Martin Scorcese is the biggest and most distinguished director working in Hollywood right now. The director’s name is synonymous with the feeling of cinema in theaters. Scorcese is hailed as a brilliant director and one of the hardest working people on any of his film sets. The director is also known for his defensive comments on the categorization of cinema. So here are the 10 best Martin Scorcese movies.
10. The King of Comedy
Synopsis: Robert De Niro gives a mesmerizing performance in Martin Scorsese’s timeless, darkly funny satire as Rupert Pupkin, a deranged comedian who will go to any length to gain the spotlight. Teaming with an equally imbalanced woman (Sandra Bernhard), Pupkin kidnaps his idol, jaded TV talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis). The ransom? Pupkin gets one appearance on Langford’s show.
9. The Departed
Synopsis: An undercover state cop who infiltrated a Mafia clan and a mole in the police force working for the same mob race to track down and identify each other before being exposed to the enemy, after both sides realize their outfit has a rat.
8. Cape Fear
Synopsis: Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum star in Hollywood’s classic tale of revenge and murder. Robert Mitchum is unforgettable as Max Cady, an ex-con determined to exact a terrible revenge on Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) and his family. Sam is a small-town lawyer whose worst nightmare comes true when the criminal he helped put away returns to stalk his beautiful young wife (Polly Bergen) and teenage daughter (Lori Martin). Despite help from the local police chief (Martin Balsam) and a private detective (Telly Savalas), Sam is legally powerless to keep Max from playing his sadistic game of cat and mouse. Finally, Sam must put his family’s lives at stake in a deadly trap that leads to one of the most suspenseful and heart-pounding confrontations ever committed to film. Director J. Lee Thompson builds tension with each scene leading to a deadly showdown at Cape Fear. This is truly a masterpiece of shock and suspense.
7. Gangs of New York
Synopsis: After years of incarceration, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio) returns to lower Manhattan’s lawless, corrupt Five Points section seeking revenge against the rival gang leader (DayLewis) who killed his father. But before long, Amsterdam’s personal vendetta becomes part of an erupting wave of fullblown gang warfare. Feel your heart pound while weapons and cultures clash in a chaotic symphony of life and death. Surrender to the tumultuous atmosphere of 1860s New York as phenomenal sound and stunning visual clarity transport you back in time.
6. Raging Bull
Synopsis: RAGING BULL is director Martin Scorsese’s lacerating film biography of middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta, who was known during his brief reign as “the Bronx Bull.” LaMotta (played with extraordinary brilliance by Robert De Niro) had early lessons in life: to steal and to fight. His aggression in the ring was a means of combating deep-seated anxieties and emotional fears. This determination and rage turned him from a young hoodlum into a champion. But his drive for the title, his brutality outside of the ring and his almost-psychotic sexual jealousy will destroy his marriage to Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) and his deepest friendships. After Vickie leaves him a final violent confrontation with his patient, supportive brother and manager, Joey (Joe Pesci)-and the loss of his title.
5. Casino
Synopsis: Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci star in director Martin Scorsese’s riveting look at how blind ambition, white-hot passion and 24-karat greed toppled an empire. Las Vegas 1973 is the setting for this fact-based story about the Mob’s multi-million dollar casino operation – where fortunes and lives were made and lost with a roll of the dice.
4. The Irishman
Synopsis: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci star in Martin Scorsese’s THE IRISHMAN, an epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th century. Spanning decades, the film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics.
3. The Wolf of Wall Street
Synopsis: In 1987, Jordan Belfort procures a job as a Wall Street stockbroker for L.F. Rothschild, employed under Mark Hanna, who quickly entices him with the sex and drugs fueled stockbroker culture and teaches him that a stockbroker’s only job is to make money for himself. Jordan soon finds his career terminated following Black Monday and takes a job at a boiler room brokerage firm on Long Island that specializes in penny stocks. Thanks to his aggressive pitching style and the high commissions, Jordan makes a small fortune. He served 22 months in prison for defrauding investors in a massive 1990s securities scam that involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world, including shoe designer Steve Madden.
2. Taxi Driver
Synopsis: 4 Academy Award® nominations including Best Picture! (1976) Special Collector’s Edition is digitally remastered and includes a never-before-seen making-of documentary featuring interviews with the creators and stars of the film. Robert De Niro stars with Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, and Albert Brooks in the all-too-real story of a psychotic New York cabby who is driven to violence in an attempt to rescue a teenage prostitute.
1. Goodfellas
Synopsis: Gangsters never refer to themselves as gangsters. They are made-men, wiseguys or Goodfellas. Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese exposes the fascinating, mysterious and violent underworld of New York’s Mafia families through the life of insider Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) as he rises from smalltime thug to mobster under the guidance of Jimmy Conway (Academy Award winner Robert De Niro) in this searing, epic crime drama based on the chilling true-life best seller Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi.
