Robert De Niro Didn’t Need To Play Both Lead Roles In The Alto Knights & These 5 Actors Would’ve Been Great Co-Stars

Robert De Niro’s new gangster movie The Alto Knights is garnering attention specifically for the actor’s double role as both of its protagonists. The film stars De Niro as two crime bosses, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, very often talking to each other in the same shot. While it’s skilfully directed by Barry Levinson and the technical team behind him, it’s hard not to feel that those involved in the project have gone out of their way to cast De Niro twice, a move that comes across as a cinematic gimmick that detracts from other aspects of the movie.

Indeed, The Alto Knights‘s Rotten Tomatoes score shows it has divided critics and audiences, receiving mixed reviews precisely for the unnecessary effort it exerts cloning Robert De Niro into several scenes. As many critics have noted, surely there are other actors of comparable experience and acting chops who could have taken one of these two lead roles of De Niro’s hands. He may be one of the crime genre’s greatest-ever actors, but plenty of candidates are available who would have offered a more compelling matchup when it came to casting The Alto Knights than De Niro talking to himself.

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5

Armand Assante

As Vito Genovese

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Armand Assante has quite the crime genre résumé, having become a mob boss specialist following his Golden Globe-nominated portrayal of Puerto Rican drug kingpin Bobby Tex in the 1990 movie Q & A. His two most celebrated performances are the title role of John Gotti in HBO’s 1996 TV movie Gotti, which won him an Emmy Award, and his depiction of Dominic Gattano in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster alongside Denzel Washington.

In 1992, Armand Assante starred as Carl “Dally” D’Allesandro in the crime biopic Hoffa, which covers similar ground to Martin Scorsese’s Robert De Niro movie The Irishman, but from the perspective of union boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Having spent the past 18 years since the latter role acting in low-budget flicks and movies made outside of the United States, Assante appears to be out of favor in Hollywood, with most studios likely of the opinion that his best days are behind him. But he has six years on Robert De Niro, and his acclaimed work portraying some of New York’s most notorious crime bosses suggests that he’d make a more than convincing Vito Genovese.

4

David Proval

As Frank Costello

Robert De Niro and David Proval go way back, having both starred in Martin Scorsese’s early masterpiece Mean Streets at the start of their careers. Since then, their careers have taken very different trajectories, but both have circled back to their starting points in the crime genre. It took Proval a little longer to get there than De Niro, but his underrated performance as Richie Aprile from The Sopranos demonstrates that playing a gangster is what he does best.

Besides this role, Proval has had a distinguished career in both film and television, with parts in The Shawshank Redemption and Everybody Loves Raymond among the highlights. Proval’s most recent role was as a mob boss in Cameron Van Hoy’s 2021 crime thriller Flinch, proving that he’s still got the chops to go toe-to-toe with the likes of his old costar De Niro. Proval’s hard-talking, tough-guy persona would make the perfect Frank Costello to De Niro’s more softly-spoken Vito Genovese.

3

Harvey Keitel

As Vito Genovese

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Harvey Keitel is another Mean Streets cast member who would have excelled in a head-to-head with Robert De Niro in The Alto Knights. Of course, Keitel needs no introduction. His work opposite De Niro both in Martin Scorsese’s 1973 crime classic and in arguably Scorsese’s best movie of all, Taxi Driver, would be enough to qualify him for a lead role in Levinson’s new movie on its own. Throw in Keitel’s roles in The Irishman and Brian De Palma’s Wiseguys, and he’s perhaps overqualified if anything.

Although he’s now 85 years old, Harvey Keitel is still as productive as ever, acting one action movie after another, with three more currently in the pipeline. He likely would have jumped at the chance to act opposite his old friend De Niro again, and his physical likeness to Vito Genovese would have meant The Alto Knights makeup department could have saved some of their prosthetics budget.

2

Andy Garcia

As Vito Genovese

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In the space of three years, via two of the best crime movies at the end of the 1980s, Andy Garcia went from a bit-part actor to one of the foremost stars of the crime genre. While he’s generally avoided being typecast since his roles in The Untouchables and The Godfather Part III, he’s still primed and ready to play a mobster whenever called upon, as his roles in 2014’s Rob the Mob, Clint Eastwood’s 2018 crime movie The Mule, and recent Paramount+ drama series Landman demonstrate.

Although he’s actually of Cuban descent, Andy Garcia has played Italian or Italian-American characters on eight different occasions throughout his career.

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Garcia is one of the few actors out there today from a younger generation than De Niro’s who could match the actor’s intimidating onscreen presence while he’s playing a mafioso. As with Keitel, a pair of Vito Genovese’s signature spectacles and Andy Garcia would be an excellent likeness for the real-life mafia don.

1

Al Pacino

As Frank Costello Or Vito Genovese

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Thanks to Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, we’ve now seen New Hollywood’s two most legendary actors, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, face off in two different movies. Pacino and De Niro’s first onscreen meeting in Heat had acquired an almost mythical status by the time Frank Sheeran met Jimmy Hoffa in Scorsese’s slow-burning Netflix crime epic. The Alto Knights could have given us one last chance to see these titans of Italian-American cinema go head-to-head.

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De Niro and Pacino are even closer in age than Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, and both actors are equipped to play virtually any mobster role put in front of them, ranging from their respective parts in the Godfather trilogy to De Niro’s comic turn in Analyze This, and Pacino’s equally left-field portrayal “Big Boy Caprice” in Dick Tracy. These two cinema legends could be left to sort out who would play whom in The Alto Knights amongst themselves, with Pacino a near-perfect fit for either Costello or Genovese.

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The Alto Knights

R

Crime

Drama

5/10

See more : 10 Best Fantasy Movie Performances Of All Time

Release Date

April 21, 2025

Runtime

120 Minutes

Director

Barry Levinson

Writers

Nicholas Pileggi

Producers

Irwin Winkler, Jason Sosnoff, Charles Winkler, David Winkler, Mike Drake, Barry Levinson

Cast

See All

• 

  Robert De Niro

  Vito Genovese / Frank Costello

• 

  Debra Messing

  Bobbie Costello

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Source: https://dinhtienhoang.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment