Gangsters: The Ultimate Film Collection

Gangster fans will savor this collection of four films that helped redefine the genre. Brian DePalma's SCARFACE, written by a young Oliver Stone, takes Howard Hawk's 1932 classic into the drug-fueled violence of 1980s Florida. DePalma's informal update on the character, CARLITO'S WAY, also starring Al Pacino, follows an aging gangster as he faces a new generation of thugs. Undeservingly criticized as a lesser GOODFELLAS, 1995's CASINO offers up bountiful rewards for anyone who looks beyond casting. A fascinating hybrid of the western and gangster genres, Scorsese's Las Vegas opus finds old-school gangsters in the developing frontier where cowboys (er, mobsters) are being replaced by businessmen. Finally, reaching the cycle's inevitable conclusion, Ridley Scott's AMERICAN GANGSTER offers a crime film steeped in the flimsy entrepreneurial ethics that any business school graduate could appreciate. Please see individual titles for detailed synopsis information.