Best Robert De Niro movies
The Avenue Entertainment
Best Robert De Niro movies
Robert De Niro in a scene from “Savage Salvation”
Robert De Niro may be the quintessential American movie star. His performances are intimately evocative and span different genres, proving him quite the virtuoso actor. He’s played iconic American gangsters like Al Capone and Vito Corleone, embodying the criminal persona as a symbol of power and corruption with an undeniable allure.
De Niro’s characters often hold such dynamic tension: as Max Cady in “Cape Fear,” audiences found him at once chilling and captivating. As the small-town steelworker-turned-soldier in “The Deer Hunter,” he captured extremes of both courage and dread. His characters embody a strong sense of authentic humanity even in roles where De Niro is an “average” man—from the football-obsessed father in “Silver Linings Playbook” to the married man falling for Meryl Streep in the romance “Falling in Love.”
Heralded for his immersive, intensive acting style, De Niro studied under the wing of famed acting teachers Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg and learned the “method” of immersing himself in his characters entirely. He’s altered his appearance by gaining and losing weight and even paid thousands to have his teeth sharpened for “Cape Fear.” He’s mastered languages and the talents of his characters, such as the Sicilian dialect of Corleone, the skills of the saxophone player in “New York, New York,” and the methods of actual bounty hunters for “Midnight Run.”
A recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement, De Niro has garnered seven Academy Award nominations throughout his career, winning Best Supporting Actor (“The Godfather: Part II”) and Best Actor (“Raging Bull”). He frequently collaborates with director Martin Scorsese; they worked together on nine films, creating iconic characters like the unhinged Travis Bickle from “Taxi Driver” and the gangster Jimmy from “Goodfellas.”
To find out which of De Niro’s films stands out among the rest, Stacker found the top 50 Robert De Niro movies based on IMDb user ratings. Feature films and TV movies in which he had an acting role were considered. Cameo appearances, voice-over roles in documentaries, and films that have yet to be released to the public were not considered. Among the top 50, De Niro frequently represents the spirit of the American gangster, but as this list shows, he also shines in more minor roles and comedic turns, demonstrating his vast range.
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Omnilab Media
#50. Killer Elite (2011)
– Director: Gary McKendry
– IMDb user rating: 6.4
– Metascore: 44
– Runtime: 116 minutes
As the co-star in this Jason Statham action vehicle, De Niro plays Hunter, a lifelong mercenary pulled back into a tangle of murder and its necessary getaways. Hunter is the wizened mentor to the younger agent, and like most heroes in such thrillers, he finds it hard to escape a life of special ops and violence. De Niro makes a spry actioner despite playing the elder operative.
Warner Bros.
#49. Guilty by Suspicion (1991)
– Director: Irwin Winkler
– IMDb user rating: 6.5
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 105 minutes
This drama depicts the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee during McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 1950s. Here, De Niro plays a blacklisted Hollywood film director who must name his friends and colleagues or suffer the consequences. De Niro brings a sense of righteousness to the role of a man faced with doing the right thing under pressure.
Paramount Pictures
#48. Falling in Love (1984)
– Director: Ulu Grosbard
– IMDb user rating: 6.5
– Metascore: 55
– Runtime: 106 minutes
De Niro stars opposite Meryl Streep in this romance about two married strangers whose packages get mixed up while Christmas shopping. Though the affair destroys both marriages, the pair can’t deny they’ve fallen in love. De Niro’s turn as a romantic leading man offers a swoon-worthy departure from his usual gangster type.
Fuego Films
#47. Hands of Stone (2016)
– Director: Jonathan Jakubowicz
– IMDb user rating: 6.6
– Metascore: 54
– Runtime: 111 minutes
De Niro returns to the boxing movie genre in this true story of Roberto Durán, a Panamanian boxer who had a tense rivalry with American boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. De Niro throws his all into his portrayal of real-life boxing trainer Ray Arcel, completely transforming his body to play the man who trained champions throughout his long career.
Chartoff-Winkler Productions
#46. New York, New York (1977)
– Director: Martin Scorsese
– IMDb user rating: 6.6
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 155 minutes
In his third collaboration with director Martin Scorsese, De Niro stars as a saxophone player who falls in love with a nightclub singer (Liza Minnelli) in 1945 in the Big Apple. The film was a box-office disappointment that failed to live up to the hype of “Taxi Driver,” released the year before. Nonetheless, De Niro’s performance is sure-footed and charming. He even learned to play the sax for the role.
