Top 10 Martin Scorsese Films

We guarantee that Martin Scorsese has either directed, written or produced a lot of the best movies you’ve seen in the past four decades. Check out his accolades: His movies have won over 70 awards and earned 50 nominations from the Oscars and Golden Globes combined. So, to narrow that selection down to a list of the top 10 Martin Scorsese films was a challenge, but that’s why we’re here.

Our top 10 Martin Scorsese film picks have had an impact on pop culture and have been critical and commercial successes. You may find Scorsese movies that are more controversial (The Last Temptation of Christ), more critically acclaimed (No Direction Home) or more paranoid (After Hours) than the 10 on our list. However, strong characters, memorable dialogue and unforgettable scenes made these Martin Scorsese films stand above the rest. Find out which reels made the final cut.

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – 1974

A Martin Scorsese flick with a female lead? Believe it. Ellen Burstyn plays Alice, a widowed mother who chases her dream of being a singer. After a few bad lounge stints and a nasty relationship with a man (played by Harvey Keitel), Alice finds a job as a waitress in a diner. She’s awful at first, but she gets the hang of it and starts to build a life.

Scorsese said he directed it to show he could direct more than just male actors. And he was right. Ellen Burstyn won an Academy Award for her performance. The movie even became the inspiration for Alice, a TV series that ran for 11 years based on the diner where the character worked. What makes this great is Scorsese’s reminder that a strong woman can prove herself without being a brash, bra-wielding feminist about it.

The King of Comedy – 1983

This is one of Robert De Niro’s most disturbing performances. He plays Rupert Pupkin, a wannabe comic desperate to break into showbiz. With no talent to get there, Rupert kidnaps a Johnny Carson character (played by Jerry Lewis), with the help of his one friend, an obsessive woman (played by Sandra Bernhard). The ransom: Allow Rupert to perform on Jerry’s show.

De Niro’s portrayal of a clueless schlep is so good it’s painful to watch. One minute he’s sympathetic and funny, the next he’s pathetic and whiny. Some say the movie bombed in theaters because it was too angry for a big audience. Even Martin Scorsese admitted it made for an “unsettling” experience. However, it’s thanks to Scorsese’s unhinged characters and his strong satire of celebrity culture that The King of Comedy has settled in as one of his best.

Mean Streets – 1973

Once again, Robert De Niro plays a psycho, this time with authority. His character, Johnny Boy, is part of a small group of crooks in New York City’s Little Italy. Their leader, Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is Catholic and filled with guilt about everything: His shady dealings, his attraction to a black woman and his recurring need to stick up for a disrespectful Johnny Boy. When Johnny Boy completely loses the plot, Charlie has to decide whether to risk his own life to help him.

This was the first project that Scorsese both wrote and directed. His style shines through in the closeups, the rock soundtrack and the glimpses that he offers into characters’ everyday lives. However, De Niro’s Scorsese-guided performance really steals it all. He’s so convincing as a nut job that you never know what’s coming. Even studio execs thought De Niro had been cast straight out of a mental hospital. He was clearheaded, but Meet the Fockers could suggest he’s due for an examination.

Gangs of New York – 2002

This Martin Scorsese film portrays the rivalry between natives and newly arrived Irish immigrants in New York’s Five Points neighborhood in 1846. Daniel Day Lewis plays Bill the Butcher, the natives’ leader, and Liam Neeson plays the Irish leader, Priest Vallon. After Bill kills Vallon, Vallon’s son, Amsterdam (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), goes into hiding, only to reemerge 16 years later to avenge his father’s death.

Scorsese had this movie idea for 30 years and he wanted to do a lot with it. Yet, although he was reaching for lofty ideas in this epic, it was Scorsese’s solid character development that makes Gangs of New York one of his best. Day Lewis is great as Bill, a ruthless killer (who would find a remarkable character echo in There Will Be Blood) and DiCaprio is solid as his sworn enemy.

Casino – 1995

By 1995, Joe Pesci had already won an Oscar by playing a psycho (in 1991’s Goodfellas). Here, he tried again in taking on the role of mafia enforcer Nicky Santoro. He’s buddied up with Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a gambling bookmaker hired by the mob to run operations at a Vegas casino. Sam is married to Ginger (Sharon Stone), an ex-prostitute addicted to coke, jewelry and men. Things unravel as the FBI closes in and Ginger’s habits and Nicky’s nuttiness get worse.

