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November 29, 2011
Ranked: Martin Scorsese Films from Worst to Best
We reassess the entire filmography of America's greatest living director.
by Rick Paulas
Martin Scorsese is America's greatest film nerd. While mob stories have been his bread-and-butter, he's dabbled in nearly every genre around, filling his work with nods to film history while bringing his own unique bent to the proceedings. He ventures into a new era with Hugo, his first children's movie and the first time he's utilized 3-D technology. In honor of this, his twenty-second feature, it's time to rank the lot.
22. Boxcar Bertha (1972)
Following a move to L.A., Scorsese was having trouble finding work until this Roger Corman exploitation flick landed in his lap. The film isn't terrible from a technical standpoint, but instead suffers a greater sin: mediocrity. This is Scorsese's only true paycheck movie.
21. New York, New York (1977)
His genius evident from his early trifecta of Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and Taxi Driver, Scorsese had a blank canvas to put together any project he wanted. He went with a musical. Starring Liza Minnelli. That's two-and-a-half-fucking-hours long.
20. Kundun (1997)
This biopic focusing on the upbringing of the Dalai Lama is all well and good — you certainly can't fault Scorsese for delving into the subject with passion — but there's no electricity on display. He may actually respect his subject matter too much.
19. Shutter Island (2010)
While the first half is one of the most taut hours in horror since the opening portion of 2003's High Tension, the "shocking twist" not only makes you recontextualize everything that came before (to the movie's detriment), but is, even worse, completely predictable.
18. Who's That Knocking On My Door? (1967)
A debut film ripped straight from the director's heart. Shot, re-shot, re-structured, and re-edited over years, all on a budget barely approaching Frank Vincent's mustache-wax fee in Goodfellas, Who's That features most of Scorsese's eventual thematic obsessions: Catholic guilt, Little Italy, the lure of blondes. Problem is, he does it better later. This is a rough draft for the rest of his career.
17. The Color of Money (1986)
No self-respecting film geek is going to turn down the opportunity to direct Paul Newman as he reprises the role of "Fast Eddie" Felson from the 1961 classic The Hustler. But while Scorsese delivers a handful of virtuoso sequences — his camerawork was made for the motions of the pool table — much of it feels like he's stuck rubbing another man's rhubarb.
16. The Age of Innocence (1993)
Getting sick of mobsters, Scorsese went as far in the other direction as possible with this tale of a doomed love affair in upper-crust, gowns-and-horses 1870s New York. The results are uneven, but evidence that Scorsese can show restraint when necessary.
15. Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
You can't say this fourth collaboration between Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader isn't bold. In the three nights they follow New York City paramedic (Nicolas Cage, in the thick of his Serious Oscar-Nominated Leading Man period), they try to tackle religion, the inherent violence of man, and the meaning of life itself. While only a few of those hits manage to land, the resulting work is still compelling.
14. Gangs of New York (2002)
Few characters in cinematic history are more badass than Daniel Day-Lewis's Bill the Butcher. (He's perhaps only outshined by Daniel Day-Lewis's Daniel Plainview.) But the rest of the movie is a bit of a hodge-podge of plotlines, Leonardo DiCaprio trying to act tough, and Cameron Diaz playing dress up.
13. Cape Fear (1991)
There are so many issues with this movie. Robert De Niro's so over the top that Al Pacino would tell him to take a chill pill. The camera never stays still long enough to build any sustainable suspense. And the subsequent parody on The Simpsons makes fewer leaps of logic. But if this happens to stroll through your late-night-cable viewing session, just try to turn it off.
12. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Taking a break from the strong male leads that dominate the rest of his career, Scorsese focuses on telling the woman's side of the story this time out. In doing so, he gives Ellen Burstyn the greatest role of her career. All the normal Scorsese camera flourishes are shelved, allowing the humanity of the characters to take center-stage.
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Martin Scorsese
Commentarium (39 Comments)
'bringing out the dead' is a very underrated movie n if u havent seen it, check it out.
Hugo provided the best movie theater experience I've had in long time. As far as the 3-D effect goes, I preferred it to Avatar.
"much of it feels like he's stuck rubbing another man's rhubarb"
WTF??? Mongo no understand
hand job?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FBQetJqAwk
Not much to complain about here expect that you've vastly overrated "Casino." It's pretty tedious. And I know it's just a movie, but Ston'es character was so obviously poisonous that DeNiro's infatuation with her is really hard to take.
