"Two brothers out to save everyone else. But they couldn't save each other."

1981

1h 48m

6.1(193 votes)

Crime

Drama

Overview

A cop clashes with his priest brother while investigating the brutal murder of a young prostitute.

Where to Watch

Stream

Buy

Rent

Links & Resources

IMDbView

Social & External

IMDb

Production Companies

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Robert De Niro

Father Des Spellacy

Robert Duvall

Det. Tom Spellacy

Charles Durning

Jack Amsterdam

Kenneth McMillan

Frank Crotty

Ed Flanders

Dan T. Campion

Cyril Cusack

Cardinal Danaher

Burgess Meredith

Msgr. Seamus Fargo

Rose Gregorio

Brenda Samuels

Dan Hedaya

Howard Terkel

Gwen Van Dam

Mrs. Fazenda

Creative team

Directed by: Ulu Grosbard
Written by: John Gregory Dunne
Joan Didion
Produced by: Robert Chartoff
Irwin Winkler

Similar Movies

7.7

1941

The Maltese Falcon

A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a beautiful liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

Movie

6.9

1973

Don't Look Now

While grieving a terrible loss, a married couple meet two mysterious sisters, one of whom gives them a message sent from the afterlife.

Movie

7.0

1989

Lethal Weapon 2

Riggs and Murtaugh are on the trail of South African diplomats using their immunity to engage in criminal activities.

Movie

7.9

1995

Heat

Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent Hanna pursues him without rest. Each man recognizes and respects the ability and the dedication of the other even though they are aware their cat-and-mouse game may end in violence.

Movie

6.2

1975

King of the Night

In the 1940s, São Paulo nightlife is the setting for Tezinho's love affairs. In love with Aninha, he needs to get away from the girl and ends up getting involved with other women, including an obsessive relationship with a prostitute.

Movie

7.7

1961

The Hustler

Fast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stakes match.

Movie

6.5

1976

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth, Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou, a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened.

Movie

7.2

1971

Straw Dogs

David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the small town in rural Cornwall where Amy was raised. There, David is ostracized by the brutish men of the village, including Amy's old flame, Charlie. Eventually the taunts escalate.

Movie

7.8

2001

Mulholland Drive

Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.

Movie

5.9

1983

Breathless

Jesse, a small-time criminal, high-tails it to Los Angeles to rendezvous with a French exchange student. Stealing a car and accidentally killing a highway patrolman, he becomes the most wanted fugitive in L.A.

Movie

7.0

1999

Arlington Road

Bedraggled college professor Michael Faraday has been vexed — and increasingly paranoid — since his wife's accidental death in a botched FBI operation. When a seemingly all-American couple set up house next door, Michael begins to suspect there’s more to them than meets the eye.

Movie

7.2

1991

Point Break

In Los Angeles, a gang of bank robbers who call themselves The Ex-Presidents commit their crimes while wearing masks of Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Believing that the members of the gang could be surfers, the F.B.I. sends young agent Johnny Utah to the beach undercover to mix with the surfers and gather information.

Movie

6.3

2007

Hannibal Rising

The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter – from his hard-scrabble Lithuanian childhood, where he witnesses the repulsive lengths to which hungry soldiers will go to satiate themselves, through his sojourn in France, where as a medical student he hones his appetite for the kill and learnt sword skills from his Japanese girlfriend, who happened to have similar fate

Movie

7.5

2006

Letters from Iwo Jima

The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.

Movie

7.5

1960

Bis dass das Geld euch scheidet…

Germany at the time of the economic miracle: the boorish and equally rude Jupp Grapsch has made a small fortune through his bustling activities. His wife Lisbeth, on the other hand, does not feel comfortable with this, but silently accepts the circumstances. Even when Jupp gets involved with the somewhat disreputable Nina Sonntag, an extravagant young woman, she accepts this at first. At some point, however, the situation escalates and Lisbeth slips a slap in the face, which Jupp cleverly wants to use to finally get rid of his wife by divorcing her. But Lisbeth refuses and so Jupp hires an unscrupulous man to create a reason for the separation in exchange for money...

Movie

8.1

1982

Prides

Professor Cristian conducts research on a citostatic. He is still dealing though with the unjust condemning he suffered in the 50s. Some of the people around him try to bring him down with same type of accusations.

Movie

7.2

2004

Collateral

Cab driver Max picks up a man who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.

