Top 5 – Martin Scorsese Movies

For me, Martin Scorsese is the greatest director to ever live.  Since bursting on to the scene with 1973’s Mean Streets, Scorsese has shown time and time again his greatness.  He has taken us on a number of different journey’s, from the dirty night life of New York cabbie, to going deep into the mafia, to insane asylums.  He’s given us gangster films, biopics, thrillers, musicals, religious epics, documentaries, and even a family film.  So in honor of his latest masterpiece, The Irishman, which drops on Netflix tomorrow (my review here), here are my picks for the best Martin Scorsese movies.

This was an incredibly hard list and legitimately changes weekly.  But here my five at the current moment.

5 – THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013)

• The Wolf of Wall Street was a return to old Scorsese.  After winning an Oscar for The Departed (2006), Scorsese dove into more genre-heavy films with the thriller Shutter Island (2010) and his family fantasy, Hugo (2011).  The Wolf of Wall Street is a sex filled, drug fueled epic.  At just under three hours in run time, this is a relentless tale of debauchery, greed, and excess, and shows us the life of one of the most despicable characters in any Scorsese film, Jordan Belfort, played with an unmatched energy and force by Leonardo DiCaprio.  You can’t help but be in complete awe when watching this film.

4 – THE KING OF COMEDY (1982)

• Scorsese’s follow-up to his juggernaut Raging Bull (more on this one later) was a quieter, weirder look at one man’s obsession with becoming a comedian. Robert De Niro stars as Rupert Pupkin, a passionate yet unsuccessful comic who craves nothing more than to be in the spotlight.  In order to achieve this, he stalks and kidnaps his idol (a marvelous Jerry Lewis) to take the spotlight for himself.  This is De Niro’s most underrated performance to date.  He portrays Rupert as a sort of swindler who only wants to be famous.  But it’s the hidden sadness of Rupert that really drives the film, which makes its finale both triumphant and scary.  Scorsese handles this movie with delicacy, making a darkly funny film about obsession and fame.

3 – GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002)

• Easily the most controversial pick on my list, Gangs of New York is rarely regarded as a Scorsese all-timer, which blows my mind.  This was a Scorsese passion project, and you can see it from the very first frame.  This is a wildly ambitious, beautifully made, bloody look at gangs in 1800’s New York.  This marked the debut teaming of Scorsese and DiCaprio, but that easily get’s overlooked due to the masterful performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill ‘The Butcher’ Cutting, which is one of the best performances of this millennium.  The main reason this lands at number three on the list is because this was my introduction to Scorsese and warped my mind in such a way, it started my obsession and love for movies, which ultimately led to what I do now with Kevflix.  I love this movie and think it is truly one of Scorsese’s greats.

2 – RAGING BULL (1980)

• Raging Bull is one of the finest films ever made.  From the acting, to Scorsese’s direction, to the editing, the beautiful cinematography, the sound, everything about this movie is the epitome of greatness.  This is a powerful look at boxer Jake LaMotta (Robert DeNiro), a tough, heavy hitting champion who is the best in the ring, yet his insecurities ruin his life outside of it.  The boxing scenes are unlike any in cinematic history and have yet to be touched.  Raging Bull also has the honor of having the greatest performance I have ever seen on screen from DeNiro.  It is an emotional, committed, strong performance and definition of method acting.  You love and hate LaMotta and can’t take your eyes off of him, and that is all because of DeNiro’s portrayal.  This is a true cinematic classic.

1 – GOODFELLAS (1990)

• Goodfellas is a culmination of everything Scorsese.  All of his acclaimed work before this, from Mean Streets to The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), all led up to this masterpiece.  Everything Scorsese knew about filmmaking and life he put into this movie.  It perfectly captures the life of gangster Henry Hill (a never better Ray Liotta) as he lives three decades in the mob.  It’s darkly funny, wildly scary, and always compelling.  Aesthetically, this is more than just a movie, it is true art, featuring iconic scenes and brilliant techniques, particularly the infamous Copacabana tracking shot which, for my money, is the greatest scene ever put in any movie because of it’s technical mastery and symbolism in the movie.  Goodfellas is my personal favorite movie of all-time and a movie I watch all the time, which lands it at the top spot on this list..

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