Film

Kill the Irishman

Name: Kill the Irishman
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller, Drama
Released: 2011
Cast: Ray Stevenson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Val Kilmer, Christopher Walken, Linda Cardellini

Gangster

Kill the Irishman is a taut crime thriller about Danny Greene, a real-life Irish mobster who waged a devastating turf war against Cleveland's Italian mafia in the 1970s. It's a briskly paced film full of excellent character actors, bloody violence, and the kind of gallows humour that blooms in stories about men who are spectacularly good at the wrong thing. For fans of organised crime stories who want something grittier and less mythologised than the usual suspects.

TMDb rating

3.4

If you liked this

The Departed2006

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State of Play2009

A taut political thriller with genuine stakes and a superb cast (Crowe, McAdams, SLJ, Stern). It moves like a knife and doesn't waste your time on filler or overwrought character moments.

But It's grounded in procedural detail rather than spectacle, which can feel slow if you're chasing adrenaline. Some plot turns feel convenient in hindsight.

American Gangster2007

Ridley Scott's portrait of Frank Lucas and the heroin trade in '70s Harlem has Ray Stevenson (your lead here) in it, and it shares Kill the Irishman's controlled fury and refusal to romanticise crime.

But It's nearly three hours, and the back half sags as it splits focus between hero and cop. Denzel can overshadow the plot.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Kill the Irishman

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Miller's Crossing1990

Both are grimy love letters to real criminals operating in a specific time and place. Both trust that the appeal of a man who is good at surviving, even when that survival destroys him, doesn't need moralising. Both understand that chaos is funny.

The Coen Brothers' Prohibition-era gangster film speaks the same language as Kill the Irishman but in a completely different dialect. It's baroque, violent, darkly funny, and built like clockwork. Gabriel Byrne is mesmerising.

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The Friends of Eddie Coyle1973

A masterpiece of unglamorous crime storytelling. Robert Mitchum as a small-time Boston crook caught between survival and loyalty. Utterly unsentimental, beautifully acted, and influences everything that came after.

But It's from 1973 and feels like it—slow burns that modern audiences sometimes read as sluggish. The ending is bleak in a way that offers no catharsis.

Gangster Squad2013

A stylish 1940s LA mob film with excellent ensemble chemistry (Brolin, Stone, Gosling, Penn, Harris). It's fun without being frivolous, and the action sequences are genuinely inventive.

But Critics were unkind to it. It's lighter in tone than Kill the Irishman, which bothers some people who think crime stories must be grim.

Road to Perdition2002

Spielberg's meditation on male violence and the cost of the life. Tom Hanks and Jude Law are magnetic, and Roger Deakins' cinematography is so beautiful it makes you ache.

But It's genuinely melancholic and moves at a funeral pace. If you want thrills, this isn't it. Some see it as style over substance.

Thunderbolt1995

Jackie Chan does a rare serious dramatic role in this Hong Kong crime film. It's gritty, violent, and Chan is magnetic when he's not doing backflips. Criminally underseen in the West.

But The pacing is uneven. Some scenes drag, and the dubbing (if you watch it that way) is rough. It's not structured like a Western thriller.

Once Upon a Time in America1984

Sergio Leone's three-and-a-half hour meditation on organised crime, loyalty, and the American Dream. De Niro and Pesci are haunted and haunting. It's an epic that trusts you completely.

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Donnie Brasco1997

Pacino and Depp explore the weird intimacy that can exist between a mobster and an undercover cop. It's a character study disguised as a crime film, and it's deeply human without being sentimental.

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In Cold Blood1967

Both take real criminals and refuse to make them into movies-star versions of themselves. Both answer the question 'what does it feel like to be this person?' rather than 'what is this person's plan?' Kill the Irishman has more action, but the DNA is the same.

Richard Brooks' adaptation of Truman Capote's true-crime novel about the murders of a Kansas family. It's shot in austere black-and-white, and it's utterly devoid of sentimentality or score. Clinical. Shattering.

But It's a documentary-style portrait of two killers, and there's no one to root for. It's cold as the title suggests. Many find it depressing rather than thrilling. No heroic angles.

Gomorrah2008

Both examine the machinery of organised crime from the inside. Both understand that the real story is economic and territorial, not personal. But Gomorrah is a five-part symphony where Kill the Irishman is a one-man show.

Matteo Garrone's Neapolitan crime epic is a masterpiece of realism. It follows five interconnected stories of the Camorra and never looks away. It's brutal, beautiful, and operates on a scale most films don't attempt.

But It's in Italian. It's extremely violent in an unglamorous way. There's no protagonist to follow—the film is a system, not a story. Some find it punishing.