Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC Blog

It’s the 67th anniversary of the first FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. But movies have long been interested in the notorious and great actors have relished playing fugitive criminals. The term “public enemy” was first coined by the Chicago press. J. Edgar Hoover and the Justice Department began using it widely in referring to gangsters after the release of the popular, now classic 1931 movie Public Enemy starring James Cagney. More recently, Bonnie and Clyde traced the events leading up to the capture and killing of this gun toting couple. Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness finally trapped Al Capone (portrayed by Robert DeNiro) on a tax invasion charge in The Untouchables. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was still another event to depict.

Other depictions include Aileen Wuornos, the subject of the Charlize Theron’s 2003 Oscar winning performance in Monster. She was the first woman to fit the FBI’s definition of a serial killer. Jeremy Iron’s cold, calculating portrayal of Socialite Claus Von Bulow during his appeal trial in the film in Reversal of Fortune won him the Best Actor award in 1991. In an account of a bungled bank robbery, Al Pacino reminded us that he robbed a bank because “there is money there” in Dog Day Afternoon. Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen are on the run in Badlands, based on a true crime killing spree.

And then there are the adrenaline laden fictional accounts including Harrison Ford in The Fugitive. (For my money, Tommy Lee Jones as a single minded FBI agent had the most brilliant performance in that film.)

Crime may not pay. But it sure makes for some great movies. Can you name some other great performances?