Cream of the Criminal Crop: Who’s the Greatest Movie Gangster?

With the arrival of American Gangster, the Right Honourable Ridley Scott has finally dipped his directorial toe into perhaps the most glorious of cinematic genres. And so the Hall of Fame of High-End Movie Hoodlums has a new member amongst its ranks in the form of Frank Lucas. Lucas, portrayed by Denzel Washington, was Harlem’s premier druglord in the early ‘70s, rising to achieve ‘The American Dream’ through an extensive heroin smuggling organisation. So how does Lucas rank alongside the other ruffians in the pack? Once again we return to that age-old debate: just who is the ultimate film gangster? In terms of being just the most outrageous, brilliantly-captivating and cunning outlaw, which of our assembled crims stands as the cream of the crop?

The most infamous mob boss of all time wouldn’t approve of Lucas’s drug-pushing antics. Mumbling and puffy-cheeked but yet still majestic, Marlon Brando’s Don Vito Corleone (a.k.a. The Godfather) is probably the most imitated organised crime chief. The fact that the character won an Oscar not only for Brando but for Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II attests to the Don Vito aura. Does family man Vito get usurped by his own son though? The stunning transformation from naïve nice young man to dead-eyed ruthless Mafioso in Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone is considerable. Pacino pops up again for Scarface in the Hispanic histrionics and endlessly quotable chutzpah of Tony Montana. The utter audacity and wild aggression with which Montana pursues his power trip has made the drug baron an icon, but does De Niro’s charismatic rendering of Al Capone in The Untouchables pummel Pacino’s Cuban pretender with a well-placed baseball bat blow?

Portrayed by a brilliantly over-the-top Jack Nicholson, Frank Costello of The Departed is formidable, but does he come undone in the face of the terrific main trio of mobsters from Goodfellas? Looking to the golden age of Warner Bros. gangster flicks, Rocky O’Sullivan of Angels with Dirty Faces, played by the incredible James Cagney, has both the street-tough talk and the charm to be considered as a contender. There are many crime film characters whose names could be touted about and tipped for the title, but the fact is that the ultimate gangster doesn’t dwell in the genre. Indeed, the crime lords listed above would all crumble and crap their tuxedoes if they were confronted by this bad motherflipper. No one can match the sheer otherworldly aura and unparalleled authority of the true, ultimate organised crime kingpin.

Who takes the title? Ladies, gentlemen and Jawas, I give you Jabba the Hutt. Lording over the desert wastelands of Tatooine, Hutt is the murkiest, most-sinister villain in the Star Wars multiverse. He’s even more of a badass than Darth Vader. A grotesque vision of morbidity, Jabba’s unforgettably unpleasant appearance is bolstered by a sick sense of humour and a terrible cruel streak. The palace from which he rules the Outer Rim territories is filled with all kinds of freaks - slaves, droids, bounty hunters and other assorted alien oddballs and rogues. He’s a giant slug, but yet the entire planet seems to be in his grasp and under his thick thumb.

In the original Star Wars trilogy, Jabba didn’t make his appearance on screen until Return of the Jedi. Even when he isn’t visible, his sleazy presence looms large over proceedings. By the time we get to see him in the flesh - and there is much flesh - in the third instalment we’ve already been wracked up to view him as a villain of the highest order - one of incredible power and immense outrageousness. “Who is this macabre man who’s got the ultra-cool Han Solo so het up?” we asked ourselves over the course of the first two films. The realisation that this was no man, but the manifest vision of absolute morbidity and alien excess perfectly delivered on all the suspense. Plus his underworld of sick fantasy oddities serves as a fun playground to kick off the final act before our band of Rebels go about destroying the Empire once and for all. We need a bit of twisted weirdness before we go and get all fuzzy with Luke’s father issues and the Ewoks of the forest moon Endor.

What’s more is that the vile Jabba doesn’t take any crap - no one is meaner than this deranged desert planet despot. Fail to repay your debts? It’s carbon-freezing for you then my friend as the Hutt mercilessly makes you into an ornament to adorn his palace walls. Any acts of insolence, insurrection or just plain annoyance are cruelly punished as the offenders are fed to such exotic pets as the Rancor or the Sarlacc. Immune to Jedi mind tricks and always flanked by the Gamorrean Guard and his freakish hangers on, Jabba is untouchable. He does what the hell he wants and has to bow down to no one. He even has the sheer nerve to sleep through the podrace held in his honour. Gangster films often talk about balls and, even if he may not have them physically, Jabba undisputedly has balls and he’s not going to stand for anyone who attempts to bust ‘em.

Can any of the criminal earthlings get anywhere close to the odious pirate king of Tatooine? No way, says I. Looking to label one particular character as ‘The Greatest Movie Gangster Ever’, the notorious gastropod has got the intergalactic edge over the more earthbound mobsters that have splattered blood and bent the rules throughout movie history. The despicable Jabba the Hutt then: undoubtedly top gangster in the criminal canon.

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