The 100 best crime movies of all time, according to critics

Because criminality and violence make for inherently compelling cinematic material, both are featured prominently in many of the greatest films of all time.

TheMetacriticdata we compiled here to track the most critically acclaimed crime movies in history traces a lineage of great films from contemporary thrillers like "No Country for Old Men" and "Hell or High Water," to classics like "The Godfather" (Parts I and II) and "On the Waterfront."

The list includes all of the highest-rated movies that feature a "crime" tag on the site, which turned out to be a wide-ranging categorization, encompassing feature films and documentaries. That said, we did exclude several movies from Metacritic's list that had no clear relation to crime.

Here are the 100 best crime movies of all time, according to critics:

100. "Animal Kingdom" (2010)

Critic score:83/100

User score:7.8/10

What critics said:"Don't be fooled: In this unpeaceable kingdom, the den mama is also ready to eat her young." —Entertainment Weekly

99. "Paranoid Park" (2007)

Critic score:83/100

User score:6.6/10

What critics said:"Youth and death meet again in Gus Van Sant’s 'Paranoid Park,' a gorgeously stark, mesmerizingly elliptical story told in the same lyrical-prosaic style that has characterized his latest films." —Los Angeles Times

98. "Bus 174" (2002)

Critic score:83/100

User score:7.5/10

What critics said:"Tense, engrossing, and superbly structured, 'Bus 174' is not just unforgettable drama but a skillfully developed argument." —

97. "Trainspotting" (1996)

Critic score:83/100

User score:8.9/10

What critics said:"It would be hard to imagine a movie about drugs, depravity, and all-around bad behavior more electrifying than 'Trainspotting.'" —

96. "Adaptation." (2002)

Critic score:83/100

User score:8.1/10

What critics said:"'" —

95. "Rocco and His Brothers" (1960)

Critic score:83/100

User score:8.1/10

What critics said:"Neither the neighborhood intimacy of 'Mean Streets' nor the grandeur of the 'Godfather' movies is imaginable without Visconti's example. Its richness, though, is inexhaustible." —

94. "Homicide" (1991)

Critic score:84/100

User score:N/A

What critics said:"David Mamet's 'Homicide' is a brilliant muddle: compelling, exhilarating and, at the same time, profoundly dubious. Certainly there is greatness in it." —The Washington Post

93. "The Dark Knight" (2008)

Critic score:84/100

User score:8.9/10

What critics said:"Pitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, it goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind." —The New York Times

92. "Volver" (2006)

Critic score:84/100

User score:8.5/10

What critics said:"Part noir-comedy, part ghost story, but it's mostly a potent reflection on how where we come from shapes us, in ways we can't understand until we've been away for a long, long while." —Salon

91. "Graduation" (2017)

Critic score:84/100

User score:8.5/10

What critics said:"An intricate, deeply intelligent film, and a bleak picture of a state of national depression in Romania, where the 90s generation hoped they would have a chance to start again." —The Guardian

90. "Looper" (2012)

Critic score:84/100

User score:8.2/10

What critics said:"A remarkable feat of imagination and execution, entertaining from start to finish, even as it asks the audience to contemplate how and why humanity keeps making the same rotten mistakes." —The AV Club

89. "Mystic River" (2003)

Critic score:84/100

User score:7.0/10

What critics said:"So incrementally does Eastwood's film build toward what seems like an inevitable resolution that when it concludes, you're sucker-punched. You haven't been watching a police procedural, but a Greek tragedy. You haven't been watching a drama about the catharsis of vigilantism, but sitting vigil for a community diminished, and permanently damaged, by violence." —Philadelphia Inquirer

88. "Lantana" (2001)

Critic score:84/100

User score:8.3/10

What critics said:"Elegant but never overstated, sinister but never coldhearted, this is a note-perfect masterwork on a modest, human scale." —Salon

87. "The Man Without a Past" (2003)

Critic score:84/100

User score:8.3/10

What critics said:"The revered Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki has hit on a way to give you grim social realism and movie-ish sentimentality in one fell swoop." —Slate

86. "Revanche" (2009)

Critic score:84/100

User score:8.1/10

What critics said:"Mr. Spielmann's film is full of surprises and, in its distinctive way, full of life." —The Wall Street Journal

85. "The Big Risk" (1960)

Critic score:84/100

User score:7.3/10

What critics said:"A tough and touching exploration of honor and friendship among thieves." —The New York Times

84. "Out of Sight" (1998)

