Commentary Track
The 10 Most Violent Films of All-Time
Posted by Maggie Van Ostrand (maggie@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 11, 2007
Just as a keg of beer needs a bung hole to relieve pressure, we need violent movies to relieve the pressures of every day life.
10. The Godfather
If guns and garroting aren’t enough to convince you The Godfather belongs on this list, how about punchouts of Sonny’s pregnant sister or mass killings simultaneously shot with the latest Corleone baptism.
9. Apocalypse Now
On location in the insect-filled, muggy air of the Philippines, Francis Ford Coppola allegedly went quite mad as his adaption of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” threatened to devour him in a maelstrom of despair. The result of all this horror was a magnificent film, the story of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) who’s sent on a secret mission upriver to execute renegade Colonel Kurtz (Brando), once a ‘Nam hero but now gone mad himself and in a state of murderous, mystical insanity convincing the natives he’s a God.
8. Training Day
Rogue cop Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington), a veteran LAPD narc detective, enforces the law in a violent if not unethical manner. Training rookie Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) to follow in his footsteps brings into play Harris’ unorthodox methods of police work.
7. Silence of the Lambs
In his Oscar-winning performance, Anthony Hopkins makes chianti popular again but only if taken with a bowlful of people innards.
6. A Clockwork Orange
A rampaging gang rapes and pillages, eventually leaving a charismatic sociopath namedAlex (Malcolm McDowell) one of their members, for the cops to find and try to rehabilitate by brainwashing. The art of Stanley Kubrick’s vision is supremely evident in this violent story with amazing musical counterparts. This 1971 masterpiece still shocks today.
5. True Romance
(2-disc unrated director’s cut) James Gandolfini pulverizes Patricia Arquette, Christian Slater and Gary Oldman get it on in a bloody smackdown, Brad Pitt is stoned throughout, and Christopher Walken and his thugs make mincemeat of Dennis Hopper.
4. Ed Gein
Ed Gein, the Butcher of Plainfield, is the true story of the psycho after whom Leather Face, Buffalo Bill and Norman Bates were based. Gein (Steve Railsback) wore his dead mother’s skin (Carrie Snodgress) as a mask and vest. He also dug up corpses and from the skins and body parts, made furniture and lampshades. Horror story lovers eventually immortalized him in film and song including Blind Melon’s “Skinned,” Macabre’s “Ed Gein,” Slayer’s “Dead Skin Mask,” and Mudvayne’s “Nothing To Gein.” A real psycho-nutter, he died in the Rubber Ramada in 1984.
3. Natural Born Killers
Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Oliver Stone, this violent film stars Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as Mickey and Mallory Knox, the sweetest and most loving pair of psychopathic serial killers as ever hit the big screen.
2. Reservoir Dogs
With favorites like Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, and even actor/writer/director Quentin Tarantino, this story of men who don’t know each other’s name team up for the perfect crime which goes horribly wrong.
1. Scarface
Bloody killings with a chainsaw, mass slaughter of authorities, other gangsters and just about anyone close at hand; weapons galore and Pacino’s immortal “Meet my li’l fren,” this 1982 Brian de Palma film with story by Oliver Stone, has enough violence to insure its place in cinema history.
If these historical movies were not supplied by Hollywood’s finest, we would all be forced to watch the evening news for our gore and violence.
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21 Comments
May 11th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Not to say that what you’ve got on this so far is great, but… this could’ve gone up to 20, because you’re missing the likes of Saving Private Ryan, RoboCop (for its time), more horror movies (Saw? but I know this is sort of non-horror), Braveheart, Starship Troopers (or any Paul Verhoeven movie), etc. But otherwise, what’s there so far is a good list. Makes me want to watch them all again…
May 11th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Training Day? What about Ran or Salo or Funny Games? Other countries make violent movies as well. How about Bonnie and Clyde or The Wild Bunch? Those two films practically broke the rules for screen violence.
May 11th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I don’t agree with you Clayton about Bonnie & Clyde, except the last memorable death scene.
But a definite yes, I’m with you on the Wild Bunch. Absolutely.
And I’m told the pair of Mels (Last Passion of Christ and Apocalypto) were both really really really violent. But I didn’t see either one.
Thanks to Alex for adding a few that didn’t make my list for space reasons (space in my head, not in the zine).
May 11th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Wild Bunch, RoboCop, Ichi the Killer, Fist of Legend, Battle Royale, and Saving Private Ryan
May 12th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Salo…yes. 120 Days of Sodom is stomach-turning to watch.