Movie

6.9

2005

The Beat That My Heart Skipped

A ruthless real estate agent discovers a passion for piano and auditions with help from a young virtuoso, but the pressures of his corrupt career threaten to derail his musical aspirations.

Movie

7.7

1958

Touch of Evil

A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.

Movie

7.0

1971

Get Carter

Jack Carter is a small-time hood working in London. When word reaches him of his brother's death, he travels to Newcastle to attend the funeral. Refusing to accept the police report of suicide, Carter seeks out his brother’s friends and acquaintances to learn who murdered his sibling and why.

Movie

Recommended Movies

6.3

1984

Crimes of Passion

Fashion designer Joanna Crane leads a double life. By night she is China Blue, a prostitute who's attracted the attention of a sexually frustrated private detective, and a psychopathic priest in possession of a murderous sex toy.

Movie

6.0

1979

The Onion Field

An LA police officer is murdered in the onion fields outside of Bakersfield. However, legal loopholes could keep his kidnappers from receiving justice, and his partner is haunted by overwhelming survivor's guilt.

Movie

6.3

2014

A Walk Among the Tombstones

Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife.

Movie

7.4

1932

Scarface

In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.

Movie

6.7

2008

Street Kings

Tom Ludlow is a disillusioned L.A. Police Officer, rarely playing by the rules and haunted by the death of his wife. When evidence implicates him in the execution of a fellow officer, he is forced to go up against the cop culture he's been a part of his entire career, ultimately leading him to question the loyalties of everyone around him.

Movie

7.7

1996

Primal Fear

Defense attorney Martin Vail takes on jobs for money and prestige rather than any sense of the greater good. His latest case involves an altar boy, accused of brutally murdering the archbishop of Chicago. Vail finds himself up against his ex-pupil and ex-lover, but as the case progresses and the Church's dark secrets are revealed, Vail finds that what appeared a simple case takes on a darker, more dangerous aspect.

Movie

5.9

2012

Blood

When police discover a young girl brutally murdered, brothers Joe Fairburns and Chrissie Fairburns join their supervisor Robert to investigate main suspect Jason Buliegh, a local sex offender and social outcast. Forced to release Jason from police custody, the Fairburns take matters into their own hands in an attempt to coerce a confession.

Movie

7.2

1999

The Boondock Saints

Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner and Murphy are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker, an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.

Movie

6.4

2013

Gangster Squad

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara and Jerry Wooters who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.

Movie

6.8

2023

Finestkind

Two brothers from opposite sides of the tracks are reunited as adults. Desperate circumstances force them into a deal with an organized crime syndicate in Boston, and a young woman gets caught in the middle.

Movie

7.3

2007

Gone Baby Gone

When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.

Movie

8.9

1992

The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980

Following the release of Part III in 1990, Coppola, Barry Malkin, and Walter Murch edited the three films into chronological order to create this nearly ten-hour epic, incorporating scenes not part of the theatrical releases.

Movie

7.1

2012

Lawless

In 1931, the Bondurant brothers of Franklin County, Virginia, run a multipurpose backwoods establishment that hides their true business — bootlegging. Middle brother Forrest is the brain of the operation; older Howard is the brawn, and younger Jack, the lookout. Though the local police have taken bribes and left the brothers alone, a violent war erupts when a sadistic lawman from Chicago arrives and tries to shut down the Bondurants operation.

Movie

6.3

1988

Cop

An obsessive, insubordinate homicide cop is convinced a serial killer is loose in the Hollywood area and disobeys orders in order to catch him.

Movie

5.9

2018

The Padre

American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.

Movie

7.8

1997

L.A. Confidential

Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.

Movie

7.0

1992

Bad Lieutenant

While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.

Movie

6.1

1986

52 Pick-Up

Harry Mitchell is a successful Los Angeles manufacturer whose wife is running for city council. His life is turned upside down when three blackmailers confront him with a videotape of him with his young mistress and demand $100,000. Fearing that the story will hurt his wife's political campaign if he goes to the police, Harry pretends that he will pay the men, but does not follow through.

Movie

6.9

2026

The Whisper Man

When his young son vanishes, a widower enlists help from his estranged father, a retired detective who put away the serial killer now linked to the case.

Movie

6.7

1994

The Client

A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he tells Mark where the body of a Senator is buried. Clifford shoots himself and Mark is found at the scene, and both the FBI and the Mafia quickly realize that Mark probably knows more than he says.

Movie