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CBS Films
#45. Last Vegas (2013)
– Director: Jon Turteltaub
– IMDb user rating: 6.6
– Metascore: 48
– Runtime: 105 minutes
De Niro leans into his role as a cranky widower on a jaunt to Vegas with his childhood pals, still friends as senior citizens. The stellar ensemble also stars powerhouses Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas, and Morgan Freeman as men in need of some comedic adventure. Old-age gags give the romp a presentation of confident, elderly masculinity.
Fox 2000 Pictures
#44. Joy (2015)
– Director: David O. Russell
– IMDb user rating: 6.6
– Metascore: 56
– Runtime: 124 minutes
“Joy” brings together the actors and director of “Silver Linings Playbook,” but without the same captivating sublimity of the previous hit. David O. Russell directs De Niro again, this time as the father of a mop inventor (Jennifer Lawrence) with Bradley Cooper co-starring as the executive who gives her a chance. De Niro brings his signature dash to his role as a divorcee dad still looking to find love.
Overnight Films
#43. Machete (2010)
– Directors: Ethan Maniquis, Robert Rodriguez
– IMDb user rating: 6.6
– Metascore: 60
– Runtime: 105 minutes
Beloved character actor Danny Trejo gets his own vehicle in this violent exploitation film that uses a comedic, campy B-movie film style. Here, De Niro plays a corrupt, racist politician who serves as a worthy foil to Trejo’s iconic heroism.
Scott Rudin Productions
#42. Marvin’s Room (1996)
– Director: Jerry Zaks
– IMDb user rating: 6.7
– Metascore: 68
– Runtime: 98 minutes
De Niro steals his scenes in a small role alongside star actresses Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep as sisters with an ailing father. Adapted from a stage play, “Marvin’s Room” is filled with scenery-chewing emotional scenes between the fighting sisters and Leonardo DiCaprio as Streep’s mentally ill son. As the doctor who diagnoses a devastating illness, De Niro offers charm and humanity in a role that departs from his gangster persona.
Imagine Films Entertainment
#41. Backdraft (1991)
– Director: Ron Howard
– IMDb user rating: 6.7
– Metascore: 38
– Runtime: 137 minutes
This melodrama poses fire as a kind of antagonist character out to challenge the cast of firefighters that include Kurt Russell, Scott Glenn, and William Baldwin. De Niro plays a fire expert, a man who knows the intricate ins and outs of fire science and forensics. He understands the force as a worthy foe with a soul for destruction. De Niro delivers the line, “[Fire] is a living thing. … It breathes, it eats, and it hates,” with dramatic gravitas.
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Universal Pictures
#40. The Good Shepherd (2006)
– Director: Robert De Niro
– IMDb user rating: 6.7
– Metascore: 61
– Runtime: 167 minutes
De Niro produced and directed this 1960s spy thriller loosely based on true events with an all-star cast including Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. De Niro also stars in this film about life as a CIA agent and the tolls of deception that come with the job after intensive training. De Niro’s direction was lauded for its precise period detail and pacing that provides a slow burn toward the tragic end.
Village Roadshow Pictures
#39. Analyze This (1999)
– Director: Harold Ramis
– IMDb user rating: 6.7
– Metascore: 61
– Runtime: 103 minutes
In this comedy about a mobster who needs a psychiatrist, De Niro brings his signature gangster character, this time in a self-aware performance that’s hilarious in turning the familiar persona on its head. Billy Crystal stars as the straight-man shrink who counters De Niro’s schtick.
ANJS
#38. Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)
– Director: John D. Hancock
– IMDb user rating: 6.8
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 96 minutes
Adapted from a classic novel, this tear-jerker was De Niro’s first major film role and catapulted him to prominence as an actor of inimitable force. De Niro stars as a baseball player with Hodgkin’s disease. His teammate (Michael Moriarty) won’t let the team release his friend, despite his limitations. De Niro shines as the doomed ballplayer.
Art Linson Productions
#37. Great Expectations (1998)
– Director: Alfonso Cuarón
– IMDb user rating: 6.8
– Metascore: 55
– Runtime: 111 minutes
This stylized adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens novel sets the action in contemporary New York instead of 19th-century London. De Niro plays the mysterious and brutal convict whom the hero, Finn (Ethan Hawke), helps out when he’s a child. Later, the convict returns an icon of both benevolence and corruption, two traits perfectly captured in De Niro’s performance.
