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A list of crime films released in the 1980s.
| Title | Director | Cast | Country | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | ||||||
| Atlantic City | Louis Malle | Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon, Michel Piccoli | ||||
| Le bar du téléphone | Claude Barrois | Daniel Duval, François Perier, Georges Wilson | ||||
| Contraband | Lucio Fulci | Daniele Dublino, Ivana Monti, Fabio Testi | ||||
| Cruising | William Friedkin | Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, Karen Allen | Crime thriller | |||
| Gloria | John Cassavetes | Gena Rowlands, John Adames, Buck Henry | ||||
| The Long Good Friday | John MacKenzie | Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Eddie Constantine | ||||
| McVicar | Tom Clegg | Roger Daltrey, Adam Faith, Cheryl Campbell | ||||
| Rough Cut | Don Siegel | Burt Reynolds, Lesley-Anne Down, David Niven | Crime comedy | |||
| Trois Hommes à Abattre | Jacques Deray | Alain Delon, Dalila di Lazzaro, Pierre Dux | Crime thriller | |||
| 1981 | ||||||
| Le Choix des armes | Alain Corneau | Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve | ||||
| Coup de Torchon | Bertrand Tavernier | Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Marielle | ||||
| Cutter's Way | Ivan Passer | Jeff Bridges, John Heard, Lisa Eichhorn | ||||
| The Fan | Edward Bianchi | Lauren Bacall, James Garner, Maureen Stapleton | ||||
| Loophole | John Quested | Albert Finney, Martin Sheen, Susannah York | ||||
| Made in Britain | Alan Clarke | Tim Roth, Eric Richard | ||||
| Ms. 45 | Abel Ferrara | Zoe Tamerlis, Steve Singer, Jack Thibeau | ||||
| Pixote | Hector Babenco | Fernando Ramos Da Silva, Jorge Juliano, Gilberto Moura | Juvenile delinquency film | |||
| The Postman Always Rings Twice | Bob Rafelson | Jack Nicholson, Jessica Lange, John Colicos | Crime drama | |||
| The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper | Roger Spottiswoode | Robert Duvall, Treat Williams, Kathryn Harrold | ||||
| Thief | Michael Mann | James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson | ||||
| True Confessions | Ulu Grosbard | Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Charles Durning | Crime drama | |||
| Vabank | Juliusz Machulski | Jan Machulski, Leonard Pietraszak, Witold Pyrkosz | ||||
| 1982 | ||||||
| La Balance | Bob Swaim | Nathalie Baye, Philippe Léotard, Richard Berry | ||||
| Carry On Pickpocket | Sammo Hung | Frankie Chan, Sammo Hung, Richard Ng | Crime comedy | |||
| Le choc | Robin Davis | Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, Philippe Léotard | ||||
| Class of 1984 | Mark L. Lester | Perry King, Timothy Van Patten, Merrie Lynn Ross | Juvenile delinquency film | |||
| The Executioner's Song | Lawrence Schiller | Tommy Lee Jones, Rosanna Arquette | ||||
| Fanny Strawhair | Vicente Aranda | Fanny Cottençon, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Algora | ||||
| La Garce | Christine Pascal | Isabelle Huppert, Richard Berry, Vittorio Mezzogiorno | ||||
| Hanky Panky | Sidney Poitier | Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Kathleen Quinlan | ||||
| Interrogation | Ryszard Bugajski | Krystyna Janda, Janusz Gajos, Adam Ferency | Prison film | |||
| Onimasa | Hideo Gosha | Tatsuya Nakadai, Masako Natsume, Tetsuro Tamba | ||||
| 1983 | ||||||
| L'Argent | Robert Bresson | Christian Patey, Sylvie van den Elsen, Michel Briguet | Crime drama | |||
| Bad Boys | Rick Rosenthal | Sean Penn, Reni Santoni, Esai Morales | Crime drama, prison film | |||
| Breathless | Jim McBride | Richard Gere, Valérie Kaprisky, Art Metrano | Crime drama | |||
| Chained Heat | Paul Nicolas | Linda Blair, John Vernon, Sybil Danning | ||||
| Duvar | Yilmaz Güney | Tuncel Kurtiz, Ayse Emel Mesci, Malik Berrichi | Prison film, juvenile delinquency film | |||