I was so sure I'd see Raging Bull at number one. I can't tell you how pleased I was not to. I disagree with you about The Departed (better than it's placement) and Casino (worse than it's placement), but points awarded for a refreshing ranking of Scorsese films.
Me too, ahem. Even 12-year-old me new that Raging Bull was over hyped (and that was literally half my life ago). It is just getting worse now.
Pretty accurate list, though you seem to have a problem with Scorsese's more stylized efforts. Shutter Island was a perfectly serviceable Mario Bava shlock film throwback, and it was all kinds of fun seeing Marty play with horror film conventions for a while. It's no masterpiece, but he's certainly done worse. And realism shouldn't really enter into the equation when you're watching a film like that. Similarly, there's no way Cape Fear should be that low. It's a damn fine film if you care to rewatch it again, full of comment on classism, guilt, and a nice examination of patriarchy in general and fatherhood in particular. Also, Cape Fear was basically a paycheck job at first. Marty was hired onto it without much personal or artistic motivation. He only really started to make it his own after Mitchum's performance in the original inspired him. Considering it could have just been a middling home invasion thriller in the hands of anyone else, I'm pretty glad he took it to the operatic heights he did. It's much better off for its grandiosity. So yeah, don't know why you seem to have a problem with his larger-than-life interpretations of those two particular pulp tales, especially since most of his best films share DNA with them.
Also, Sharon Stone did not ruin Casino, as you guys and several commentators have suggested. Watch again and pay attention to the fact that she never gets a voiceover explaining herself or her motivations. She's meant to be unknowable and unconquerable, a prize Ace can never win no matter how hard he tries (unlike, you know, most of the West Coast's wealth; this is what we call dramatic irony). You're meant to be frustrated with her (much as Rothstein is!), because she's so alluring despite her innumerable flaws. And Stone breathes life into what could have been a thankless "greedy white trash" love interest role. She's seductive, self-destructive, and mysterious in all the right ways. In fact I don't think she ever topped her performance in Casino. So give her some credit, especially as she stretched herself a lot more than Pesci (and, arguably, De Niro) did in that film.
Obviously the viewer's vantage point is different from Ace Rothstein's. But I didn't find her alluring despite her innumerable flaws. I found the flaws to be overwhelming from the very beginning and wouldn't have gone near her. Then again...Ace IS a gambler.
True. I just think some people are mistaking their dislike of Ginger as somehow being unwarranted by her behavior. You are in fact supposed to dislike her; Scorsese made damn sure you have a thousand reasons to. It is also, however, possible to dislike her in ways unintended by the film, which I guess is what you're getting at.
I really like this list. I don't agree with every position, but who would? And why would you want them to? His filmography is so great it would be difficult to do anything more than quibble with any of the choices. I think there are at least a dozen movies that could have ended up at number one, or at least in the top three, that I wouldn't dispute. I love too the respect for After Hours and The King of Comedy, two movies that sold me on Scorcese that I caught on VHS in or around 1987 before I was old enough to know how deep and awesome his resume already was. And I'm loving the placement of The Last Temptation as well. I'm tempted to lay out two or three quibbles now, but to heck with that. Kudos!
Surprised The Last Waltz didn't make the cut. Arguably THE great rockumentary.
Yeah, we decided against including documentaries, which killed me, because I've seen the Last Waltz into the double-digits at this point.
Actually that's a good decision. Those intr-band sequences are unbearable. And the staged sequences sap the "liveness" from the whole thing. Frankly, the music is amazing...but as a film it has fallen apart over the years. Stop Making Sense trumps it in every way.
"Scorsese doesn't get his hands dirty enough handling the life of the controversial Howard Hughes"
I see what you did there.
1. Goodfellas
2. Mean Street
3. Cape Fear
4. Raging Bull
5. The Departed
6. Taxi Driver
7. Gangs of New York
Loved, loved, loved "After Hours."
I really like this list. I don't agree with everything, but I like your reasoning. Couple major things I would change:
* Raging Bull and Mean Streets should be in the top five and ahead of King of Comedy, Last Temptation, and Casino. Mean Streets, for me, is his second-best after Taxi Driver. Its brilliant, gritty and real. The best 'indie' film ever made.
* Shutter Island is almost unwatchable. Its worse than Boxcar Bertha. At least with Boxcar, its interesting to watch just to try and detect elements of 'Scorsese-ness' in it. Shutter Island is just pure dreck.
