Best Martin Scorsese movie

In the interests of brevity I left out his shorts and video work but kept his more significant TV work. If you really want to vote for 'The Big Shave' or 'Bad' then use the Other option.

Or that noted short, "Gangs of New York" : )

The King of Comedy is really his most perfect work, like a better version of Taxi Driver without the violence and exploitation aspect. But the situations depicted in it are often so embarrassing it's almost unbearable to watch.

Love that film but it's not his best

xxxpost

Excuse me for a moment whilst I kill myself. Yeah put 'Gangs' in other too, though I can't imagine many voting for it.

Goodfellas, easy.

Looking at this list makes me realise that I only really like Taxi Driver, The King Of Comedy and After Hours. And The Big Shave.

I've seen every single one of these (even Other) cept for Lady by the Sea and Street Scenes, neither of which I've even heard of until just right now. And after suffering through an entire, semester-long grad seminar on nothing but the man himself (!), I feel more than qualified to state that The King of Comedy is his only masterpiece, that Casino >> Goodfellas, that Kundun, Bringing Out the Dead, and especially, After Hours are much better than anything he did in the 1970s, that Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull cannot bear the weight of their ecstatic reception histories, and that none of the films just mentioned are flat-out bad films.

So very easily, The King of Comedy.

Worst: Boxcar Bertha (much, MUCH worse than The Color of Money which is more inconsequential than just bad)

Film I seriously wish I liked more: New York, New York

I really like After Hours and Bringing Out the Dead too, those two and King of Comedy are the only ones I'd consider voting.

He's always been overrated, but it's not his fault. No perfect films, quite a lot of bad ones, especially in the mid eighties and mid nineties. Voted for Taxi Driver over Goodfellas, despite the Bernard Herrman score.

Most underrated: The Age of Innocence.

But the situations depicted in it are often so embarrassing it's almost unbearable to watch.

There's a fantastic essay on this very aspect: William Ian Miller, "'I Can Take a Hint': Social Ineptitude, Embarrassment, and The King of Comedy." If anyone wants a copy, let me know.

Even though I voted for King of Comedy, I fear Casino may not get its due. Yeah, it hits a lot of the same notes as Goodfellas, but it's so much more nuanced and knowing.

jeez, I thought I was the only King fan on this board. W'happen?

See? You DO have some nefarious influence.

Nice to see praise for Bringing Out the Dead.

astonishing rather than nice, I'd say

Casino >> Goodfellas

o_O

i liked Casino more than any of the others. his films leave me cold most of the time.

Casino just felt like GF2. Watching it that way, it fell way short.

^^ yes, with extra who-gives-a-damn

I think I'm one of the only people who likes the taxi driver score. that winsome little saxophone number is a perfect evocation of travis; a cheap, maudlin take on faux urban sophistication, nostalgia for a time that never existed. at other points the score sounds like a 50s monster movie, which I dig.

there's an interesting story behind that little wacko sound at the end that lets you know travis is still batshit crazy - herrmann had put in a bell ring at that point. it was the last night of scoring and herrmann was walking out the studio door. scorsese was complaining to him that he didn't like the bell and herrmann yelled back over his shoulder "play it backwards." herrmann died that night.

xpost

Yeah, Casino just felt like Goodfellas Redux but less focused, less tight.

I can't imagine it getting many votes but I really like 'Age of Innocence', it's quite brutal in the way that an apparently geneteel society can punish an individual who errs. I think he works best when dealing with the dynamics of a community and an outsiders place in it. Maybe that's why stuff like The Aviator and Color of Money didn't work as well for me as his other work.

I think I'm one of the only people who likes the taxi driver score

What?!??!

Goodfellas, easy.

-- nate woolls, Friday, August 15, 2008 7:07 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

yeah Edward, Herrmann fans like the TD score just fine.

(he also inserted a Psycho quote under the end credits, a rumbling 3 notes on the cello)

Most underrated: Last Temptation
Most overrated: Goodfellas

Looking at this list makes me realise that I only really like Taxi Driver, The King Of Comedy and After Hours.

OTM. Kind of want to be a pain and throw a vote at The Last Waltz but I will go with KoC.

Goodfellas and King are at the top for me. Too different to choose between.

Morbz OTM. Bringing Out the Dead is a disaster, dunno what people saw in that one.

eez, I thought I was the only King fan on this board. W'happen?

you're completely insane, i've overheard you having fawning conversations with other ilxors (including myself) about this movie multiple times!

i dont think it's great or anything, but I do enjoy The Aviator a lot.

