1. Taxi Driver
2. Raging Bull
3. The King of Comedy
4. Goodfellas
5. Mean Streets
6. After Hours
7. The Departed
8. The Aviator
9. Gangs of New York
10. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
11. Bringing out the Dead
12. Casino
13. American Boy
14. Cape Fear
15. The Color of Money
Shorts:
1. It’s Not Just You, Murray!
2. What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
3. The Big Shave
From the black & white cinematography to the sound of pachyderms trumpeting, Raging Bull is probably the most uninvolving and the most pretentiously directed of all Scorsese’s films, and it’s my least favorite. I’ve seen the movie at least twenty times and in the last thirteen viewings it’s never failed to make me cringe — yeah, I get it, LaMotta, you’re not an animal…you’re a human being. If John Merrick had been a pugilist Lynch’s The Elephant Man would’ve looked something like this. Remember what Pauline Kael wrote in review of Raging Bull: “what the fuck am I doing watching these two dumb fucks?” I’ve also wondered that myself.
The King of Comedy all the way, baby.
Taxi Driver
The King of Comedy
Goodfellas
The Age of Innocence
New York New York
.
1. Goodfellas/Taxi Driver/Raging Bull/A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies
2. Mean Streets/Life Lessons/New York, New York/No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
1. Raging Bull
2. Raging Bull
3. Raging Bull
4. Casino
5. Taxi driver
I’m in the middle of a class on Scorsese right now which is pretty exciting, so once that finishes up I will probably have a more definitive list.
Narrative films only
1. Taxi Driver
2. Raging Bull
3. The King of Comedy
4. GoodFellas
5. Mean Streets
6. The Last Temptation of Christ
7. The Age of Innocence
8. After Hours
9. Bringing Out the Dead
10. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Taxi Driver (1976)
Mean Streets (1973)
The Last Waltz (1978)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Kundun (1997)
Life Lessons from New York Stories (1989)
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
GoodFellas (1990)
1. Goodfellas
2. The Departed (Truly his masterpiece)
3. Taxi Driver
4. Casino
5. Gangs of New-York
6. Raging Bull
7. Mean Streets
8. The Aviator
9. Kundun
10. After Hours
1. taxi driver
2. the king of comedy
3. raging bull
4. after hours
5. the aviator
6. cape fear
7. the age of innocence
8. bringing out the dead
9 goodfellas
10. the last temptation.
1) Taxi Driver (by far!!!)
2) Raging Bull
3) Goodfellas
1. The Departed
2. After Hours
3. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Most of these list don’t include Brining Out the Dead, or if they do, it’s #9.
I don’t mean here to suggest that it should be ranked up there with all the standards like Taxi Driver or Goodfellas, but Bringing Out the Dead doesn’t seem to get much love and I’ve often wondered why. My suspicion is that people are put off by Nicholas Cage’s intense performance.
I’ve always felt, however, that the film did a great job of illustrating some of the ground-level complexities of being a compassionate person. An ambulance is a fantastic dramatic device as it almost always assumes some sort of life and death situation. But, an ambulance give no care to class or creed. The poor, disenfranchised, diseased, addicted, and drugged people of this world need ambulances just like anyone else and then some. The movie asks us how we really view these people.
The moment to moment decisions that must be made about how to respond and when to respond must be exhausting. I’ve never known a paramedic, but the only serious car accident I’ve ever been in was with an ambulance. It was their fault. While turning from the far lane into a Kmart parking lot to take their lunch, cut my friend and I off. We had no choice but to hit the ambulance head-on.
1. Taxi Driver
2. Mean Streets
3. GoodFellas
4. Raging Bull
5. Gangs of New York
6. The Last Temptation of Christ
7. The King of Comedy
8. Bringing Out the Dead
9. Kundun
10. The Age of Innocence
Nathan, I agree with you. However someone placing it at #9 isn’t bad considering he has made 26 features!
Yeah, #9 isn’t bad – you have it at #8.
It’s more the notion that it doesn’t get talked about very much, and I think it should. While not perfect by any means, Bringing Out the Dead is a unique film with some really interesting things going on in it. Besides, who doesn’t want to listen to Van Morrison’s “T.B. Sheets” during an opening credits sequence?
Or “Janie Jones”….always. :)
Honestly I hadn’t really thought about this film in awhile. I forgot how much I loved it. Thanks!
In a time when the names of modern directors aren’t known by the public, fortunately, there are talents that have still emerged & have received their due recognition; even by the public. Martin Scorsese is one of my favourite directors, one whose love of the cinema is always underneath the surface in each of his works. His originality, his imagination & his guts make him superior to other greats like Akira Kurosawa or John Ford because he has pushed his work into newer depths with his pioneering of camera techniques & uses them again & again yet to fresh impact.
1. Taxi Driver (5/5)
2. Goodfellas (5/5)
3. Raging Bull (5/5)
4. Mean Streets (4.5/5)
5. Casino (4/5)
6. Gangs of New York (3.5/5)
7. The Departed (3.5/5)
8. The Aviator (3/5)
The only problem with this list is the problem I have with all lists: they’re subjective & aren’t fair measures of how great a movie is in comparison for another. I actually believe that Taxi Driver, Goodfellas & Raging Bull are all great alike & shouldn’t be compared. Mean Streets would be at the same level his three masterpieces are but it has the look & feel of a student film; simply because he was still in his apprenticeship phase before entering greater waters. The rest are still great, maybe not as great as his finest hours but surely, great watching. So far, the only works I am not so content with are Bringing out the Dead & The Color of Money. For obvious reasons…
Having seen them all, I must first say he hasn’t made a movie I dislike in any fashion (I even managed to find interesting elements in the two early ones, ’Who’s That Knocking at My Door’ and ‘Boxcar Bertha’ that make them worth watching again. His films hold up incredibly strong to repeat viewings, and I often find myself feeling I undervalue them initially. For some reason, I have found it has become fashionable to dislike the man (I guess people like to be contrarian. I can’t find much other reason).
