The best Marlon Brando’s crime movies

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

03/04/1924- 01/07/2004
Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor who performed for over half a century. He was perhaps best known for his roles as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), his Academy Award-nominated performance as Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952), his role as Mark Antony in the MGM film adaptation of the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar (1953), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, and his Academy Award-winning performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954). During the 1970s, he was most famous for his Academy Award-winning performance as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), also playing Colonel Walter Kurtz in another Coppola film, Apocalypse Now (1979). Brando delivered an Academy Award-nominated performance as Paul in Last Tango in Paris (1972), in addition to directing and starring in the western film One-Eyed Jacks (1961). Brando had a significant impact on film acting, and was the foremost example of the "method" acting style. While he became notorious for his "mumbling" diction and exuding a raw animal magnetism, his mercurial performances were nonetheless highly regarded, and he is considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century. Director Martin Scorsese said of him, "He is the marker. There's 'before Brando' and 'after Brando'.'"Actor Jack Nicholson once said, "When Marlon dies, everybody moves up one." Brando was also an activist, supporting many issues, notably the African-American Civil Rights Movement and various American Indian Movements.
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The Godfather

The Godfather
9.2/10
  • Genre: CrimeDrama
  • Release: 14/03/1972
  • Character: Don Vito Corleone
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

The Score

The Score
6.8/10
An aging thief hopes to retire and live off his ill-gotten wealth when a young kid convinces him into doing one last heist.

On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront
8.1/10
  • Genre: CrimeDrama
  • Release: 22/06/1954
  • Character: Terry Malloy
Terry Malloy dreams about being a prize fighter, while tending his pigeons and running errands at the docks for Johnny Friendly, the corrupt boss of the dockers union. Terry witnesses a murder by two of Johnny's thugs, and later meets the dead man's sister and feels responsible for his death. She introduces him to Father Barry, who tries to force him to provide information for the courts that will smash the dock racketeers.

The Chase

The Chase
7.1/10
The escape of Bubber Reeves from prison affects the inhabitants of a small Southern town.

The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980

The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980
9.3/10
  • Genre: CrimeDrama
  • Release: 17/10/1992
  • Character: Don Vito Corleone
The multigenerational saga of the rise and fall of the Corleone crime family. Story is told in chronological order, and numerous scenes that were deleted from each film have been restored.

Guys and Dolls

Guys and Dolls
7.1/10
Gambler Nathan Detroit has few options for the location of his big craps game. Needing $1,000 to pay a garage owner to host the game, Nathan bets Sky Masterson that Sky cannot get virtuous Sarah Brown out on a date. Despite some resistance, Sky negotiates a date with her in exchange for bringing people into her mission. Meanwhile, Nathan's longtime fiancée, Adelaide, wants him to go legit and marry her.

The Freshman

The Freshman
6.5/10
  • Genre: ComedyCrime
  • Release: 20/07/1990
  • Character: Carmine Sabatini, aka Jimmy The Toucan
After a film student gets his belongings stolen, he meets a mobster bearing a startling resemblance to a certain cinematic godfather. Soon, he finds himself caught up in a caper involving endangered species and fine dining.

Free Money

Free Money
5/10
The Swede (Marlon Brando), a prison warden, rules his family and his prison with an iron hand in one of the coldest parts of North Dakota. When an inmate dies under mysterious circumstances, however, the FBI sends in agent Karen Polarski (Mira Sorvino) to investigate. On the home front, the sons-in-law of the Swede, Larry (Thomas Haden Church) and Bud (Charlie Sheen) accidentally discover that a train loaded with millions of dollars of unmarked currency slated to be destroyed will soon be passing through. The temptation is too great and the guys hatch a scheme to rob the train. Of course, the biggest obstacle in their way is the Swede.

The Night of the Following Day

The Night of the Following Day
6/10
  • Genre: CrimeDrama
  • Release: 19/02/1969
  • Character: Chauffeur
A gang of four professional criminals kidnaps a wealthy teenage girl from an airport in Paris in a meticulous plan to extort money from the girl's wealthy father. Holding her prisoner in an isolated beach house, the gang's scheme runs perfectly until their personal demons surface and lead to a series of betrayals.

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