Critic score:85/100

User score:8.6/10

What critics said:"Reveals Soderbergh in peak form, as he endows Leonard’s postmodern yarn with a meticulously detailed mise en scene that helps each member of his terrific ensemble soar." —

83. "Grisibi" (1954)

Critic score:85/100

User score:N/A

What critics said:"A wonderful treasure from the seemingly inexhaustible cornucopia of crackling French crime dramas." —

82. "The Old Man and the Gun" (2018)

Critic score:85/100

User score:N/A

What critics said:"Eschews pastiche for a sweet, affable character study that resurrects Redford’s original star power with a wet kiss. The entire picture amounts to a low-key cinematic resurrection." — IndieWire

81. "The Last Seduction" (1994)

Critic score:85/100

User score:8.5/10

What critics said:"" — The New York Times

80. "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)

Critic score:85/100

User score:8.8/10

What critics said:"Under Jonathan Demme's masterful cinematic surgery, we get into Lecter's twisted skull and, through this outrageous descent, we come to see this sinister in the everyday." — The Hollywood Reporter

79. "Unforgiven" (1992)

Critic score:85/100

User score:8.4/10

What critics said:"A sombre, insightful, genre-reinventing western, directed by a filmmaker acutely aware of the western’s history, its limitations and the dubious truths of its legends." — The Telegraph

78. "Fargo" (1996)

Critic score:85/100

User score:8.8/10

What critics said:"Rotates its story through satire, comedy, suspense and violence, until it emerges as one of the best films I've ever seen." — Chicago Sun-Times

77. "The Departed" (2006)

Critic score:85/100

User score:N/A

What critics said:"A triumphant revisiting of territory in which Scorsese is an unchallenged master -- the crime drama." — Premiere

76. "Tales of the Grim Sleeper" (2014)

Critic score:85/100

User score:N/A

What critics said:"The film is an appropriately dour and intense indictment of a law-enforcement community that did not value the lives of some victims enough to devote anything but the slimmest of resources to tracking their killer down." — The Dissolve

75. "Widows" (2018)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:"Led by a magnificent Viola Davis, the cast is ridiculously stacked. The action is tremendous. And the ultimate message – that nothing comes for free in America – is devastating in its swift brutality." — The Globe and Mail

74. "Baby Driver" (2017)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — Empire

73. "Sweet Sixteen" (2003)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — Los Angeles Times

72. "The Player" (1992)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — Time

71. "This Is England" (2007)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — Chicago Sun-Times

70. "The Grifters" (1990)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — San Francisco Chronicle

69. "Traffic" (2000)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — Philadelphia Inquirer

68. "Drug War" (2013)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — Slant Magazine

67. "Deliver Us from Evil" (2006)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — New York Daily News

66. "In the Bedroom" (2001)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — Time Out London

65. "Easy Rider" (1969)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — Austin Chronicle

64. "Boys Don't Cry" (1999)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — New York Post

63. "To Die For" (1995)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — The Washington Post

62. "Dreamcatcher" (2015)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said:" — The Hollywood Reporter

61. "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said: — The Telegraph

60. "The Murder of Fred Hampton" (1971)

Critic score:86/100

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What critics said: — Los Angeles Times

59. "Maria Full of Grace" (2004)

Critic score:87/100

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What critics said: — ReelViews

58. "Serpico" (1973)

Critic score:87/100

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What critics said: — The New York Times

57. "One False Move" (1992)

Critic score:87/100

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What critics said: — Chicago Tribune

56. "The Fugitive" (1993)

Critic score:87/100

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What critics said: — Rolling Stone

55. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962)

Critic score:87/100

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What critics said: — The Hollywood Reporter

54. "Gomorrah" (2009)

Critic score:87/100

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What critics said: — Time

53. "Museo" (2018)

Critic score:87/100

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What critics said: — The Playlist

52. "Sweet Country" (2018)

Critic score:87/100

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What critics said: — The Washington Post

51. "Hell or High Water" (2016)

Critic score:88/100

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What critics said: — Variety

50. "Mafioso" (1962)

Critic score:88/100

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What critics said: — TV Guide

49. "Band of Outsiders" (1964)

Critic score:88/100

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What critics said: — LA Weekly

48. "Thelma & Louise" (1991)

Critic score:88/100

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What critics said: — Newsweek

47. "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" (2017)

Critic score:88/100

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What critics said: — The Hollywood Reporter

46. "Strangers on a Train" (1951)

Critic score:88/100

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What critics said: — The New Yorker