| The Moon in the Gutter | Jean-Jacques Beineix | Gérard Depardieu, Nastassja Kinski, Victoria Abril | ||||
| Mortelle Randonnée | Claude Miller | Michel Serrault, Isabelle Adjani, Geneviève Page | Crime thriller | |||
| Rue Barbare | Gilles Behat | Bernard Giraudeau, Christine Boisson, Jean-Pierre Kalfon | ||||
| Scarface | Brian De Palma | Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer | ||||
| 1984 | ||||||
| Against All Odds | Taylor Hackford | Rachel Ward, Jeff Bridges, James Woods | ||||
| Asphalt Warriors | Sergio Gobbi | Daniel Auteuil, Marisa Berenson, Marcel Bozzuffi | ||||
| Blood Simple | Joel Coen | John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya | ||||
| The Cotton Club | Francis Ford Coppola | Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane | Gangster film | |||
| Crackers | Louis Malle | Donald Sutherland, Jack Warden, Sean Penn | ||||
| Fatal Vision | David Greene | Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, Gary Cole | ||||
| Fear City | Abel Ferrara | Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Scalia | ||||
| The Gunrunner | Nardo Castillo | Kevin Costner, Sara Botsford, Paul Soles | ||||
| The Hit | Stephen Frears | John Hurt, Tim Roth, Laura del Sol | Crime drama | |||
| Johnny Dangerously | Amy Heckerling | Michael Keaton, Joe Piscopo, Marilu Henner | ||||
| Once Upon A Time In America | Sergio Leone | Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern | ||||
| The Pope of Greenwich Village | Stuart Rosenberg | Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Daryl Hannah | ||||
| Repo Man | Alex Cox | Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Olivia Barash | Crime comedy | |||
| 1985 | ||||||
| 8 Million Ways to Die | Hal Ashby | Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, Alexandra Paul | ||||
| Crimewave | Sam Raimi | Reed Birney, Sheree J. Wilson, Louise Lasser | Crime comedy | |||
| Détective | Jean-Luc Godard, Don Leaver | Claude Brasseur, Nathalie Baye, Johnny Hallyday | Crime drama | |||
| L'Homme Aux Yeux D'Argent | Pierre Granier-Deferre | Alain Souchon, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Lambert Wilson | ||||
| Kiss of the Spider Woman | Hector Babenco | William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga | Prison film | |||
| On ne meurt que deux fois | Jacques Deray | Michel Serrault, Charlotte Rampling, Xavier DeLuc | Crime thriller | |||
| Le Pactole | Jean-Pierre Mocky | Richard Bohringer, Pauline Lafont, Patrick Sebastien | ||||
| Prizzi's Honor | John Huston | Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Anjelica Huston, | ||||
| Stick | Burt Reynolds | Burt Reynolds, Candice Bergen, George Segal | ||||
| To Live and Die in L.A. | William Friedkin | William L. Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow | ||||
| Witness | Peter Weir | Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Josef Sommer | Crime thriller | |||
| Year of the Dragon | Michael Cimino | Mickey Rourke, John Lone, Ariane | ||||
| 1986 | ||||||
| 52 Pick-Up | John Frankenheimer | Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, Vanity | ||||
| Band of the Hand | Paul Michael Glaser | Stephen Lang, Michael Carmine, Lauren Holly | ||||
| A Better Tomorrow | John Woo | Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung, Ti Lung | ||||
| Big Trouble | John Cassavetes | Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Beverly D'Angelo | Crime comedy | |||
| Blue City | Michelle Manning | Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, David Caruso | ||||
| Blue Velvet | David Lynch | Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper | Crime thriller | |||
| Comic Magazine | Yojiro Takita | Yuya Uchida, Yumi Asou, Yoshio Harada | ||||
