1990 was the Best Year for Crime Films

Crime films in the 1980s can be summed up by a Paddy Chayefsky quote from Network: 

“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job!”

Thankfully the 1990s were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it anymore! Look at how the calendar of the first year of the decade alone was absolutely STACKED with quality crime films. 

 Internal Affairs (dir. Mike Figgis) – January 12 (USA) 

 La Femme Nikita (dir. Luc Besson) – February 21 (France) 

 Miami Blues (dir. George Armitage) – April 20 (USA) 

 The Krays (dir. Peter Medak) – April 27 (UK) 

 Q&A (dir. Sidney Lumet) – April 27 (USA) 

 State of Grace (dir. Phil Joanou) – September 14 (USA) 

 The Two Jakes (dir. Jack Nicholson) – August 10 (USA) 

 Goodfellas (dir. Martin Scorsese) – September 19 (USA) 

 King of New York (dir. Abel Ferrara) – September 28 (USA) 

 Miller's Crossing (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen) – October 5 (USA) 

 The Hot Spot (dir. Dennis Hopper) – October 12 (USA) 

 The Grifters (dir. Stephen Frears) – December 5 (USA) 

 The Godfather Part 3 (dir. Francis Ford Coppola) – December 25 (USA) 

Thirteen! All in the same year! Directed by a who’s who of the world’s best. If I had to come up with a list of top 100 crime films of all time, all these would be contenders. I don’t think they made thirteen good crime films in the entire 80s decade. I’m talking about proper badassery, none of that weak sauce that starts out strong and then pulls all punches in the third act. 

I was eight years old in 1990 so I didn’t get to enjoy any of these movies until much later. But I do remember being scarred by the phone booth scene of King of New York that was used as the European trailer, and I do remember Anne Parillaud diving into a ventilation shaft to escape an explosion so I must have watched La Femme Nikita's trailer too. Daytime Italian TV was off the chain back then. 

Back in 1990 the movie world needed the same kind of course correction it needs now. Enough of this weak sauce!