Most underrated: Last Temptation
Most overrated: Goodfellas

-- Eric H., Friday, August 15, 2008 2:32 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

silly. wouldn't most overrated go to say, taxi driver? or raging bull?

schef, I'm not insane, just senile.

Yeah, Eric who wrote "fuck Raging Bull"?

TD may be overrated, but on my last viewing it's better than I used to think.

i dig bringing out the dead, maybe mostly because it looks fantastic and i find it to be a genuinely weird movie w/r/t tone and acting.

in Joe Pesci Casino has one of the worst accent and performances I've ever seen. Is he speaking English?

i give him props for being the only one in the movie to attempt a chicago accent~

Pesci's a terrible actor

I guess I've read more people criticize the taxi driver score in recent times than I've read praise of it.

if you want to talk underrated scorsese check out his first full length, who's that knocking at my door. it's like a dry run for mean streets, and I'm always impressed by how many of his trademark tricks were already fully realized in the late 60s. from the opening montage you know you're watching a scorsese film. it's light on plot but there are a number of impressive sequences, including a rape scene played with no sound other than an incongruous doo wop song.

then again, I really like the color of money and never understood the general lambasting it gets. yeah, it's not the greatest movie in the world, but it's a solid flick. and forrest whitaker has a great bit part in it.

agree that boxcar bertha is his personal nadir. its sole cinematic moment of grace is keith carradine crucified to a boxcar.

if bringing out the dead was made by some up and coming director nobody heard of, I think people would give it more slack. again, not the greatest movie ever, but it's a quirky, small film with some interesting takes on redemption.

the scene of the drug dealer being sawed out of his impalement has this weird ecstatic quality to it.

omar otm.

and i like casino a lot too! some days i prefer it to goodfellas because some days i prefer its really grim tone (not that goodfellas is a comedy, but then again it sort of is in a weird way). i have a fair amount of admiration for his trio w/dicaprio as well. the obvious ones (mean streets, taxi driver, raging bull) are all great though i don't think raging bull's greatness really appeals to me as much as taxi driver's, and i prefer mean streets to both by a fair amount.

sole cinematic moment of grace is keith carradine crucified to a boxcar.

That's David Carradine, and Boxcar Bertha is certainly better than Cape Fear (or Kill Bill).

Goodfellas, easy.

-- nate woolls, Friday, August 15, 2008 7:07 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

-- rent, Friday, August 15, 2008 2:21 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

haha yeah david carradine. cape fear seems pretty dire but I actually haven't seen it in its glorious entirety.

imdb trivia on boxcar bertha
After he finished this film, Martin Scorsese screened the film for John Cassavetes. Cassavetes, after seeing this film, hugged Scorsese and said, "Martin, you just spent a year of your life making shit!"

tho I'm happy you're willing to rep for a movie with BOXCAR in the title

After Hours
Kundun

kundun's only redeeming feature is making mao a campy b-movie villain

Casavetes, (semi-)wrong again!

Fuck you.

Pietro Mascagni's Barcarolle from the opera Silvano.

Many thanks.

Is “mook” an ethnically offensive word, or does it just have that association because the guys in Mean Streets say it? I ask that because I occasionally use the word IRL.

According to that link to the Scrabble dictionary, it just means "a foolish or contemptible person," no ethnicity involved. Which is how I always took it from the film too.

Good to know. I will be less self conscious about calling people mooks going forward.

A mook is a mook is a mook. The word cuts across race, ethnicity, gender, everything. They're everywhere.

And they all worship the same god.

https://i.postimg.cc/0QQjhWKg/mook.jpg

Watched Who's That Knocking at My Door? for maybe only the second time in my life (the DVD I used was a still-sealed $3 copy I bought at least 10 years ago). Whatever I may have posted in the past working from memory, didn't think it was great at all--one incredible four-minute musical cue ("El Watusi"), some technical interest, a very good performance from Keitel (also Zina Bethune, who basically disappeared from movies afterwards), and not a lot else. Endless conversations that go around in circles--which anticipate the same in later films, but they're not at all funny here. I can understand why someone like Ebert would have made a fuss over it in 1969, and there are other directors where I prefer early rough work to polished later stuff--and honestly, I'd take it over Killers of the Flowers Moon. But not over Mean Streets, which is exponentially better.

