Curator Watchlist
A glossy, propulsive gangster-crime thriller with big set pieces, strong star turns, and a knowingly heightened sense of style. It’s more operatic and crowd-pleasing than strictly realistic, but that’s a large part of the appeal.
Where to watch: Buy
Wed · 1h 59m
Director: Brian De Palma
Starring: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro
Elliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the nickname “The Untouchables”.
Brian De Palma
Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro
A glossy, propulsive gangster-crime thriller with big set pieces, strong star turns, and a knowingly heightened sense of style. It’s more operatic and crowd-pleasing than strictly realistic, but that’s a large part of the appeal.
The Untouchables is Brian De Palma turning Prohibition-era crime into a grand, muscular spectacle. It has the clean moral geometry of a classic studio-era showdown, but De Palma keeps slipping in flourishes that make the whole thing feel bigger, stranger, and more self-aware than a standard cops-and-gangsters picture. The result is a movie that plays like prestige pulp: serious about its stakes, gleeful about its style.
The cast is a major part of the pleasure. Kevin Costner gives the film a steady center, Sean Connery brings warmth and bite, and Robert De Niro makes Capone feel like a looming piece of theater. The supporting ensemble and Ennio Morricone’s score help sell the movie’s swagger, while the set pieces deliver the kind of sharp, crowd-pleasing escalation that keeps it moving even when the tone gets a little exaggerated.
If you’re open to a crime film that treats mythmaking as part of the fun, this is an easy recommendation. It’s not subtle, and it doesn’t always care about tonal consistency, but it knows exactly how to build momentum and how to make each confrontation feel iconic.
Patrick Willems (3.5★) · 4471 likes
Gotta respect a movie that introduces a nice little girl in the first few minutes and then immediately blows her up
Matt The Snapper (4★) · 2213 likes
Needed more De Niro and less Costner.
fran hoepfner (3.5★) · 1425 likes
honestly SO silly, probably too silly for me. the Morricone score goes off too hard (loose endorsement). Andy Garcia has never been more beautiful (hard endorsement). great set pieces, generally, though perhaps no scene in the movie will live up to the pure joy of the second the credits started rolling, Dad shouting "who played THE BABY in THE UNTOUCHABLES?" into his phone. that said, I feel obligated to address my position of power as a Letterboxd microceleb (with regards… more
Misha Beattie (4.5★) · 1213 likes
Prohibition Avengers
matt lynch (4★) · 1099 likes
Man this movie is such a blast. Mamet doing a quintessential treatise on moral and ethical purity, treating this pulp like it's "A Man for All Seasons", and then just as miraculously De Palma is like fuck all this Thomas More shit, I'm making pulp here. And Morricone, I mean honestly. [70mm]
The benchmark for gangster grandeur, with a similar sense of power, ritual, and looming violence.
Expands the criminal world with historical sweep and a colder, more tragic sense of consequence.
A sprawling, elegiac crime epic that shares the period texture and operatic ambition.
For a faster, more electric take on organized crime with unforgettable set pieces and momentum.
Another maximalist crime film that turns vice, ambition, and violence into spectacle.
A polished, morally serious gangster drama with strong atmosphere and father-son tension.
If the appeal is relentless lawman-versus-criminal pursuit, this is a leaner, tougher companion.
A corruption-era cop story with a strong sense of institutional rot and personal conviction.
An early gangster classic that helped define the genre’s rise-and-fall template.
A foundational crime film about ambition, brutality, and the cost of power.
Classic urban crime melodrama with moral conflict and a strong sense of myth.
For viewers who enjoy period detail, charm, and a playful old-school entertainment rhythm.
Prohibition-era crime, Law enforcement vs. organized crime, Moral crusade, Corruption and civic decay, Male camaraderie, Mythmaking, Violence as spectacle, Justice and compromise
1980s crime, period thriller, gangster drama, stylized violence, ensemble cast, moral crusade, Prohibition, operatic tone, classic Hollywood homage, Ennio Morricone score