And they used real child actors.
May 12th, 2007 at 7:06 am
Nobody does violence like the Japanese and the Koreans.
May 12th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
some violence is stylized or cartoonish, and some is disturbing - the violence in Saving Private Ryan and Funny Games is much more disturbing because it is in plausibly realistic situations. Scarface is just a silly cartoon so it doesn’t really disturb as much.
Ichi the Killer is also a cartoon, but the torture scene in Imprint is so disturbing as to be virtually unwatchable.
May 12th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Not a bad list, but you left out the masterful City of God. It probably should be # 1 on this list.
May 12th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
tarantino can go: what about straw dogs? battle royale? old boy? 300? sin city?
May 12th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Taxi Driver should be on this list.
May 15th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Henry: Portait of a Serial Killer
American Psycho
A Thin Red Line or any real war movie- Platoon, Hamburger Hill, etc
what about Aliens? or Terminator 1 or 2?
Any of the older gangster movies, Once Upon a Time in America?
You know, one would think that someone of Maggie’s advanced age would have a better grasp of film history. The ’70’s had many violent films, and the 80’s action movie have way bigger body counts than anything on this list. I know these lists are supposed to be fun conversation starters, but they’re really more annoying than anything.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:04 am
My god:
What about Hostel, the fly (for the discusting scenes), the hills have have eyes, cannibal holocaust, I spit on your grave and the texas chainsaw massacre…?
They are violent, also night of the living dead, dawn of the dead and day of the dead. Maniac, rosemarys killer and others… there are a lot of violent movies there and if I had to pick the most violent i would pick the texas chainsaw massacre.
August 27th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
These are all ’surface’ violent movies. Movies everyone has heard about and the media calls violent. That doesn’t mean they’re really violent. Honestly I dont think any of these deserve a spot on the Top 10 Most Violent, because there are a hundred more violent films.
And what is our definition of violent? American History X only has like 4-6 violent scenes, but they are enough to make you never want to watch the movie again. (Except its so good we always do).
Then there are over the top things like Predator or Commando. Predator of course has people being skinned and hung and Commando has a body count well into the hundreds. Lord of the Rings films average something like 300 kills per film.
October 1st, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Naaahhh… check out Baise Moi, Man Bites Dog, City of God…
November 14th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
“Cannibal Holocaust” is the most violent I’ve seen. It’s probably also my favorite “extreme cinema” film.
“Salo” was not as violent, but it was by far the most disturbing movie I’ve watched; people talk about having a hard time sitting through a movie, but this film was the only one I’ve watched that REALLY was hard to sit through!
“The Hills Have Eyes” (the Alexandra Aja remake; I’m dying to watch the original, but I’m never watching the sequels to either). Especially the triple-murder-rape scene in the middle. And it just about never cuts away or fades to black. No wonder it originally got an NC-17.
“Last House on the Left”. It’s a lot more disturbing the day after than when you’re actually watching it.
“A Clockwork Orange” and “Natural Born Killers” are both similar in that it’s not how much violence they show (both of them have “tame” content compared to other films that have escaped with an R rating) but how they show it (they both got an X or NC-17 originally) that makes it so shocking.
“The Descent”. It was terrifying BEFORE all the gore!
“Hostel”, “Saw”. Both are really great, but they’re a bit too removed from reality to be hugely significant or hugely disturbing. But watch them anyway.
December 23rd, 2007 at 10:36 pm
This list is horrible. These are all mainstream flicks…I agree with Scarface and a few others, but some of these are VERY tame compared to lesser know films out there. It didn’t even scrape the horror genre. (C’mon! Silence of the Lambs? yea, it’s a GREAT film, but hardly worthy of this list)
Cannibal Holocaust was mentioned previously. That is one film I will NEVER watch again.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:24 am
I agree with you on a few films on this list, but you forgot to include Oldboy and Audition, as well as Last House on the Left, Evil Dead, and Dead Alive.
June 29th, 2008 at 5:03 am
This list ahs some violent films but what about rambo 4, that is probabley the most (realsitic) violent film i have ever seen.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
This list should be retitled as “some hollywood films containing violence.” I clicked this link expecting to see a Traces of Death film or at least Men Behind the Sun. Then i noticed this article was written by someone named Maggie and my disappointment had complete validity.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
rambo 4 is probably the most gore fested violent movie of all time.. ok its supposed to be defensive murder not physcotic although in rambo 4 it maybe well closely conneted.
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKa1Rh4gKwo
This one has loads of them.