The Ten Best Martin Scorsese Films

This month, “Shutter Island,” the latest addition to the Scorsese ouevre, will be released in theaters. Here is the trailer:

As you can see, the movie looks… totally bad-ass. So in gearing up for the premiere, I thought I’d run through my list of the Top Ten Scorsese Movies. For the record, I didn’t include any short films (like his awesome installment in “New York Stories”) or documentaries/music videos (“The Last Waltz” is one of the coolest music docs ever). Here’s the definitive (aka — my personal) list.

10. The King Of Comedy

This is is an oft-overlooked gem in the Scorsese (as well as the De Niro) catalogue. This dark comedy depicts the cringe-worthy quest of Rupert Pupkin (De Niro), a thirty-something aspiring comedian who lives with his mother, who embarks on a journey to perform on Jerry Langford’s (played by Jerry Lewis) late-night talk show. As his tapes get rejected, he receives lip-service from the executive assistants at the show, and his dream seems to be withering before his eyes, Rupert teams up with the obsessive Langford fan Masha (Sandra Bernhardt), to kidnap Langford, the ransom being letting Rupert perform his routine before a national audience.

Scorsese uses a masterful interweaving of Rupert’s fantasies and harsh reality, until Rupert’s absurd actions begin to become fantastical themselves… with the hope that reality begins to bend to his desires. Will it work out? Watch the film and find out.

Here’s a clip from early in the film in which Rupert fantasizes about his future fame in his Mom’s basement.

9. The Departed

Wait, the only Scorsese film to win an Oscar for Best Picture is 9th on my list? Yep. Don’t get me wrong, the film was awesome and fun to watch (as are several Scorsese films that didn’t even make the list), and yet, the film seems to lack the same cohesive vision shared by the Scorsese masterworks. At times, it seems sometimes that The Departed is weighed down by the number of stars in the cast. Not that their performances aren’t terrific, but the most memorable films seem to be those where Scorsese himself is the star. This studio-financed film seems to have so many funny “lines” that have been added to suit the stars’ presence in the story that it kind of makes for a meandering, inconsistent (albeit fun) ride. I heard the first cut of the film was about 4 hours long at that several story-lines had to be cut in the editing room, and I think that shows, as the plot, which relies on a huge number of reversals, seems to suffer from a lack of the setting up of the surprises, as one by one people die, cops and criminals alike, in a tragic web of moral ambiguity.

Though overrated, the film is still excellent. The stars are great, fun to watch, and there are lots of funny lines, and complex plot of the film has a tragic quality, almost nihilistic, as the sides of the law become so blurred that you realize nobody is really good or evil. The last man righteous man standing (I won’t give away who), even he must lose his identity (and job), and engage in a crime himself, in order to deliver final justice.

8. Gangs of New York

I admit, I’m a sucker for historical epics, especially when Scorsese’s at the helm and a ga-zillion dollars are invested in the project. “Gangs of New York” was, I think, underrated due to the fact that some balked at Leonardo Di Caprio and Cameron Diaz being the leads of a Scorsese film (by now, Di Caprio is a staple of every Scorsese film, and Diaz was forced on him by the studio over Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sarah Polley), and due to the somewhat unsatisfying quasi-deus-ex-machina ending (which I won’t give away right now) to the three-hour epic.

However, the film is incredibly cinematic, looks fantastic, is bloody, gory, and tough. It also contains an terrifying performance by Daniel Day-Lewis (who should have won an Oscar), as the scary-as-Hades gang boss Bill “the Butcher,” who wages war against Irish immigrants in favor of “real” American New Yorkers (even though Bill himself is the descendant of Irish immigrants). DiCaprio is good as Amsterdam Vallon, who’s father was killed by Bill in a knife-fight when he was a child, as he returns to the city to exact his revenge. Yet as Amsterdam infiltrates Bill’s gang (Bill has risen to some prominence in New York society by now), he comes to both fear and even respect Bill, and we’re unsure when he will act, and how. This may be a bit of a spoiler from about halfway through the film, but when Amsterdam decides to act, things don’t quite work out as planned:

7. The Aviator

In general, I was not a huge fan of biopics before I saw this: As a film buff, I felt that the necessary adhesion to “real events” sometimes makes the director have to alter from a crisp sequence that would normally be present in a fictionalized account of a similar person. For instance, “Citizen Kane” was not about William Randolph Hearst exactly, but a fictional man nearly identical to him. However, Scorsese’s biopic of Howard Hughes made me realize that a biopic can still blow you the f--k away. Though it lost out to “Million Dollar Baby,” I thought “The Aviator” provided the best film of 2004. In it, we see Hughes’  production of the most expensive movie ever for the times “Hell’s Angels,” his development of TWA airlines, taking on the giant monopolistic PAN-AM and the U.S. Senate, womanizing his way through the most beautiful starlets of Hollywood, yet “The Aviator” remains, at its core, a character study of one of the most eccentric billionaires in history. A man who reached the heights of success and fame, yet ultimately unraveled due to paranoia, germaphobia, and neurotic psychosis.

