Top Ten Martin Scorcese Movies Review

Martin Scorcese is arguably our greatest living filmmaker, with a body of work that stands up to the giants of cinema. It wasn't easy to pick my Top Ten Martin Scorcese Movies, as it required leaving out some of his most epic work, some of his most experimental films, as well as some of his most important, in terms of his career. In the end, I went with my favorites.  

1. Goodfellas (1990): Scorcese's first collaboration with mob biographer Nicholas Pileggi tells the true story of mid-level gangster Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta. A brilliant, frenetically-paced cinematic tour de force, Goodfellas spans the time period from the early '50s to the late '70s, detailing Hill's rise and fall in the New York Mafia, all set to a score of rock 'n' roll records. Great ensemble cast includes Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Paul Sorvino, and Lorraine Bracco (one of many actors from the film who ended up on "The Sopranos"). Warner Home Video. 

2. Raging Bull (1980): The greatest boxing picture ever made features stunning black & white cinematography and an Oscar-winning, powerhouse performance by Robert DeNiro as Jake LaMotta, who was a champ in the ring, and a chump outside of it. "And though I'm no Olivier / If he fought Sugar Ray / He would say / That the thing ain't the ring, it's the play. / So give me a... stage / Where this bull here can rage / And though I could fight / I'd much rather recite /... That's entertainment." With Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty. MGM Home Video.

3. Taxi Driver (1976): Another epic collaboration with DeNiro, whose iconic outsider Travis Bickle has become part of film history. Working from Paul Schrader's script, which was inspired by the diary of Arthur Bremer, George Wallace's assassin, Scorcese creates a palpable sense of alienation. Sony Pictures.

4. Mean Streets (1973) and ItalianAmerican (1974): After making Boxcar Bertha for Roger Corman, Scorcese was urged to make a more personal film, and so he turned to a script called Season of the Witch, which he had co-written with Mardik Martin in the late '60s. The result was his first masterpiece, Mean Streets, starring Harvey Keitel as Charlie and a young, skinny Robert DeNiro as "Johnny Boy," who is the catalyst for what little plot there is. Made on a shoestring (half the budget went to secure the rights to the rock 'n' roll songs Scorcese used on the soundtrack), the film announced the arrival of a new voice. Scorcese's documentary ItalianAmerican focuses on his mother and father's experience in America, and makes for a great double bill with Mean Streets. Warner Home Video.

5. Casino (1995): "They had it all, they ran the show, and it was paradise...while it lasted." Another collaboration with Nick Pileggi, in some ways a sequel to Goodfellas, in that it stars DeNiro and Pesci, and tells the tale of a couple of loveable rogues from the old neighborhood, one a gambler, the other a killer, who find themselves in the promised land: Las Vegas. Like Goodfellas, it's virtuoso filmmaking by Scorcese, as he uses all of his trademark devices to tell this epic story of the end of an era. Plus, he gets a great performance out of Sharon Stone, something not a lot of directors have managed to pull off. Universal Home Entertainment.

6. The Departed (2006): Scorcese finally won the Academy Award for Best Director for this remake of the Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs (Mou Gaan Dou), even though he should have won it several times before. The best of his collaborations with Leonardo DiCaprio, the Boston-based film also stars Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Jack Nicholson, and Martin Sheen. Wahlberg and screenwriter William Monahan also copped Oscar gold for their work in the film. Warner Home Video .

7. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Kundun (1997): Given that he had considered the priesthood before devoting himself to filmmaking, it is no wonder that religion plays a huge part in many of Scorcese's films. The subject of much controversy upon its release, Scorcese's adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis's novel is actually a very moving treatment of the life of Christ, with Willem Dafoe as Jesus, Harvey Keitel as Judas, Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene, and David Bowie as Pontius Pilate (Criterion Collection). 1997's Kundun tells the story of the 14th Dalai Lama, is a visual feast, a stunning achievement. Unlike Last Temptation, there are no familiar faces or members of Marty's usual stock company, adding realism to the episodic structure. (Walt Disney Home Video).

8. The Last Waltz (1978) and No Direction Home (2005): Scorcese's love of rock 'n' roll is second only to his love of movies, and his work in music documentaries is unparalleled. Cutting his teeth in the form as the assistant director of Michael Wadleigh's Woodstock (1970), Marty set out to make the greatest rock 'n' roll movie of all time when he filmed the Band's last concert at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom in 1976. Interspersing alternately heartbreaking and hilarious interview material, staged performances, and footage from the Winterland show, The Last Waltz is an epic documentary about a great band (MGM Home Video). Even better is the four-hour Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home, originally made for PBS, which covers the artist's most fertile period, ending in 1966, after Dylan went electric but before he cracked up his motorcycle (Sony Pictures).

9. I Call First a/k/a Who's That Knocking on My Door? (1968): Scorcese's first feature plays like a warm-up for Mean Streets, with Harvey Keitel as J.R., an Italian-American kid who meets a beautiful, independent young woman, but can't get past his own hang-ups, which are the product of an unholy marriage of machismo and Catholicism. This impressive, low-budget debut promised greater things to come. Warner Home Video.

10. The Aviator (2004): An excellent biography of Howard Hughes which humanizes and demystifies its subject even while Hughes remains an enigma. Leonardo DiCaprio is OK as H.H., while his leading ladies are even better: Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner, and Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow. Warner Home Video.  

Honorable Mention:

Boxcar Bertha (1972)

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

New York, New York (1977)

The King of Comedy (1982)

After Hours (1985)

The Color of Money (1986)

Cape Fear (1991)

The Age of Innocence (1993)

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995) TV

Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

Gangs of New York (2002)

Shine a Light (2008)