We posted the first of these on May 18, 2020 (20th Century Women), the early days of the pandemic; we've got two more to go after this one, on three Scorsese films:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAuMg5zjgIo

Some confusion over whether the "Steppin' Out" in Mean Streets is John Mayall's or Cream's. I guess it is Cream (not on any of the studio albums)--I always thought it was from the first John Mayall album.

Cream did a long version of "Steppin' Out" on Live Cream II, an archival release from '72.

It was initially mistitled/credited as "Hideaway", which IIRC carried over to some prints of Mean Streets.

Both songs being instrumentals first recorded by Clapton during his time with Mayall.

That's it--I distinctly remember seeing "Hideaway" in the music credits more than once. Mystery solved, thanks.

The song in question (1:45):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA2XMiK12VQ

We talk a lot about this, which--dead serious--I think is the greatest four minutes of any Scorsese film ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVIA1vqQfb8

(I may have posted this clip upthread--if so, that link is broken.)

Just watched The Age of Innocence for the first time. It was a pleasure to be sunk in that milieu for a couple of hours. There is a sense that with such strong source material, it's your set designers and casting agent you're going to rely on most of all but I thought it was handled well. I think it's aged well (a bit like DDL. tbf), albeit the editing in the final scenes in the Paris courtyard is kinda clunky.

Curious whom Alfred would have cast instead of Pfeiffer...

Right?!?

Sigourney Weaver?

I appreciate that Marty is this level of nerd. With staff helping of course.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/25/martin-scorsese-vhs-video-collection-archive

Looks like he was cool using SLP

Random FB post: "A few behind-the-scenes photos from Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated CAPE FEAR (1991) with the filmmaker and his cast (including Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Martin Balsam, Illeana Douglas, and Joe Don Baker) on set in Florida."

Cape Fear was nominated for AAs? What was that, in the "This Is the Beginning of the End" category?

Best Actor for DeNiro and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Lewis.

Lewis was first-rate.

Two oldish guys amuse themselves with a secret language:

(email from friend) "Sorry, I forgot to tell you, tomorrow is the last day of the Feast of San Gennaro."
(me) "I hate that feast with a passion"

That Who's That Knocking at My Door excerpt 18 mths upthread is pretty groovy. Gosh.

I watched the Apple+ thing. It's not bad in a long DVD extra way (I watched most of it while waking up way too early due to jet lag), though it's definitely biographical rather than film historical so it can be frustrating if you're more interested in the films than MS as a person; Last Temptation, e.g., is really only discussed in terms of the backlash. Slightly odd that every single one of his full-length narrative features gets at least a mention with the sole exception of Hugo. I guess no one is crying out for a deep dive on Hugo lol, but I wouldn't have minded a couple minutes on him deciding to make a children's movie, especially as it comes after he has some kind of mental health crisis during Shutter Island.

Per the thread, it may have cemented my -- sorry so basic -- opinion that Goodfellas actually is his best film, though there are a few I haven't seen including King of Comedy, Alice, and After Hours. That said it does a pretty good job of making you want to go through his whole filmography. Or most of it: NY, NY looks like a possibly interesting, possibly unwatchable mess; a few others, e.g. Cape Fear, are basically dismissed by MS (somewhat true of King of Comedy as well, though that one gets a lot more coverage); and I thought I'd be inclined to rewatch Age of Innocence, but the clips of Pfeiffer were surprisingly awful (I've seen it but remember nothing).

The only music doc they talk about is The Last Waltz (well, and Woodstock), but looking at his filmography, I want some contrarian somewhere to make the argument that he's a better documentarian.

I watched The Age of Innocence as part of a revival two Saturdays ago and was rapt anew by its palpable longing and unrepressed erotics.

good to know! it's possible the clips out of context weren't representative

He's dead to me as a documentarian until he finishes the SCTV thing.

rob, I don't know that Alice is likely to supplant Goodfellas in your canon but fwiw it was a really nice surprise when I saw it. Apparently when Ellen Burstyn interviewed Scorsese for the job she asked him "what do you know about women?" and he answered "nothing, but I'm willing to learn" - smooth move. Another story reminds me of my love for recently departed Kris Kristofferson, but merits spoiler tags for the film's ending:

Apparently everyone was somewhat dissatisfied with the ending, independent woman finds true love and settles down on a ranch, just didn't work right. So when Scorsese vented to Kristofferson about this problem Kris went "well, why can't he take up with her as opposed to the other way around? fuck the ranch, man."

yeah the doc makes Alice seem really good and overlooked (that anecdote is in it)

New York, New York is essential flawed viewing! Liza Minnelli's wonderful.