Paramount Pictures
#36. The Score (2001)
Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro in “The Score”
– Director: Frank Oz
– IMDb user rating: 6.8
– Metascore: 71
– Runtime: 124 minutes
“The Score” centers on another “one-final-heist” scenario with De Niro as an older criminal ready to retire after a big job. Edward Norton plays the young upstart who thinks he can outwit the older robber. Notably, Marlon Brando stars in a small role as a black marketeer for stolen goods. It was Brando’s final film and brought together the two acting legends who played Vito Corleone in the “Godfather” franchise.
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Miramax
#35. Cop Land (1997)
– Director: James Mangold
– IMDb user rating: 7.0
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 105 minutes
De Niro sports a mustache and a desk-jockey outfit as Moe Tilden, the internal affairs investigator probing a town of corrupt cops. De Niro’s character acts as the moral center for the others (an ensemble comprised of Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, and Robert Patrick) in this acclaimed neo-noir about uncovering malfeasance.
Universal Pictures
#34. Meet the Parents (2000)
Robert De Niro in a dinner scene from “Meet the Parents”
– Director: Jay Roach
– IMDb user rating: 7.0
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 108 minutes
In this box-office smash, De Niro puts his persona as a hardwired wise guy to hilarious comic effect when his usual bruiser type goes up against his daughter’s hapless fiance, Greg. Ben Stiller plays Greg as the perfect foil for De Niro’s Jack, a former CIA operative determined to run his future son-in-law through the wringer.
Miramax
#33. Everybody’s Fine (2009)
– Director: Kirk Jones
– IMDb user rating: 7.1
– Metascore: 47
– Runtime: 99 minutes
Proving he’s an actor adept at any genre, De Niro plays a widowed father in this Christmas dramedy. De Niro’s Frank takes a cross-country trip to visit each of his children after they cancel on him right before the holidays. De Niro’s heartfelt performance was considered the highlight of this film with a tepid critical response and disappointing box office.
Baltimore Pictures
#32. Wag the Dog (1997)
Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, and Dustin Hoffman in “Wag the Dog”
– Director: Barry Levinson
– IMDb user rating: 7.1
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 97 minutes
De Niro plays a Washingtonian spin doctor, a Mr. Fix It brought in to clean up a presidential scandal involving an underage girl. The film premiered just prior to the Bill Clinton scandal with the young intern Monica Lewinsky, giving this movie—about faking a war for political distraction—an ironic cultural resonance.
Waverly Films
#31. The Intern (2015)
Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway in “The Intern”
– Director: Nancy Meyers
– IMDb user rating: 7.1
– Metascore: 51
– Runtime: 121 minutes
This boomer-versus-millennial comedy examines the generational technology gap but ultimately offers that the older generation is the superior one after all. De Niro plays a widow in his 70s in a senior citizen intern program. He’s hired as the assistant to a high-strung exec (Anne Hathaway) and succeeds in bringing some order to her chaos.
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Carolco International N.V.
#30. Angel Heart (1987)
– Director: Alan Parker
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 61
– Runtime: 113 minutes
In a “special appearance,” De Niro plays the personification of kingly evil, Louis Cyphre (aka Lucifer) in this atmospheric and brutal New Orleans crime thriller directed by Alan Parker. Cyphre sends an investigator (Mickey Rourke) on a detective odyssey that’s really a fantasia of horror. De Niro plays the fallen angel with ominous braggadocio.
Warner Bros.
#29. Mean Streets (1973)
– Director: Martin Scorsese
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 96
– Runtime: 112 minutes
“Mean Streets” marked the beginning of the collaboration between De Niro and director Martin Scorsese in a stylish film that matches cinematic flourish with gritty realism. De Niro stars as the young hothead Johnny Boy, an impulsive grifter protected by an older friend (Harvey Keitel) looking for redemption. De Niro employs his signature acting style to fully immerse himself in a character that’s authentic and at the same time inconspicuously vibrant.
Fox 2000 Pictures
#28. Men of Honor (2000)
– Director: George Tillman Jr.
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 56
– Runtime: 129 minutes
Based on a true story, this patriotic melodrama dramatizes life as a master diver in the Navy. The uplifting tale focuses on a Black recruit (Cuba Gooding Jr.) in an elite school where De Niro plays the master instructor for a performance where he sports an accent and plays a man of principle determined to right the wrongs of racism.
