25 Best Robert De Niro Movies, Ranked
21. Awakenings (1990)
Can you wake a man who has slept for decades? Robert De Niro shows us how terrifying and beautiful that moment can be. Opposite Robin Williams, he’s never more human, never more heartbreaking.
19. The Mission (1986)
From sinner to saint, De Niro's transformation here is spiritual cinema at its most poetic. The image of him dragging his past (quite literally) up a waterfall is unforgettable. Redemption rarely looks this brutal on screen.
15. Cape Fear (1991)
Max Cady is not just a villain; he is wrath incarnate. Robert De Niro turns his body into a weapon and his mind into a prison of righteous fury. Every sneer, every whisper, every tattoo? Pure nightmare fuel about to lit up.
14. Midnight Run (1988)
This is unfiltered De Niro, the straight man with a soul, forced into absurdity. The chemistry with Charles Grodin is lightning in every frame. A buddy comedy with grit, heart, and an edge like a broken bottle.
13. Jackie Brown (1997)
Quiet, dangerous, and washed up. De Niro’s Louis is all seedy menace and stoned detachment…until he explodes. Quentin Tarantino gives him few lines, and De Niro turns silence into performance art.
10. Mean Streets (1973)
This film ignited the Martin Scorsese-Robert De Niro collaboration phenomenon. The actor’s Johnny Boy doesn’t just walk into a bar, he explodes into cinema history, red lights, Rolling Stones, and reckless energy.
9. The King of Comedy (1982)
Possibly one of the most underrated films. Robert De Niro crafts a man so desperate, so delusional, you laugh, until the laughter dies in your throat. He becomes Rupert Pupkin. Yes, the name is ridiculous. The performance? Terrifying. This is a must-watch horror movie disguised as a satire.
8. Heat (1995)
When Robert De Niro and Al Pacino sit down for coffee, time stops. One cop, one criminal, both philosophers. Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ is the noir epic of our era, and De Niro gives Neil McCauley a cold nobility that cuts like glass.
7. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
In the twilight of his career, De Niro crafts one of his darkest roles: William King Hale, a man of soft-spoken evil. It’s a performance soaked in duplicity, smiling as it twists the dagger. Chilling, and absolutely real!
5. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
As Noodles, De Niro spans decades of sin, betrayal, and regret. Sergio Leone’s magnum opus is an operatic crime epic, and De Niro is its tragic center—a man who forgets everything but guilt.
6. The Irishman (2019)
Frank Sheeran is a quiet man who did terrible things. De Niro plays him with a ghost’s sorrow, letting guilt bleed into every look. The final scene? He leaves you hollow. Just a man—alone and forgotten.
4. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
The young Vito Corleone speaks little but says everything. Robert De Niro’s performance is hauntingly restrained—a prequel within a sequel that somehow betters Marlon Brando without imitating him. He won his first Oscar, and rightly so.
1. Raging Bull (1980)
This is the peak of the mountain that is Robert De Niro’s epic career. Jake LaMotta is a man whose fists are less dangerous than his soul. De Niro gained 60 pounds, broke his body, broke our hearts, and redefined what acting could be. Every punch is poetry in ‘Raging Bull,’ and every silence, a scream.