The incredible direction, costumes, music, and performances (Cate Blanchett won the Oscar for her portrayal of Catherine Hepburn, and there are terrific turns by John C. Reilly, Kate Beckinsdale, Alan Alda, and Alec Baldwin, as well as Di Caprio) make this a film a feast for the eyes, even if the events are seen through the eyes of a mentally disturbed person.

Here’s the incredible plane-crash-scene halfway through the movie.

6. Casino

Aka, “Goodfellas in Vegas” this is the second Nicolas Pileggi-Scorsese ( and third De Niro-Pesci) collaboration, after the success of “Goodfellas.” Casino is the real-life story of the Midwestern mob figures who made Vegas into what it was in the 70’s and 80’s. De Niro plays Sam “Ace” Rothstein, who is the world’s greatest handicapper and gambler. “Ace” is put in charge of the Tangiers Casino, owned by the St. Louis mob. Ace takes the helm, and things go great, until he marries a hustler named Ginger (Sharon Stone) who’s still hung up on her sleazy ex (James Woods), and his mobster friend Mickey Santoro (Joe Pesci) comes out to the Vegas sun for a piece of the action.

The three-hour epic is tied together by an incredible score of 60s and 70’s classic rock, so the long running time doesn’t feel like three hours. Even so, it’s terrific to watch. The costumes, the Vegas scenery, Don Rickles’ cameo… all fantastic. Take a look at this otherwise simple scene, and how Scorsese directs it to perfection. The pacing, the anticipation, the visuals, and the acting, all show us why a Scorsese-directed scene is just that much better than that by the average Hollywood director.

5. Mean Streets

“You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.”

This small independent film about a group of 4 small-time downtown Little Italy hoods is the film that put the 31-year-old Scorsese on the map. Both co-written and directed by Scorsese, this is the first film to really have that “Scorsese stamp” — rock songs set to a slow-motion camera, Italian-American traditions, culture, and songs, home-movie documentary-esque footage, loads of dark, sarcastic comedy, a main character with a Jesus complex, tough, dramatic moments between friends, and a virtuoso performance by a young De Niro.

Made in 1973, Mean Streets features the trials and tribulations of Charlie (played by Harvey Keitel), a small-time hood who makes collections for his Uncle, a local wealthy mob figure in the community. However, Charlie is probably too nice to really succeed. His friends Tony (David Proval — aka Richie Aprile from The Sopranos) and Michael (Richard Romano) run a local bar (mostly Tony) and make deals int he local community (Michael), but Charlie has problems: namely his borderline-psychotic best friend Johnny Boy, played by Robert De Niro, as well as his epileptic girlfriend Teresa (Amy Robinson), who his rich Uncle disapproves of as “sick in the head.”

As Charlie tries to please everyone in his life, he’s constantly caught in between friends and family,  and his believing that he has the ability to make all things right for all people ultimately leads to the dramatic yet seemingly inevitable violent ending.

Here’s a hilarious scene in which Johnny Boy, in typical Johnny-Boy fashion, makes a calm situation descend into chaos and violence, completely unnecessarily.

4. After Hours

“After Hours” in another overlooked Scorsese masterpiece, perhaps due to the fact that it is a low-budget, small movie that Scorsese made in the mid-eighties, and the fact that it’s the closest thing to a “pure” comedy that Scorsese’s made. However, it did win for Best Director at the Cannes Film festival that year. And you know what? It’s friggin’ hystercial. Though Scorsese’s not know for comedies, this film is much funnier than what passes for most “comedy” these days. Written by Columbia screenwriting student Joseph Minion, Scorsese came on to direct when the studios initially backed out of his big budget “Last Temptation of Christ.”