Casino is considered one of the most foul-mouthed movies of all time. De Niro is solid in his role as a responsible bookmaker and Sharon Stone is great as the self-involved Ginger. The highlight of this Martin Scorsese film really is Nicky’s craziness. Pesci didn’t win an Oscar for it, but he set a new bar for psychos everywhere in making us wonder: Why use a gun when you can use a vise?

The Aviator – 2004

Scorsese followed his Gangs epic with yet another one. The difference: This one flies. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Howard Hughes, a billionaire eccentric obsessed with flying and his own phobias. Hughes had tons of personae — ladies man, filmmaker, inventor, pilot, and a mysophobe (someone who’s afraid of germs and dirt) — and Martin Scorsese successfully had DiCaprio inhabit each of them.

DiCaprio slips into each persona as comfortably as Hughes slipped into his tissue-box slippers. Cate Blanchett also does an incredible job as Katherine Hepburn. A highlight in this Martin Scorese film is the sequence showing Hughes leaving his self-imposed quarantine to eviscerate a senator at a government hearing. He’s half-crippled by phobias, but refuses to crash and burn.

The Departed – 2006

Martin Scorsese won his first Oscar for Best Achievement in Directing for his efforts on The Departed. Many said he deserved it much earlier, and while that may be the case, he certainly merited such recognition for this film. A loose remake of the Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs, The Departed follows two South Boston cops working undercover on opposite sides of the law. DiCaprio plays a good cop working undercover in the Irish mafia, while Matt Damon plays a bad cop working as a mole for the Irish mafia. The story follows their attempts to root each other out.

A cast supported by Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, and Mark Wahlberg was enough to draw people in, and their strong performances kept them coming back. The other big reason for The Departed’s success? Jack. Back with a vengeance as a South Boston crime lord, Jack Nicholson assumed the role of evil incarnate. Whether he was snorting mountains of coke, spitting racist comments or spitting on himself, Jack tipped the scales to make Martin Scorsese’s picture a heavyweight.

Taxi Driver – 1976

You’ve heard it, you’ve said it, but hopefully you haven’t mouthed the words in front of the mirror: “You talkin’ to me?!” It’s become the ultimate Scorsese line, and it captures exactly what his films are all about: attitude, intensity and bravado, all served with a heaping of craziness.

Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a deranged New York City cab driver. After getting nowhere with human relationships, Bickle’s psychosis builds until it culminates into violence. De Niro’s performance was so genuine it’s almost disturbing to watch. Taxi Driver won the Palme D’or at Cannes, saw great box office results and, most infamously, was the inspiration for John Hinckley Jr.’s 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan. More than just a Martin Scorsese film classic, this is an overall cinema classic.

GoodFellas – 1990

Want to know how the mafia makes money, steals money and cuts garlic for spaghetti sauce? Welcome to Mob 101, aka Goodfellas. The movie some consider to be the best mob film of all time, this story follows Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) as he moves his way up the mob ranks. Eventually, the FBI close in and things go south.

In Goodfellas, De Niro and Pesci team up once again. However, it’s Pesci who steals the show as Tommy Devito, a complete nut job with a fuse shorter than Dr. Phil’s hair. One minute he’s making fun of a dim-witted guy at a card game, the next he’s shooting him in the foot — a performance so loony tune the Academy gave him an Oscar for it.

Raging Bull – 1980

It should be noted that Martin Scorsese didn’t want to make this movie. He was busy dying from a coke habit big enough to support half the dealers in NYC. De Niro insisted and Scorsese agreed. Perhaps as an emblem of his gratitude, De Niro took his role in Raging Bull very seriously, putting on an extra 60 pounds to become Jake LaMotta.

Shooting the film in black and white didn’t stop Scorsese from using tons of tricks to reproduce LaMotta’s boxing era. Yet Raging Bull’s greatness resides in the characters and their portrayals, and De Niro breaks the bank. His depiction of LaMotta as a violent hunk of meat is brilliant. He even provoked an authentic reaction from Joe Pesci (who played LaMotta’s brother) by asking him, “Did you f*ck my mother?” instead of the real line, “Did you f*ck my wife?” Small touches like this accumulated to make Raging Bull a film worthy of permanent display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and well placed at the No. 1 spot on this list.

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