbreaking seasons of television, in fact. And who better to embody this marauding, soft-voiced killer-bear of a man than James Gandolfini, who can do threatening machismo mixed with crippling self-doubt better than just about anyone? Over the course of “The Sopranos” hilarious, horrifying six-season run, Tony found himself at the mercy of two families: the one he started with Carmela, (the magnificent Edie Falco) his long-suffering wife, and the DiMeo crime family, a merciless pack of vipers who kill with the same ease that they order up a plate of ziti. Gandolfini’s work here is notable for being one of the most psychologically astute portraits of the modern male gangster ever filmed. Indeed, Tony is often more frightening when he’s sitting in his therapist’s office talking about his mother than when he’s beating the crap out of some helpless sap who owes him money. Talk about a real 21st century man.
Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody (Jacki Weaver) in “Animal Kingdom”
The fact that Jacki Weaver didn’t show up in Hollywood until 2012 is a bit of a crime in itself. Weaver had been knocking it out of the park for decades in her native Australia, so it’s no surprise that her international breakout would be in the form of the excellent “Animal Kingdom” from fellow Aussie David Michôd. Weaver plays Smurf, the matriarch of a family of armed robbers, a woman so loving and smooth on the surface that as the film unfolds, one of its finest pleasures is watching her gradually revealed as the vilest of them all. As her family and way of life crumble, death after death, one of the darkest hearts in recent cinematic history is unveiled. And Weaver does it all with such a tender surface, with such a soft voice, it’s impossible not to feel a shiver of dread as the film comes to its inevitable climax. Ultimately, the true power of Weaver’s performance can be surmised by the meager-by-comparison screen time she has and the ungodly number of awards and nominations that were, justifiably, thrown at her feet.