The film stars Griffin Dunne as Paul, a sex-starved uptown yuppie, who meets a troubled yet beautiful young woman Marcie (Rosanna Arquette), who invites him downtown for a late-night date in Soho, the land of artists, punk-rockers, and insane people. When the date goes terribly, terribly awry, Paul is stranded in the absurd world of Soho, and soon finds himself public enemy number one, with an angry mob of artists, homosexuals, and strange women chasing him, demanding blood. The plot, as Scorsese said, is “like a Rubik’s cube,” and the comedy is clever, hysterical,  farcical, and at times, disturbing. Though it has no A-list stars, there’s a long list of comedically-gifted character actors to round out the cast: Linda Fiorentino, Terri Garr, John Heard, Catherine O’Hara, Bronson Pinchot, and, yes, a cameo by Cheech & Chong as hapless stoner thieves.

3. Raging Bull

Raging Bull is yet another Best Picture runner-up from Scorsese, having lost out to Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” in 1980. And yet, it was later rated as the best movie of the 80’s in a more recent poll. At least Robert De Niro won an Oscar for his performance as Jake La Motta, in one of the most virtuoso performances of all time. According to acting legend, De Niro went through extensive training (he also was the original one to find the book, and spent 4 years pushing Scorsese and others to get it made), actually fought in some three local Brooklyn boxing matches, of which he won two. After the fight scenes (which took 6 weeks to shoot, even though they only make up about 10 minutes in the film)  and the early scenes, the crew took 13 months off so De Niro could gain some sixty pounds, to portray the later Jake La Motta.

The story follows the life of the fighter Jake La Motta, a man who’s violent temperament was an asset  in the ring, yet destructive in his personal life. Another classic neo-realist rise and fall story from Scorsese, another (the first) De Niro-Pesci collaboration, and another classic. The film also features the film debut by Cathy Moriarty, playing De Niro’s wife Vicki. Here’s two classic shots from the film, which was shot in beautiful black & white, and put to the music of Italian composer Pietro Mascagi.

2. Taxi Driver

1976 was a fantastic year for movies. It was the year of “Rocky,” “All The President’s Men,” “Network,” and Taxi Driver, a nightmare depiction of 70’s New York as a decaying metropolis, seen through the eyes of a troubled Vietnam Vet who works nights as a Taxi Driver. De Niro plays Travis Bickle, the man who witnesses the sleaze of the decadent city as its worst, as the urge to lash out violently builds in a slow boil throughout the film. During the course of the film, Travis attempts to rescue a teenaged prostitute Iris (a young Jodie Foster ) from a sleazy pimp (Harvey Keitel), while he also tries to romance Betsy (Cybil Shepherd), a campaign worker for the handsome Senate candidate Charles Palantine, whose slogan is “Let The People Rule.” When Travis’ attempts to right the fallen world  go wrong, he unravels, and his rage builds to a bloody, violent conclusion. Impressionist camerawork and Bernard Hermann’s (of Hitchcock fame… notably “Psycho”) final score of his life makes  Travis’ world terrifying yet exhilarating, where things are bad, horrible even, yet you can’t look away.

Quentin Tarantino called this one of his top 5 films of all time, and it ain’t hard to see why. Here’s his comments on the film, as well as a famous scene from this classic.

1. Goodfellas

Goodfellas is an absolute masterpiece. An alternate title could be: “Everything you wanted to know (and probably more) on how to be a mobster, and how the mafia works.” This 1990 film, like Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Aviator, was a runner-up for Oscar, yet I think by now we can all agree it has more staying power than “Dances with Wolves.” Goodfellas has all the hallmarks of a Scorsese film and then some. Based on the book by Nicolas Pileggi (who also wrote “Casino”), the film portrays the rise and fall of real-life mobster Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, who admits in the opening frame that “all I ever wanted to do was be was a gangster.” Showing his rise in the Italian mob in the Queens area of New York, the film is the closest thing to a precursor to the greatest TV show of all time, The Sopranos. Yet as Henry achieves the success, prestige, and respect he’s always coveted ever since he was a boy, the party doesn’t last for long, as greed, anger, and recklessness leads to his and his entire crew’s downfall, including his buddies Jimmy Conaway (De Niro), Tommy (Joe Pesci), and boss Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino).

There are tons of memorable moments, dramatic, comedic, and cinematic. Here’s both the classic “Funny how?” bit as well as perhaps the most famous long-take steadi-cam shot in film history, as Henry takes his future wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco) on their first date. We see the glamorous mobster world through her eyes, as he takes her through the kitchen of the Copa Cabana and is given a prime seat for a show by Henny Youngman. And of course, I haven’t even included the opening “explosion” shot of Henry as a kid, as well as a Rolling-Stones-scored “day from hell” montage in the second part of the film. Just go rent it if you haven’t yet. Or tune into the “Spike” channel… I think they play this film every three days or so.