Movies about Prohibition transport audiences back to a time in history that continues to fascinate them a century later. Starting in 1920, a Consтιтutional ban was put in place by the United States government that made it illegal for alcohol to be sold or consumed in the country. The ban was spearheaded as a somewhat religious movement, which blamed alcohol for many of the modern issues with society. As it turns out, banning alcohol led to more problems than many people could have predicted, giving rise to organized crime in the country.
While Prohibition ended in 1933, its influence on culture remains strong many years later. Even as it was going on, Hollywood was making movies about the criminal operations of illegal alcohol, and those movies still continue to this day. As with the larger gangster movie genre, there are a lot of movies that offer theatrical depictions of the crime world without a lot of accuracy. However, some of the best Prohibition movies give in-depth and accurate depictions of different aspects of the era, real-life figures during this time, and the lasting impacts it had.
6
The Untouchables (1987)
Directed By Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables is one of the gangster movies that has been criticized for the inaccuracies in its story. Indeed, it certainly gives theatrical flourishes to aspects of the story, but there are also a lot of details that ring true for the Prohibition era. The Untouchables stars Kevin Costner as FBI agent Eliot Ness, who ᴀssembles a small team of agents with the mission of taking down the dangerous and powerful mob boss Al Capone (Robert De Niro).
In reality, Ness did ᴀssemble a very small task force taking aim at Capone and his crimes during Prohibition, and they were known as the Untouchables. As seen in the movie, corruption in the police force was high at the time and the small team was made up of agents who could not be bought by Capone, hence their “untouchable” nature. The movie also gives a look at the bootlegging operations of the time, including the fact that a lot of the whiskey being provided to the organized crime syndicates was coming from Canada.
The infamous scene in which Capone beats a man to death with a baseball bat was inspired by true events
The Untouchables delves into the infamous figure of Al Capone as well. As depicted in the movie, Capone really did operate much of his business out of the Lexington H๏τel in Chicago, where his famous vaults were also located. De Niro gives an explosive performance in the lead role, and while there is some theatricality to the depiction of the character, more of it is based on fact than you might think. Capone really did openly talk to the press and became a public figure while also known as a vicious gangster.
I was also surprised to learn the infamous scene in which Capone beats a man to death with a baseball bat was inspired by true events. Capone reportedly invited two men who had betrayed him to a banquet and proceeded to beat them to death in front of everyone. When it comes to how Capone was eventually brought down, the movie is a mixed bag of accuracy. It was indeed tax invasion that eventually landed Capone behind bars, but the Untouchables had little to do with that aspect of the operation.
5
Road To Perdition (2002)
Directed By Sam Mendes
Directed by Sam Mendes, Road to Perdition stars Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, a husband and father to two sons who also happens to work as an enforcer for top Irish mobster, John Rooney (Paul Newman). When Rooney’s cowardly yet H๏τ-tempered son, Connor (played by a sinister Daniel Craig), attempts to kill Michael out of jealousy, he only ends up killing his wife and youngest son. Michael then goes on a road trip with his remaining son, stealing the mob’s money and attempting to force them to give up Connor for his crimes.
While the revenge story and father-son road trip narrative is all fictional, Road to Perdition covers some real aspects of the Prohibition era. John Rooney is based on real gangster John Looney, who operated in Chicago around the time of the movie. Likewise, Frank Nitti, the right-hand man to Al Capone, is also featured in the movie, played by Stanley Tucci, while Capone himself is name-dropped several times.
However, where Road to Perdition feels most authentic is in how it recreates the era. The YouTube channel Reel History praised the movie’s “material culture” — using recognizable brand names and materials that came from the 1930s to immerse the audience in this time period. While Hanks is not the first actor most people would think of for a gangster movie, I always found his quiet and darkly conflicted performance to be more realistic than the boisterous and loudmouth gangster performances of 1930s cinema.
4
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Directed By Joel & Ethan Coen
Miller’s Crossing is one of the Coen Brothers’ best movies and shows that stepping into the gangster genre to great effect. Gabriel Byrne leads the story as Tommy, the right-hand man to Leo O’Bannon, the head of the Irish mob in New Orleans during Prohibition. As a war begins to heat up with the rival Italian-American crime syndicate in the city, Tommy finds himself caught in the middle and punished to prove what kind of a person he is in this cold and heartless world.
Miller’s Crossing is one of my favorite movies of all time, but I never really looked at it as an accurate historical account of the Prohibition era. Like the iconic Tommy gun ᴀssault scene, there is a somewhat elevated feel to the movie. However, looking into the story and how it fits into the history of the time, it is more accurate than I thought. Despite the fact that it is a completely fictional tale of fictional mobsters (largely inspired by Dashiell Hammet’s The Glᴀss Key), it depicts the era in a realistic way.
At the beginning of the movie, Leo O’Bannon is on top of the organized crime world of New Orleans, with the Italian syndicate run by Johnny Caspar having to answer to him. However, the opportunities of Prohibition allowed Caspar to rise and even challenge O’Bannon’s seat of power. This reflects the real power struggle at the time in which the Italian mafia found themselves rising above the Irish mob who were previously holding the most power in the United States’ organized crime.
The police raids on “speakeasy” establishments in Miller’s Crossing are also used for comedic purposes, with the police raiding the Italian warehouse one moment, then turning around and raiding the Irish drinking spots the next. That, coupled with the fact that they knew everyone’s name inside, shows the amount of corruption in the underfunded law enforcement at the time. The police were largely aware of establishments that were illegally serving liquor, but were paid to look the other way or raid a rival spot instead.