I like that you didn't underate the criminally underrated After Hours. And I'm glad you didn't fall into the, 'well, it won an Oscar so its not that good' mindset when considering The Departed (or the even worse mindset of, 'did you see infernal affairs? SOOOOO much better').
I have looked at this a few times and I keep thinking I'd argue with how things are organized from 11 down, and from 10 up, but wow, that gap between the top 10 and everything else is pretty painfully obvious.
"Last Temptation of Christ" isn't just great on its own, but if you read the novel you will think "this cannot possibly be filmed". And Scorcese *didn't* film the novel. He read it, felt it in his heart, and then made a movie about the same thing. It's one of the best adaptations of a Truly Great Novel ever made, maybe the best.
italianamerican is very much worth watching. it is predominately interviews with his parents, and they are amazing.
Just wanted to say I thought this was really well-written. Being honest I haven't seen a lot of these, but I found myself reading every word.
screw that, sharon stone was AMAZING in casino.
PLEASE do Fincher when The Girl wih The Dragon Tattoo is released yeah yeah?
Raging Bull is his masterpiece. Goodfellas, close behind. Love King of Comedy, After Hours. Appreciated New York, New York more than you did. Cape Fear is an absolute failure. Fantastic individual scenes, but Scorsese obviously did not understand how horror films work.
I completely disagree with your assessment of Shutter Island. To say the ending was predictable is pretty cynical. If you're telling me you thought that what was going on was an institution wide experiment to try to break him out of his dillusion, you're either lying or you're the cleverest watcher of movies ever. It isn't groundbreaking, by any means, but to say you saw it coming...I don't know. Moreover, watching him murder his wife and weep over his drowned kids is of the most chilling scenes I've seen. I think it is Top 10-worthy.
Putting Casino ahead of Raging Bull pretty much negates anything positive I can say about this list.
But it's better than Raging Bull, so...
Casino and King of Comedy are two of my favorite movies of all time. I never had a problem with the Ginger character in Casino, as some have suggested may be the case with detractors. Really I just dislike Sharon Stone and she went way over the top on the ham scale. Supposedly Traci Lords was in the running for the part and I think she would have been amazing, having basically lived that life and all.
Why the cheap shot at Sharon Stone?
She nailed the part.
I can only assume you had to have been there, and you never were.
I love Goodfellas, but was that last line implying it's better than 'those two by Francis Ford Coppola'? If so, oy.
Even if you compare the leads -- Pesci and Pacino are close, and DeNiro's better in II than Goodfellas... but Brando completely schools Liotta. No comparison.
"All the normal Scorsese camera flourishes are shelved..." concerning Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.
Did we see the same movie? His camerawork here is as virtuoso as anywhere. It has the best homage to Vertigo I've ever seen.
Casino is at #5? Am I reading this list the wrong way? That is one of his worst movies. A Goodfellas cash in just longer and duller.
my list from best down-
Mean Streets
Raging Bull
King of Comedy
Taxi Driver
GoodFellas
AfterHours
Age Of Innocence
The Gambler story from New York Stories
New York, New York
Kundun
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
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Most everything else are just misguided films with some pretty amazing scenes
You could say he has 10 masterpieces, 5 good movies and 5 movies that you can watch late at night that are still more interesting than most directors. Hard to find a director who has a better total career output than Scorsese.
No, not hard: Hitchcock, Godard, Chabrol, Truffaut, Pasolini, Fellini, Antonioni, Fassbinder, Bergman, Suzuki, Rohmer, etc., etc. I could go on but I'm getting bored.
I think renaldo meant an American director who has a better total career output than Scorsese.
Marty is God. I saw Mean Streets so many times,I thought i was in it.
wow. i stopped reading after Aviator was ranked number 11. Considering i find it to be his second best film behind departed, and shutter island behind gangs of new york? Shutter island was great, i still dont understand all the hate for it. People focused too much on the twist being "predictable." I don't think that was the point. it was more so trying to understand the circumstances surrounding it.
Also, I did enjoy Hugo A LOT more than i was expecting.
You are way too harsh with shutter island, it's so artisticly beautiful. I'm happy to see Casino in your top 5, I actually think it's better than goodfellas but that's just my opinion. Like many people I don't understand what was wrong with Sharon Stone, she was great. Also, Aviator should be higher it's one of my favorite of all time. But still, it's a great list