I want some contrarian somewhere to make the argument that he's a better documentarian.

Ha, a contrarian friend of mine has been making this argument for basically the entire 30 yrs I've known him

Haha nice

New York, New York is essential flawed viewing! Liza Minnelli's wonderful.

― The Luda of Suburbia (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, October 23, 2025 2:37 PM (twenty-two minutes ago)

I can def see that. and tbh I ended up dithering too much in my post: while watching this thing, I genuinely did want to go through his filmography in order, and I've always had a very mixed view of his work

agree the doc made new york, new york seem interesting, i recall trying to watch it and could not get thru it

otherwise the doc had great access, etc -- enjoyed seeing marty in his office and working on a board of index cards planning killers of the flower moon and some candid stuff w his daughter and wife.. i couldve used more of that

De Niro's miscast.

ooh yeah all his drawings, cards, storyboards, I loved that stuff. If I'd made this it would have been like a Ken Burns joint

I saw New York, New York and all I remember is a lot of unpleasant people shouting at each other, plus of course the theme song is buried under so many layers of cheese that it is impossible to take seriously. But then I was in my late teens, probably expecting some dazzling MGM style numbers, and "a lot of unpleasant people shouting at each other" was also the only thing I got out of Raging Bull when I saw it around the same time.

When I saw Scorsese interviewed at the LFF last year he showed some storyboards he had made of a Roman epic and showed to his friends. I was like, that's a comic! You were drawing comics, Marty!

I had somehow never seen his Cape Fear until last night. Can’t express how much I hated it. What an overblown pile of rancid ham. I’m not getting anywhere near that new Apple TV series.

Totally agree. And coming after Goodfellas...the first Scorsese film I despised; everything before that, even when not great, was at least the work of an assured director.

Definitely the start of an overheated garish streak, with the exception of (exceptional!) outliers "Age of Innocence" and "Kundun." "Cape Fear" (bleh), "Casino" (almost self-parody imo), "Bringing Out the Dead" (don't remember much about this one besides its ott-ness), "Gangs of New York" (be careful what you wish for, Marty), "The Aviator," The Departed," "Shutter Island" - all florid misfires, iirc. Maybe they deserve a another viewing, I'm sure they all have their moments, but I don't hear anyone making a case for these being anywhere near the top of his heap. I like Leo in "Wolf of Wall Street," maybe he was just a little too young for those others?

I didn't like Cape Fear either, but it's such a weird outlier for him and at the time it was by far his highest grossing film. I think I saw more cultural references to it than any other Scorsese movie when I was growing up, and they were clearly for Scorsese's remake, not the original (which honestly isn't a good movie either aside from Mitchum).

IIRC it wasn't something he really wanted to do, it was essentially brought to him by his new agent or manager (who to be fair got his personal projects off the ground against all odds) and by Spielberg who was a close friend, and I think it was partly motivated by a need to do something commercially viable - that is, if he wanted studios to finance his riskier films, he had to make something that would help encourage them do that. Supposedly it was also part of a trade when Scorsese was attached to Schindler's List and Spielberg was attached to Cape Fear and everyone, including Scorsese, told Spielberg he should really do Schindler's List.

"Everyone" otm, I can't even imagine what Scorsese's version would have been like (though I bet Spielberg would have knocked Cape Fear out of the park).

I kind of wonder how committed Scorsese was to doing it. Supposedly he told Spielberg right off the bat that it made more sense for him to do it and compared it to his own need to do The Last Temptation of Christ - i.e. this is a film you HAVE to do, it doesn't make sense to let someone else direct it.

I've only seen the original once, but I recall it being very effective in a B-film, low-key way.

Scorsese's remake did inspire one of Sideshow Bob's greatest episodes.

That is true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTTUMkQSFpQ

Wrong clip?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOri5ytDFA

lol, Dan and I making about identical CF posts but on different Scorsese/Cape Fear threads

In the running for *best* Simpsons episode, full stop, so I guess Scorsese deserves some credit for that.

Just gave "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" another watch. Definitely one of his major-minor films, a lot going for it even if it doesn't quite find a rhythm, and even this early in his career, stuck between "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver," one heck of an outlier.