Martin Scorsese may very well be a product of his environment: growing up in Little Italy while struggling with his Roman Catholic faith, only later to use both as inspiration for his 1973 classic, Mean Streets, but as his notorious Irish Mafioso Frank Costello (played by Jack Nicholson) mused in 2006's The Departed: "I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me."
And so it was.
Influencing a legion of filmmakers the world over, as well as shaping the genre itself, he is only one of many directors to take on the big bad mob on film.
Many draw from screen classics of old, and some—not unlike Scorsese—draw from life experiences. Such is also the case with showrunner Mitch Glazer's childhood-inspired period drama of the 1950s Miami Beach mob scene, Magic City.
To welcome Glazer's latest into the Starz "family," we've gathered some wiseguys of our own and put together a list you can't refuse: the most prolific directors ruling the gangster film genre, from Dassin to De Palma, and their masterful works of the Irish, British, Spanish, and Sicilian mafias to the Yakuza of Japan.
Got a favorite gangster-themed television show or film? Leave a comment and take the cannoli in the comments below.
