Almost 40 Years On, A Gangster Movie Masterpiece Is a Streaming Hit After Releasing Free

Brian De Palma has a history of jumping from genre to genre and leaving his mark on them all. He’s embraced horror via the psychological Sisters and Obsession, the musical Phantom of the Paradise, and the Stephen King adaptation Carrie. He nailed Hitchcockian thrillers with Dressed to Kill, Body Double, and, especially, Blow Out. He crafted a moving war film in Casualties of War, started a franchise with Mission: Impossible, and gave Nicolas Cage one of his most purely enjoyable cult films in Snake Eyes. But outside perhaps the erotic thriller, De Palma’s greatest contribution is to the gangster film genre.

Wise Guys may have been a swing and a miss, but Carlito’s Way and Scarface, both starring Al Pacino, are classics of the genre. But as great as Tony Montana’s rise and fall is, De Palma’s best gangster film is The Untouchables, which is currently finding more fans on Tubi, where it’s playing for free. All you need to do is watch a few ads.

What Makes The Untouchables One of De Palma’s Greatest Films & How Is It Doing on Tubi?

Granted, The Untouchables isn’t a particularly historically accurate retelling of how Eliot Ness and his crew took down Al Capone, but it’s certainly an entertaining one. Kevin Costner was a great everyman choice for the film’s version of Ness, just as Andy Garcia was a great choice for the ambitious George Stone and Charles Martin Smith couldn’t have been any better as the soft-spoken but brave Oscar Wallace. But the real highlight is Sean Connery as the seasoned Jimmy Malone, which was the 007 vet’s one and only Academy Award win (he was also nominated for his work as a producer on The Longest Day 25 years prior).

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The Untouchables is also a film where all the technical elements lined up. David Mamet’s script is one of his best, the music by Ennio Morricone is iconic, the set design sublimely captures the film’s 1930s setting, and De Palma’s direction is airtight. It also comes equipped with a few action and chase sequences that keep you on the edge of the seat, most notably Ness’ pursuit of Billy Drago’s Frank Nitti across rooftops and the famous Union Station baby carriage slow-motion scene.

The only film beating The Untouchables on Tubi’s Top 10 at the moment is A Mother’s Confession, one of the streamer’s originals. Following De Palma’s film are the more comedic The Heat, the similarly serious crime movies Four Brothers and Triple Nine, John Woo’s war film Windtalkers, the John Travolta classic Grease, the box office bomb (with a growing cult fanbase) Gods of Egypt, the original Road House, and the festive Jingle All the Way.

If you’re looking for more gangster or crime movie antics after The Untouchables, give King of New York, Hoodlum, The Iceman, and Donnie Brasco a shot, as they all are also streaming for free on Tubi. Not to mention, so is De Palma’s Carlito’s Way.

Will you be giving The Untouchables a shot on movie night? Let us know in the comments.