FGM Entertainment
#27. Ronin (1998)
– Director: John Frankenheimer
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 67
– Runtime: 122 minutes
De Niro brings hardened grit to this turn as an American operative who bands with a motley crew of spies to filch a crucial briefcase from a mafioso. Filled with car chases, mayhem, and double-crosses, De Niro’s character also finds doomed romance in the midst of this thrill ride. His paramour, another operative, is played by Natascha McElhone.
Columbia Pictures
#26. American Hustle (2013)
– Director: David O. Russell
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 90
– Runtime: 138 minutes
Director David O. Russell reunites his “Silver Linings Playbook” stars, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, in this stylized film about con artists in the 1970s. De Niro appears in an uncredited role as mobster Victor Tellegio in a tense sequence involving a sting operation and a fake sheikh.
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Knickerbocker Films
#25. This Boy’s Life (1993)
– Director: Michael Caton-Jones
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 60
– Runtime: 115 minutes
This film, based on writer Tobias Wolff’s memoir, tells the story of a young boy caught in the dysfunction of his mother’s abusive relationship. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ellen Barkin’s teenage son, with De Niro cast as the scary and oppressive stepfather who brings chilling tension to every scene.
Amblin Entertainment
#24. Cape Fear (1991)
– Director: Martin Scorsese
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 128 minutes
De Niro received his sixth Academy Award nomination for his turn as the villainous ex-con in this remake directed by Martin Scorsese. De Niro plays Max Cady, a man set on terrorizing the defense attorney (Nick Nolte) who had him sent to prison. De Niro captures Cady’s depravity in a way that is sinister, terrifying, and captivating. True to his craft, the actor even went as far as to spend $5,000 to have a dentist “ground down” his teeth for the character.
Warner Bros.
#23. The Mission (1986)
– Director: Roland Joffé
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 55
– Runtime: 125 minutes
This action-adventure set in 1750s Spain follows a missionary (Jeremy Irons) who tries to convert Indigenous Paraguayans to Christianity. De Niro plays a cruel slave trader who seeks penance after he kills his brother (Aidan Quinn) over a woman. Sporting long hair, De Niro makes for a brutal colonialist with unearned redemption despite trying to save the lives of the people he previously brutalized.
Relativity Media
#22. Limitless (2011)
Robert De Niro and Robert John Burke in “Limitless”
– Director: Neil Burger
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Metascore: 59
– Runtime: 105 minutes
In a supporting role, De Niro plays financier Carl Van Loon, whose company is helped out by the “unlimited” abilities of Eddie (Bradley Cooper), a man taking a drug that unlocks superhuman genius and strength. In the film’s final scene, Van Loon insists Eddie continues to work for him. Their final interaction invokes a power play between the characters—and movie stars—as an older man gets rebuffed by one who is younger and more powerful.
Universal Pictures
#21. Midnight Run (1988)
– Director: Martin Brest
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 78
– Runtime: 126 minutes
In this box-office hit, De Niro teams up with Charles Grodin in a buddy comedy about a bounty hunter tasked with delivering an accountant. His captive is trying to jump bail while wanted by both mobsters and the law. The film’s charisma springs from the chemistry between the two actors; Grodin’s deadpan apathy makes the perfect foil for De Niro’s robust toughie.
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Astoria Films
#20. Sleepers (1996)
– Director: Barry Levinson
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 49
– Runtime: 147 minutes
He may be playing the priest Father Bobby in “Sleepers,” but De Niro brings his signature tough-guy swagger. The film dramatizes the sexual abuse of four boys in Father Bobby’s neighborhood during their youth and adulthood. De Niro brings the brazen, fearless, smiling-while-he-threatens-you flourish to this role as the boys’ protector.
Miramax
#19. Jackie Brown (1997)
– Director: Quentin Tarantino
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Metascore: 64
– Runtime: 154 minutes
In Quentin Tarantino’s third film, adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel, De Niro is cast against type. He’s still a gangster, but in this story, he’s a criminal character without the confidence and finesse of the gangsters he usually plays. He’s still a cold-hearted ex-con, but one without his usual charisma.