| Descente Aux Enfers | Francis Girod | Claude Brasseur, Sophie Marceau, Sidiki Bakaba | Crime drama | |||
| Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | John McNaughton | Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, Tracy Arnold | ||||
| Manhunter | Michael Mann | William L. Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan Allen | Crime thriller | |||
| Mauvais Sang | Leos Carax | Denis Lavant, Michel Piccoli, Juliette Binoche | ||||
| Mona Lisa | Neil Jordan | Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine | Crime drama | |||
| Out of Bounds | Richard Tuggle | Anthony Michael Hall, Jenny Wright, Jeff Kober | ||||
| Pouvoir intime | Yves Simoneau | Marie Tifo, Pierre Curzi, Jacques Godin | ||||
| Ruthless People | Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, David Zucker | Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold | Crime comedy | |||
| Tough Guys | Jeff Kanew | Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Dana Carvey | Crime comedy | |||
| Wise Guys | Brian De Palma | Danny DeVito, Joe Piscopo, Harvey Keitel | Crime comedy | |||
| 1987 | ||||||
| A Better Tomorrow II | John Woo | Chow Yun-fat, Emily Chu, Waise Lee | ||||
| Bellman and True | Richard Loncraine | Bernard Hill, Kieran O'Brien, Richard Hope | ||||
| The Big Town | Ben Bolt | Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Tommy Lee Jones | Crime drama | |||
| City on Fire | Ringo Lam | Chow Yun-fat, Sun Yueh, Danny Lee | ||||
| Dernier Ete A Tanger | Alexandre Arcady | Valeria Golino, Thierry Lhermitte, Roger Hanin | ||||
| House of Games | David Mamet | Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum | Crime thriller | |||
| Just Heroes | John Woo | Stephen Chow, Danny Lee | ||||
| Night Zoo | Jean-Claude Lauzon | Roger Le Bel, Gilles Maheu, Lynne Adams | Crime drama | |||
| No Man's Land | Peter Werner | Charlie Sheen, D. B. Sweeney, Randy Quaid | ||||
| Prison on Fire | Ringo Lam | Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Kar-Fai, Roy Cheung | Prison film | |||
| Raising Arizona | Joel Coen | Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson | Crime comedy | |||
| Rampage | William Friedkin | Michael Biehn, Alex McArthur, Nicholas Campbell | ||||
| A Short Film About Killing | Krzysztof Kieslowski | Miroslaw Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, Jan Tesarz | Crime drama | |||
| The Sicilian | Michael Cimino | Christopher Lambert, Terence Stamp, Joss Ackland | ||||
| Slam Dance | Wayne Wang | Tom Hulce, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Virginia Madsen | Crime drama | |||
| Someone to Watch Over Me | Ridley Scott | Tom Berenger, Mimi Rogers | Crime thriller | |||
| Street Smart | Jerry Schatzberg | Christopher Reeve, Morgan Freeman | Crime drama | |||
| Throw Momma from the Train | Danny DeVito | Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal, Anne Ramsey | Crime comedy | |||
| The Untouchables | Brian De Palma | Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro | ||||
| Wisdom | Emilio Estevez | Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Tom Skerritt | ||||
| 1988 | ||||||
| As Tears Go By | Wong Kar-wai | Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Maggie Cheung | ||||
| The Blue Iguana | John J. Lafia | Dylan McDermott, Jessica Harper, James Russo | ||||
| Call Me | Sollace Mitchell | Patricia Charbonneau, Stephen McHattie, Boyd Gaines | ||||
| De Bruit et de Fureur | Jean-Claude Brisseau | Bruno Cremer, François Négret, Vincent Gasperitsch | Juvenile delinquency film, crime drama | |||
| Deja Vu | Juliusz Machulski | Jerzy Sztur, Vladimir Golovin, Nikolai Karachentsov | ||||
| Dirty Rotten Scoundrels | Frank Oz | Steve Martin, Michael Caine | Crime comedy | |||
| The Drifter | Larry Brand | Kim Delaney, Timothy Bottoms, Al Shannon | ||||
