The Most Brutal Scenes In Mafia Movies

Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci, the Mafia Threesome. Together they have made a number of memorable gangster pictures and the 1995 film Casino is definitely one of them. In it, Pesci plays mob enforcer Nicky Santoro with a short fuse (imagine that).

In one of the most brutal scenes in the film, Nicky doesn’t take kindly to a man disrespecting his buddy Sam Rothstein (De Niro) so he takes a pen and begins to stab him in the neck – again and again and again. The brutal and graphic murder takes place among many witnesses in a bar, which bothers Nicky not one bit because he doesn’t stop stabbing the guy until he feels the man is dead.

The 1972 masterpiece, The Godfather, is well known for its sometimes-graphic depiction of the violent life of the Corleone crime family. In this shocking scene, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) sends his consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) to Hollywood to convince big-time studio president Jack Woltz to offer Vito’s godson the lead role in one of his movies. When Woltz refuses, and in doing so insults the Godfather, it turns into an offer that Woltz can’t refuse.

The scene is simple as the camera pans to Woltz in the early morning in bed. As Woltz moves around in bed, we can hear some wet sloshing noise. Suddenly, Woltz can feel it and he pulls his bed sheets away. Laying there, filled with blood and gore, is the head of Woltz’s prized horse.

This scene in Scarface is by far one of the most infamous, not only in mafia movie history but in all of cinema. In it, Tony Montana (Al Pacino), his partner Angel, and two other men are sent to purchase cocaine from Columbian drug dealers. Instead, Tony and Angel are captured by the dealers at gunpoint and find themselves chained up in the dealer’s apartment.

Director Brian DePalma (who is known not to be shy with violence in his films) takes things to new levels of violence when the dealers fire up a chainsaw. Tony is then forced to watch (as are we) Angel get dismembered by the chainsaw-wielding dealer. Not for the faint of heart or a weak stomach.

Leave it up to director Brian DePalma to serve up another brutal mafia movie scene. The Untouchables stars Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness, the Bureau of Prohibition agent who was relentless in his pursuit of gangster Al Capone (Robert De Niro).

In the most brutal scene in the film, Capone begins to wax poetic about his love of baseball, picking up a bat as he speaks. He slowly walks around the table of well-dressed mobsters, talking about team and teamwork.

Suddenly, he raises the bat and blasts one of the mobsters. Not once, but a number of times. It’s gratuitous and nauseating, but Capone makes his point.

There are so many memorable scenes in The Godfather, that it’s no wonder the film is oft considered to be the best mafia movie there ever was. Many of these scenes stick with you long after the movie is done, especially the one that involves Sonny Corleone (James Caan).

In the film, Sonny’s sister Connie (Talia Shire) is married to a physically abusive man. When Sonny gets word that Connie has been beaten again, he jumps in his car intending to find this man and kill him. On his way, though, he has to stop at a highway toll booth.

Before he can move, a number of rival gang members step out with their Tommy guns, firing at the car. Sonny is hit multiple times before he can exit the car. As he gets out, the mobsters continue to fire, hitting him dozens and dozens of times. Even when he is dead, one mobster walks up to him and shoots him again.

Fun fact: This scene was completed in one take at a cost of $100,000.