Paramount Pictures
#18. Stardust (2007)
– Director: Matthew Vaughn
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Metascore: 66
– Runtime: 127 minutes
In a gender-bending turn with a touch of the whimsical, De Niro plays Captain Shakespeare in this Neil Gaiman fantasy about a lad who promises to retrieve a fallen star who happens to be a woman. De Niro’s sea captain uses the actor’s signature bravado as a cover for his true side—a man who loves frills, flouncing, and rhapsodizing with a pink feather fan.
Produzioni Europee Associate (PEA)
#17. 1900 (1976)
– Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: 70
– Runtime: 317 minutes
Bernardo Bertolucci’s sprawling period film about politics in the first half of the 20th century in Italy runs over five hours long and was often screened in two parts. De Niro stars in an ensemble cast that includes Gérard Depardieu and Donald Sutherland in this ambitious epic about a landowner (De Niro) and his impoverished friend.
The Weinstein Company
#16. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
– Director: David O. Russell
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Metascore: 81
– Runtime: 122 minutes
As the football-obsessed dad of a grown man with bipolar disorder (Bradley Cooper), De Niro steals each scene in which he appears. He captures the tension and fear of parenting an adult once his son moves home after a stint in a psychiatric hospital. De Niro gives the role a comedic intensity imbued with dramatic force as the head of a family where everyone is just a little bit crazy.
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Embassy International Pictures
#15. The King of Comedy (1982)
– Director: Martin Scorsese
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 109 minutes
After the success of “Raging Bull,” director Martin Scorsese collaborated again with De Niro in this dark comedy that garnered a tepid box-office response (perhaps due to its misunderstood satire), despite resonating with critics. De Niro plays another psychopath, Rupert, who is not unlike the damaged men he played in “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull.” Rupert kidnaps a famous talk-show host, Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis, who reportedly received the role over Johnny Carson), to get a spot on the show.
Columbia Pictures
#14. Awakenings (1990)
– Director: Penny Marshall
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: 74
– Runtime: 121 minutes
De Niro was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his sensitive and immersive portrayal of a man “awakened” from a catatonic state by an experimental drug. Robin Williams co-stars as the doctor who finds a potential cure. De Niro’s performance spans his character’s ecstatic recovery and then the tragic shift as he comes to a realization about his treatment.
Price Entertainment
#13. A Bronx Tale (1993)
– Director: Robert De Niro
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: 80
– Runtime: 121 minutes
“A Bronx Tale” marked De Niro’s debut as a director in a film lauded for its evocative portrait of a 1960s-era Bronx neighborhood. De Niro also stars as Lorenzo, a hardworking man who resists the criminality that ensnares his son who’s enamored with a gangster (Chazz Palminteri). The two actors also collaborated on the screenplay adapted from a one-man stage play written and performed by Palminteri.
Tribeca Productions
#12. The Irishman (2019)
Robert De Niro in a scene from “The Irishman”
– Director: Martin Scorsese
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Metascore: 94
– Runtime: 209 minutes
In this Martin Scorsese-directed flick, adapted from Charles Brandt’s nonfiction book “I Heard You Paint Houses,” truck driver Frank Sheeran (De Niro) becomes involved with Russell Bufalino’s (Joe Pesci) Pennsylvania family and entrenched in crime. The story follows Sheeran’s life as an army veteran in World War II through his rise as a powerful crime member for the Bufalino family and for teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Brandt’s book title was later changed to match the movie’s name.
Embassy International Pictures
#11. Brazil (1985)
– Director: Terry Gilliam
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Metascore: 84
– Runtime: 132 minutes
Here, De Niro plays repairman Harry Tuttle in Terry Gilliam’s surrealist reverie about the bureaucratic nightmares of a future world. De Niro infuses the smaller part of Harry with an absurdist intensity in a comedic turn enhanced by the character’s strange tools, bizarre eyewear, and taste for insurrection.
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Paramount Pictures
#10. The Untouchables (1987)
– Director: Brian De Palma
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Metascore: 79
– Runtime: 119 minutes
De Niro gained weight to play the infamous and pugnacious gangster Al Capone in “The Untouchables,” a film that aestheticizes violent crime in its opulent style. “You’re nothin’ but a lot of talk and badge,” De Niro’s Capone repeats over and over in the scene where he’s finally brought down by Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner).
EMI Films
#9. The Deer Hunter (1978)
– Director: Michael Cimino
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Metascore: 86
– Runtime: 183 minutes
De Niro stars as Mike, a Pennsylvanian steelworker shipped off to war, in this meditation on the lasting effects of combat for the Vietnam generation. Co-stars Christopher Walken and John Savage play Mike’s hometown friends. The three end up as prisoners of war together. De Niro portrays Mike’s intense grit in the infamous scene where they’re forced to play Russian roulette against each other.