45. "Capote" (2005)

Critic score:88/100

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What critics said: — The New York Times

44. "On the Waterfront" (1954)

Critic score:88/100

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What critics said: — Chicago Reader

43. "Piccadilly" (1929)

Critic score:89/100

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What critics said: "As casually insensitive and careless as you might expect from a film of this era, but it's also surprisingly crafty about finding ways to incite discussion." — Boston Globe

42. "Quai des Orfèvres" (1947)

Critic score:89/100

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What critics said: "A gorgeous flirt of a murder movie." — Baltimore Sun

41. "Goodfellas" (1990)

Critic score:89/100

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What critics said: "" — San Francisco Chronicle

40. "In Cold Blood" (1967)

Critic score:89/100

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What critics said: "Excellent quasidocumentary, which sends shivers down the spine." — The New York Times

39. "Gangs of Wasseypur" (2015)

Critic score:89/100

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What critics said: "The love child of Bollywood and Hollywood, 'Gangs of Wasseypur' is a brilliant collage of genres, by turns pulverizing and poetic in its depiction of violence." — Variety

38. "Man on Wire" (2008)

Critic score:89/100

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What critics said: "Thanks to Marsh's sensitive storytelling, 'Man on Wire' manages to put Petit's performance into another, more ineffable realm: What began as a caper turned into poetry, and poetry became a prayer." — The Washington Post

37. "Assault on Precinct 13" (1976)

Critic score:89/100

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What critics said: "As incisive as it is thrilling, Carpenter’s film is also gorgeous. Carpenter’s imagery is a thing of propulsive beauty that both enhances suspense and expresses his characters’ ever-changing relations to one another. It’s a fleet, ferocious piece of genre craftsmanship." — The AV Club

36. "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion" (1970)

Critic score:89/100

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What critics said: "A provocative political thriller that is as troubling today as when it came out in 1970. Maybe more so." — Los Angeles Times

35. "The Act of Killing" (2013)

Critic score:89/100

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What critics said: "The resulting film is bizarre to the point of trippiness, yet it’s one of the most lucid portraits of evil I’ve ever seen." — Vulture

34. "American Hustle" (2013)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "For some, the silver linings in Russell’s movies represent a failure to embrace darkness. I see them as a humanist’s act of resistance. That’s why 'American Hustle' ranks with the year’s best movies. It gets under your skin." — Rolling Stone

33. "Capturing the Friedmans" (2003)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "An extraordinary film; it may be the most haunting documentary since 'Crumb.'" — Entertainment Weekly

32. "United 93" (2006)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "An unflinching, powerfully visceral and haunting portrait of the tragic events aboard one of the terrorist-commandeered flights on the fateful morning of Sept. 11, 2001." — USA Today

31. "Dirty Harry" (1971)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "Try to get Siegel’s masterful camera rise out of your head: gun-happy Harry looming over his jabbering perp, who screams like a stuck pig as the shot recedes high into a dense night fog. This is not a cop film. It’s a monster movie." — Time Out

30. "A Brighter Summer Day" (1991)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "Yang's anti-nostalgic slice of 1960s Taipei life suggests a Tolstoy-size expansion of the ballads from Bruce Springsteen's 'Darkness on the Edge of Town.'" — Village Voice

29. "A Prophet" (2010)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "Audiard delivers on and exceeds the promise he evinced in that earlier film, drawing viewers into the densely layered, ruthless ecology of a French prison and, against all odds, making them not mind staying there awhile." — The Washington Post

28. "L.A. Confidential" (1997)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "A movie bull's-eye: noir with an attitude, a thriller packing punches. It gives up its evil secrets with a smile." — Chicago Tribune

27. "The Godfather: Part II" (1974)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "It is even better than the first film, and has the greatest single final scene in Hollywood history, a real coup de cinéma." — The Guardian

26. "The Crying Game" (1992)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "" — The Wall Street Journal

25. "13th" (2016)

Critic score:90/100

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What critics said: "A searing and pivotal documentary about the prison-industrial complex, Ava DuVernay's 'The 13th' is a truly frightening film that galvanizes its viewers to action." — We Got This Covered

24. "No Country for Old Men" (2007)

Critic score:91/100

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What critics said: "Joel and Ethan Coen's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel is an indisputably great movie, at this point the year's very best." — Rolling Stone

23. "The Ladykillers" (1955)

Critic score:91/100

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What critics said: " — The New Yorker

22. "Le Cercle Rouge" (1970)