| A Fish Called Wanda | Charles Crichton | John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline | Crime comedy | |||
| The Fruit Machine | Philip Saville | Emile Charles, Tony Forsyth, Robert Stephens | ||||
| Kansas | David Stevens | Matt Dillon, Andrew McCarthy, Leslie Hope | ||||
| L.A. Heat | Joseph Merhi | Jim Brown, Kevin Benton, Pat Johnson | ||||
| Maniac Cop | William Lustig | Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon | Crime thriller | |||
| Married to the Mob | Jonathan Demme | Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell | ||||
| Stormy Monday | Mike Figgis | Melanie Griffith, Tommy Lee Jones, Sting | ||||
| Story of Women | Claude Chabrol | Isabelle Huppert, François Cluzet, Marie Trintignant | Crime drama | |||
| Tequila Sunrise | Robert Towne | Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell | ||||
| Things Change | David Mamet | Don Ameche, Joe Mantegna | ||||
| 1989 | ||||||
| Batman | Tim Burton | Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger | Master criminal film | |||
| Les Bois Noirs | Jacques Deray | Béatrice Dalle, Stéphane Freiss, Philippe Volter | Crime drama | |||
| City War | Sun Chung | Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung | Crime thriller | |||
| Cookie | Susan Seidelman | Peter Falk, Dianne Wiest, Emily Lloyd | Gangster film, crime comedy | |||
| Criminal Law | Martin Campbell | Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, Karen Young | ||||
| Dead Bang | John Frankenheimer | Don Johnson, Penelope Ann Miller, William Forsythe | ||||
| Disorganized Crime | M. James Kouf Jr. | Hoyt Axton, Corbin Bernsen, Rubén Blades | ||||
| Drugstore Cowboy | Gus Van Sant | Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch | Crime drama | |||
| Family Business | Sidney Lumet, Dustin Hoffman, Matthew Broderick | Sean Connery | ||||
| For Queen and Country | Martin Stellman | Denzel Washington, Amanda Redman, George Baker | Crime drama | |||
| Harlem Nights | Eddie Murphy | Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx | Crime comedy | |||
| Johnny Handsome | Walter Hill | Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Elizabeth McGovern | ||||
| The Killer | John Woo | Chow Yun-fat, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh | ||||
| Mapantsula | Oliver Schmitz | Thomas Mogotlane, Marcel Van Heerden, Thembi Mtshali | Crime drama | |||
| Miracles | Jackie Chan | Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Richard Ng | Crime comedy | |||
| Monsieur Hire | Patrice Leconte | Michel Blanc, Sandrine Bonnaire, Luc Thuillier | Crime drama | |||
| Night Game | Peter Masterson | Roy Scheider, Karen Young, Richard Bradford | ||||
| Relentless | William Lustig | Judd Nelson, Robert Loggia, Leo Rossi | ||||
| Street of No Return | Samuel Fuller | Keith Carradine, Valentina Vargas, Bill Duke | ||||
| Violent Cop | Beat Takeshi Kitano | Beat Takeshi Kitano, Sei Hiraizumi, Maiko Kawakami | Crime thriller | |||
| We're No Angels | Neil Jordan | Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Demi Moore | Crime comedy | |||
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, crime and/or films:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“Every morning I woke in dread, waiting for the day nurse to go on her rounds and announce from the list of names in her hand whether or not I was for shock treatment, the new and fashionable means of quieting people and of making them realize that orders are to be obeyed and floors are to be polished without anyone protesting and faces are to be made to be fixed into smiles and weeping is a crime.”
—Janet Frame (b. 1924)
“After all, crime is only a lefthanded form of human endeavor.”
—John Huston (1906–1987)
“The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.”
—Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)