Chartoff-Winkler Productions
#8. Raging Bull (1980)
– Director: Martin Scorsese
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Metascore: 89
– Runtime: 129 minutes
De Niro won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in his fourth film with director Martin Scorsese, while Joe Pesci plays Jake’s brother, Joey. De Niro’s iconic performance displays his method genius as he embodies the eruptive rage and bitter loneliness of the real-life middleweight champ.
Universal Pictures
#7. Casino (1995)
– Director: Martin Scorsese
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Metascore: 73
– Runtime: 178 minutes
De Niro teams up again with “Goodfellas” director Martin Scorsese and co-star Joe Pesci in this epic drama about gangsters in Las Vegas. De Niro plays Ace, who runs a casino for the mob and falls in love with a former prostitute played by Sharon Stone. The scenes between the two sizzle with hysterical anguish and the rage-fueled agony of love gone wrong.
Columbia Pictures
#6. Taxi Driver (1976)
– Director: Martin Scorsese
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Metascore: 94
– Runtime: 114 minutes
“You talkin’ to me?” De Niro says the iconic line into a mirror while practicing pulling a gun on various “screwheads” and “scum.” He plays Travis Bickle, a paranoid veteran consumed with saving a child prostitute and assassinating a political candidate. Despite his derangement and vigilante acts, Bickle’s consistently mistaken for a hero. De Niro representation of Bickle’s unhinged bravado earned him a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards.
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The Ladd Company
#5. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
– Director: Sergio Leone
– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Metascore: 75
– Runtime: 229 minutes
De Niro plays the gangster Noodles in Sergio Leone’s final film, an epic that critiques the gangster film genre. De Niro’s performance here creates an emotionally complex criminal, played at different ages throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and late 1960s.
Warner Bros.
#4. Heat (1995)
– Director: Michael Mann
– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Metascore: 76
– Runtime: 170 minutes
De Niro plays the quintessential “one-last-job” robber Neil McCauley, whose final heist goes inevitably awry. Like all male heroes of the noir genre, McCauley can’t escape his innate corruption—though a life of love lived abroad beckons him. Al Pacino stars as the cop determined to bring him down. When their characters meet in a coffee shop, the actors give a master class on the simmering pleasures of high-stakes stress as they discuss “heat.”
Warner Bros.
#3. Joker (2019)
Robert De Niro and Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker”
– Director: Todd Phillips
– IMDb user rating: 8.4
– Metascore: 59
– Runtime: 122 minutes
In “Joker,” De Niro’s Murray Franklin is the legendary talk-show host on Gotham’s “Live! With Murray Franklin.” Franklin pays homage to his role as Rupert Pupkin from the ’80s flick “The King of Comedy.” A not-so-funny routine of Arthur (Joaquin Phoenix) grabs Franklin’s attention, prompting him to invite Arthur to appear on his show. Franklin is completely unaware that Arthur is battling inner turmoil and is in an unhinged state due to his lack of success as a stand-up comedian. Arthur then admits to murdering three Wayne Enterprises executives on a subway train, yet, instead of stopping the televised program, Murray attempts to provide some guidance to the troubled comedian who lashes out in a way that leaves watchers in horror than laughter.
Warner Bros.
#2. Goodfellas (1990)
– Director: Martin Scorsese
– IMDb user rating: 8.7
– Metascore: 90
– Runtime: 145 minutes
In another of his collaborations with Scorsese, De Niro plays Jimmy in this film that spans 35 years in the lives of mobsters, inhabiting his confident, casual malevolence. When the gang starts to fall apart, the audience shares the character’s suspicions about whether they can trust Jimmy or not. De Niro gives a masterful portrayal of a deceptive, fearless wise guy.
Paramount Pictures
#1. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
– Director: Francis Ford Coppola
– IMDb user rating: 9.0
– Metascore: 90
– Runtime: 202 minutes
De Niro auditioned to play hotheaded Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather,” the oldest son of the mafioso Vito, but the role went to James Caan. The loss of that role left the actor open to play young Vito in the franchise’s second installment—a sequel considered as good as, or better than, the first film. He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role, sharing with Marlon Brando the distinction of being the only two actors to win Oscars for playing the same character.
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