3
Live By Night (2016)
Directed By Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck directed his fourth movie with Live by Night, his first directorial effort following his Best Picture winner Argo. Sadly, Live by Night was largely dismissed by critics and served as the first real failure of Affleck’s career behind the camera. However, while the movie certainly has flaws in its storytelling, it does provide an accurate Prohibition movie that tackles some elements not usually seen in the genre. Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, Live by Night stars Affleck as an ambitious bootlegger operating from Florida who rises in power to become a powerful gangster.
The movie also touches on the role Cuban immigrants played in American organized crime of the era.
While Affleck’s character of Joe Coughlin is a fictional creation for the story, he lives in a world that is right out of the history books. The movie opens with Joe as a small-time criminal caught in the midst of the infamous “Beer Wars” between the Irish mob and the Italian mob. The movie reflects how casually gang ᴀssᴀssinations were carried out at the time, stoking fear of the gangster figures who seemed to rule the big cities with impunity.
The movie also touches on the role Cuban immigrants played in American organized crime of the era. While Canada is usually seen as the source of most of the liquor in Prohibition movies, Live by Night was the first time I had seen Cuba represented as a supplier of rum. It makes perfect sense, given the setting of the movie, as the Cuban rum helped to supply the more Southern states at the time.
Another interesting element included in the movie is how the crimes of Prohibition led to the drug trade in America. I have always found it somewhat easy to cheer for the bootleggers in Prohibition movies as they seemed like rebels defying a law that, in retrospect, is seen by most people as silly and ill-conceived. However, I had not considered that when Prohibition ended, the gangsters would immediately start looking for the next profitable avenue to sell to the public.
2
Lawless (2012)
Directed By John Hillcoat
While many Prohibition movies take a look at the gangsters at the top of the organization, Lawless is a refreshing and accurate look at the more rural and small-time criminals who were key to keeping the bootlegging operation moving. Lawless tells the story of the Bondurant brothers, who ran a moonshining operation in Franklin County, Virginia. While the brothers run the operation smoothly and successfully, they find themselves under pressure from outside influences, including the corrupt police and big-city gangsters.
Lawless is based on the novel The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant, which was the author’s exploration of the role his family actually played in the Prohibition. The тιтle refers to Franklin County, which earned that nickname due to the large number of moonshining operations in the area. While liquor was illegally shipped in from Canada and Cuba, a lot of the illegal liquor in the country was also coming from the moonshine being made in these rural communities.
The movie does a great job of depicting how these operations worked with the Bondurants’ “steel stills” producing the strong liquor that was then used to supply the organized crime syndicates in the big cities. It also shows the sense of community that revolved around the Bondurants and these illegal activities, helping conceal the crimes from the authorities. The television documentary America: The Story of Us details the moonshine community of Franklin County, with historians estimating that 99 out of 100 locals were involved.
It was also the story of the Bondurants themselves that attracted the filmmakers to this story as it did not fit into what is expected from the Prohibition movie subgenre. Director John Hillcoat highlighted how the three Bondurant brothers were involved in this dangerous criminal world. However, unlike most of the stories of this kind to come out of Prohibition, they were not killed nor went to prison, but instead went on to successful lives afterwards (via THR):
[Bootlegging] sort of drew [the Bondurants] into this crazy kind of world of corruption and lawlessness ironically, but then mostly they survived, they got through it all and actually went on to have businesses and children. And traditionally the gangster film teaches us that we’ve got to pay for our sins. Usually the gangster is sH๏τ down in a blaze of glory and doesn’t get up again.
1
Public Enemies (2009)
Directed By Michael Mann
The Prohibition era helped give rise to some of the most notorious gangsters and crime figures in American history, which is highlighted in the movie Public Enemies. Directed by Michael Mann, Public Enemies stars Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, the famed bank robber and gangster who operated during the Prohibition era, working alongside some of the biggest gangsters of the era while also being hunted by one of the FBI’s most famous agents of the time, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale).
Even some of the seemingly outlandish moments were based on fact, including how Dillinger was able to break out of prison with a piece of wood he had carved to look like a gun.
The movie’s digital and handheld camerawork always felt somewhat out of place for me, feeling anachronistic in this period setting. However, the other details of the movie do a fine job of depicting elements of the crime world during Prohibition and shortly after Prohibition ended. One interesting detail that is noted is how Al Capone’s Chicago syndicate was still operating even after Capone himself was arrested. The movie depicts how Capone’s right-hand man, Frank Nitti, continued the operations, which included funding and providing safe houses for bank robbers like Dillinger.
The movie also depicts how law enforcement’s fight against organized crime during Prohibition led to more power for the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover plays a supporting role in the movie, while Purvis is depicted as an FBI hero of the era, participating in the killing of Dillinger as well as personally killing fellow bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd (played by Channing Tatum in a brief cameo).
Many aspects of Dillinger are taken directly from history as well. His real-life bank robberies, prison breaks, criminal ᴀssociates, and romantic relationships are all featured in detail throughout the movie. Even some of the seemingly outlandish moments were based on fact, including how Dillinger was able to break out of prison with a piece of wood he had carved to look like a gun. Likewise, Dillinger’s death is also depicted accurately as he was sH๏τ by the FBI, with one of the bullets coming out of his eye socket.
