Top 5 – Scenes from Martin Scorsese Movies

Martin Scorsese’s career is filled with great movies, great scenes, and great characters.  When dissecting his filmography, you can’t help but be astounded by singular moments.  Here are my picks for the best scenes from Martin Scorsese movies.

This was an incredibly tough list, and you can watch each scene down below.  Also, mild spoilers if you haven’t seen these movies (which if you haven’t, do immediately).

5 – “YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?” FROM TAXI DRIVER

I mean, obviously, right?  This is one of the most iconic scenes of all-time and justly so.  This is the scene where we see that late night cab driver Travis Bickel (Robert DeNiro, in a realistic, masterful performance) has officially lost it.  The cold, quite war veteran has been driving late night cabs for night after night, gaining an obsession with a woman working in a political office and seeing the darker side of New York City.  Bickel’s mind turns a bit wild and he wants to rid the streets of evil using his own justice and this is his practice session.  We see how his guns and gadgets work and really dive into the psyche of Bickel.  It is one of the greatest improvised scenes in cinematic history and as legendary as movie scenes get.

4 – RUPERT’S ROUTINE FROM THE KING OF COMEDY

The King of Comedy is the definition of an underrated movie.  The movie got dismissed upon it’s original release because it was the follow up to Scorsese’s undeniable masterpiece, Raging Bull (1980), yet has since be hailed as one of Scorsese’s finest.  The climax to the film is one of many layers.  On the one hand, we have the ending we want.  Our main character, Rupert Pumpkin (an incredible Robert DeNiro) has finally made it on primetime television and gives the best stand up routine of his life.  On the other, the way he did it, by kidnapping the host of show, Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) and succumbing to his obsession is tragic on every level.  DeNiro knocks the schtick out of the park and it is genuinely funny and honest, and it ends with one of my favorite lines ever, “Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime.”  If you haven’t see The King of Comedy, do yourself a favor seek it out.

3 – OPENING BATTLE OF THE FIVE POINTS FROM GANGS OF NEW YORK

Scorsese is known for his realistic, bloody violence, but he never made anything like the opening fight in Gangs of New York and hasn’t since.  What an opening scene.  We are thrown into the morning of a battle between The Dead Rabbits, led by Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) and The Natives, led by the glass-eyes Bill ‘The Butcher’ Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis).  The battle is heart stopping, as we see people get stabbed, clubbed, fish-hooked, and killed left and right.  The snow-covered ground makes the immense amount of blood illuminate.  With this scene, Scorsese showed us right away that this was going to be a big, bold, brutal masterpiece.

2 – OPENING CREDITS FROM RAGING BULL

This is easily my favorite opening credit sequence of all-time.  The image of a slow-motion Robert DeNiro bouncing around in the smoke filled boxing ring to the beautifully haunting classical music, this scene sets the tone for the film and gives us just a taste of what we are going to get.  It also has a great story with it:  In 1980, legendary director Brian De Palma was finishing up his upcoming film, Blow Out, and was ecstatic about the film, proclaiming it the best he’s ever made.  He then sits in a theater and sees this credit sequence and exclaims, “Fuck!”  He then shakes his head in disappointment and says, “There’s always Scorsese.  No matter how good you think you are, there is always fucking Scorsese!”  That right there is a testament to this scene and Scorsese’s brilliance.

1 – THE COPACABANA FROM GOODFELLAS

Oh the Copa.  I could write for days on this.  I actually did when I was in college.  I wrote a seven page paper on just this two minute scene.  That’s right, seven pages for two minutes.  That’s roughly seventeen seconds per page.  Set to the sweet sounds of “Then He Kissed Me” by the Crystals, everything about this scene is perfect.  On a technical aspect, the single-take tracking shot is as iconic as it is impressive.  Everything and everyone is where it suppose to be, from the random extra in the kitchen, to the perfect lighting and camera movement.  From a story stand point, the scene represents Karen (Lorraine Bracco) entering Henry Hill’s (Ray Liotta) mafia world, as she starts in the real world and enters the blood red walls of the mob’s major hang out and get’s a front row table brought to them when the place is packed.  This is a scene I could analyze and breakdown more and more.  It is my single favorite scene not just from my favorite movie of all-time, but in any movie ever.

What are your favorite scenes from Martin Scorsese movies?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook and Youtube by searching Kevflix.