Narrative features only (his shorts, documentaries, TV outings, and music video have been left out to keep it simple), here’s how I have ’em ranked.
1 Raging Bull (I know this is typical, but I’d be lying if I put anything else here)
2 King of Comedy (Possibly the most undervalued American film of the eighties)
3 GoodFellas
4 Casino (every bit as good as GoodFellas, and more ambitious to boot- where GoodFellas took on a single narrative and theme, ‘Casino’ intertwined three personal stories combined with two major broad arcs: the rise and fall of the Mafia in Las Vegas and the transformation of Las Vegas from what it was to how we now know it. I like Pesci’s performance in ‘GoodFellas’
5 Taxi Driver
6 Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (proof he could handle complex female characters and emotion. Very Sirkian)
7 Kundun (attempts at internal storytelling of a public figure. Divided audiences, but this along with ‘Age of Innocence- once again the action is all internal as well- is his most beautiful film)
8 Gangs of New York
9 The Last Temptation of Christ
10 New York, New York (in some circles, his most reviled, but a truly fascinating portrait of an immensely talented, but despicable man. I guess that the hatred toward it is more in that it doesn’t fit very well into people’s expectations of what they want it to be)
11 The Age of Innocence (not quite Scorsese’s ‘The Leopard’ as some have said, but it moves so fantastic for not too much typical Scorsese action going on- everything is repressed and internal- three stellar performances at the center)
12 Mean Streets
13 After Hours (this is generally the pick of those trying to be trendy or contrarian. A truly outstanding movie that moves unlike any other Scorsese movie. The closest thing to an out and out comedy he shot is a nightmare. However, too many parts are interchangeable. I could very easily see many other actors doing just as well in the lead role- Griffin Dunne is fine, just not worth noting among other Scorsese leading men. As good as this turned out, I would be interested to see what Tim Burton, who was originally slated to direct, would have done with the script).
14 Cape Fear
15 The Departed
16 The Color of Money
17 Bringing Out the Dead (Great performances: Ving Rhames, John Goodman, and to a degree Nic Cage/ awful performances: Patricia Arquette)
18 The Aviator (his most shameless ploy in his attempts to win an Oscar. Oddly he would finally win for a film that is very atypical as far as Oscar-bait goes)
19 Boxcar Bertha (his most purely escapist outing)
20 Who’s That Knocking at My Door? (despite interesting themes that would stay with Scorsese throughout his career, this is just above a student film)
1.TAXI DRIVER
2.GOODFELLAS
3.RAGING BULL
4.THE DEPARTED
5.THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
6.GANGS OF NEW YORK
7.CASINO
8.BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
9.MEAN STREETS
10.NEW YORK NEW YORK
I’m waiting for SHUTTER ISLAND to bump one of these gems.
Okay I’ve basically finished up my class on Martin Scorsese, and I believe I’ve now seen 15 of his films so here’s my tentative ranking
1. The Departed
2. Raging Bull
3. Taxi Driver
4. The Aviator
5. Mean Streets
6. GoodFellas
7. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
8. King of Comedy
9. Gangs of New York
10. After Hours
11. The Age of Innocence
12. Casino
13. Shine a Light
14. Who’s That Knocking at My Door?
15. Cape Fear
kundun or casino are best also partial to shine a light
The King of Comedy, GoodFellas, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver after my favorites.
I just loveeeeeeee Goodfellas.
Raging Bull
Taxi Driver
King of Comedy
Mean Streets
Goodfellas
Casino
The Departed
After Hours
Bringing out the Dead
I’ll watch any of these if I’m given the opportunity. Let’s face it though, Scorsese rarely misses in the long run. We just hold him on a higher standard than most.
My Top 7 Scorsese:
1. Mean Streets
2.Taxi Driver
3.Raging Bull
4.Goodfellas
5.Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
6.No Direction Home
7.Bringing Out The Dead
Martin Scorsese (10 films seen) – 8.3/10
/10
Goodfellas – 9.5
Casino – 9.5
Taxi Driver – 9.4
The Departed – 9.4
Raging Bull – 9.1
The Color of Money – 8.7
The Aviator – 8.5
Mean Streets – 8.4
Who’s That Knocking at My Door? – 6.8
After Hours – 3.9
Top 10 (all masterpieces in my opinion):
01. Taxi Driver
02. Raging Bull
03. The Aviator
04. Mean Streets
05. GoodFellas
06. Shutter Island
07. GoodFellas
08. Casino
09. Gangs of New York
10. The King of Comedy
TOP 5
1. Taxi Driver – 10/10 – Easily Scorsese’s masterpiece! In my top 10.
2. Raging Bull – 8.5/10
I like the following three in varying ways, so not strictly ranked -
3. Mean Streets – 8/10
4. The King of Comedy – 8/10
5. Goodfellas – 8/10
Other rankings -
6. After Hours – 7/10
7. The Departed – 7/10 – (need to see again for re-assessment)
Haven’t seen: -
Shutter Island
Gangs of New York (from what I’ve heard, I wouldn’t bother)
H. K. ‡
i just saw my post from a few months ago. i’ve re-watched, and seen for the first time, many of his films since then and i would like to revise my opinion.
masterpieces:
taxi driver
raging bull
the king of comedy
very good/almost great movies:
last temptation of christ
the departed
goodfellas
casino
after hours
i need to see mean streets again, it’s been several years. i remember loving it but little about the film itself.