Critic score:91/100

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What critics said: "The antidote to every square tough-guy caper you've ever seen, and the inspiration for many great ones. It is an existential imperative to seek out a showing and burn rubber to get there, preferably in an excellent car. — Entertainment Weekly

21. "Cool Hand Luke" (1967)

Critic score:91/100

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What critics said: "Paul Newman gives one of his best performances in this prison film, where he inspires life in to his fellow inmates. Has something important to say with several memorable moments and a superb supporting cast. — Empire

20. "Tower" (2016)

Critic score:92/100

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What critics said: "Through the recollections of witnesses and victims, the film simultaneously builds a present-tense narrative while portraying the terrifying resilience of memory and trauma." — Village Voice

19. "Werckmeister Harmonies" (2001)

Critic score:92/100

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What critics said: "An indelible statement on loneliness and spiritual thirst." — San Francisco Chronicle

18. "Chinatown" (1974)

Critic score:92/100

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What critics said: "" — The New Yorker

17. "Brother's Keeper" (1992)

Critic score:92/100

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What critics said: "" — The AV Club

16. "Badlands" (1973)

Critic score:93/100

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What critics said: "O" — Boston Globe

15. "Shoplifters" (2018)

Critic score:93/100

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What critics said: "In 'Shoplifters,' Kore-eda dramatizes the insidious and relativistic ordinariness of poverty." — Slant Magazine

14. "Elevator to the Gallows" (1961)

Critic score:94/100

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What critics said: "Moreau's nocturnal wanderings are made unbearably poignant by an exquisite Miles Davis jazz score that became famous in its own right." — The New Yorker

13. "Carlos" (2010)

Critic score:94/100

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What critics said: "Hypnotic and sprawling five-hour-plus piece of cinematic genius." — Los Angeles Times

12. "Pulp Fiction" (1994)

Critic score:94/100

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What critics said: "Like 'Citizen Kane,' 'Pulp Fiction' is constructed in such a nonlinear way that you could see it a dozen times and not be able to remember what comes next." — Chicago Sun-Times

11. "Taxi Driver" (1976)

Critic score:94/100

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What critics said: "The blend of Schrader's script, Scorsese's direction and De Niro's performance is both riveting and unnerving. A film that will stay with you forever." — Empire

10. "Double Indemnity" (1944)

Critic score:95/100

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What critics said: "Film noir is the most intoxicating of Hollywood cocktails, and none is more potent than 'Double Indemnity.'" — The Telegraph

9. "L'Argent" (1984)

Critic score:95/100

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What critics said: "It goes beyond the impartiality of journalism. It has the manner of an official report on the spiritual state of a civilization for which there is no hope." — The New York Times

8. "Mean Streets" (1973)

Critic score:96/100

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What critics said: "Martin Scorsese’s 'Mean Streets' isn’t so much a gangster movie as a perceptive, sympathetic, finally tragic story about how it is to grow up in a gangster environment." — Chicago Sun-Times

7. "The French Connection" (1971)

Critic score:96/100

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What critics said: "" — Chicago Tribune

6. "12 Angry Men" (1957)

Critic score:96/100

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What critics said: "A penetrating, sensitive, and sometimes shocking dissection of the hearts and minds of men who obviously are something less than gods. It makes for taut, absorbing, and compelling drama that reaches far beyond the close confines of its jury room setting." — The New York Times

5. "Rififi" (1956)

Critic score:97/100

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What critics said: "Among the picture's many surprises is a superb robbery scene filmed in a near-total silence that contrasts exhilaratingly with the noisy flamboyance of more recent films in this venerable genre." — Christian Science Monitor

4. "Pépé le Moko" (1937)

Critic score:98/100

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What critics said: "Beautifully crafted, movingly acted, still involving and entertaining, this is just the kind of film people are talking about when they say they don't make them like this anymore." — Los Angeles Times

3. "Touch of Evil" (1958)

Critic score:99/100

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What critics said: "As masterful as Welles's filming is, what makes 'Touch of Evil' a staggering masterpiece is the global quality of his style, which causes every image to echo almost every other in the film." — Chicago Reader

2. "The Night of the Hunter" (1955)

Critic score:99/100

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What critics said: "It’s the most haunted and dreamlike of all American films, a gothic backwoods ramble with the Devil at its heels." — Time Out London

1. "The Godfather" (1972)

Critic score:100/100

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What critics said: "An intricately constructed gem that simultaneously kicks ass." — Austin Chronicle

The 100 best crime movies of all time, according to critics

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