Did your favorite films make Shane Black’s Top 10 Crime Movies list?
Shane Black, known for directing such films as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys, and most recently, Play Dirty, is ready to bare it all for Letterboxd by revealing his Top 10 Favorite Crime Movies. While Westerns informed much about films like Killers of the Flower Moon, Hell or High Water, and Wind River, Black credits his Top 10 Crime Films as inspiration for some of his best and boldest work, with nods and homages spread across his pantheon like breadcrumbs leading to a house made of violence, clever tough guys, and delicious one-liners.
According to Shane Black, his Top 10 Crime Films include Dirty Harry, Bullitt, Night Moves, The Anderson Tapes, Hickey & Boggs, All the President’s Men, Marathon Man, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Psycho, and The Third Man.
“What inspires me in all of these is I think there was a definite point in time where Westerns were the watchword,” Black told Letterboxd. “I think in the 1960s it was estimated that 60 or 70 percent of all paperbacks published were Westerns. That’s how much a fabric of American society these things were. Back in the day, when in the roots of what I think of as my hard-boiled vintage collection, what struck me about all of them was that Westerns and private eyes quickly found that they were watering at the same trough. They were actually almost mirrors of each other. One was modern, one was set a century ago, and yet they have the same sense of justice, the same sense of a powerful outsider coming in as an observer looking at a situation.”
Interestingly, one of Black’s favorite crime films is Robert Culp’s 1972 crime thriller Hickey & Boggs. The classic crime film stars Bill Cosby in one of his more serious roles as Al Hickey, with Robert Culp playing Frank Boggs. The story revolves around two Los Angeles private eyes following a missing woman to her bank loot. Hickey & Boggs is surprisingly grounded, ruthless, and captures the grit and groove of the early ’70s with style and sass.
Another gem on Black’s list includes Sidney Lumet’s 1971 crime caper The Anderson Tapes. After ten years in prison to protect a mafia family, Duke Anderson (Sean Connery) is released, and he cashes in a debt of honor with the mob to bankroll a caper. While The Anderson Tapes may appear tame to contemporary eyes, the film’s engaging plot, fast pace, and visually striking costumes help it stand out among its peers.
For more about why Shane Black loved the film included in his Top 10, be sure to check out the full interview on Letterboxd.
What are your Top 10 Favorite Crime Movies? Let us know in the comments section below. Also, if The Great Muppet Caper isn’t on there, what are you even doing?
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