When it comes to direction, Martin Scorsese has no match. He rose to prominence during the 1960s during the age of blockbuster and genre-defying films. His early hits in the ’70s and ’80s include Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the major figure of the New Hollywood era and the most significant and influential directors in film history. His movies have the same themes overall, Italian-American identity, Catholic concepts of guilt, and redemption. Scorsese’s movies have signature violence, profanity, and rock music.
Scorsese’s career as a director has been consistently good. His first feature film Who’s That Knocking at My Door in the year 1967. He did nine films with Robert De Niro. So they say that Scorsese has done repeat collaborations with actors and film technicians. The man has also had a successful collaboration with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, having directed him in five films.
Scorsese won the Academy Award for Best Director in The Departed. Besides the two men, long-time has had a long-time collaboration with film editor Thelma Schoonmaker. As a fan of rock music, the man has directed several documentaries, two of which figure in this list.
Here are the director’s highest-rated films on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Color Of Money (89%)
The Color of Money is a 1986 American drama film.
This one comes from a screenplay by Richard Price.
The Color of Money is based on the 1984 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis. The star cast of the film includes Paul Newman and Tom Cruise in the lead roles. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Helen Shaver, and John Turturro star in supporting roles. The Color of Money features an original score by Robbie Robertson. You’d be surprised to know that this one is a sequel.
The Color of Money is a sequel to The Hustler, which released in the ’60s. It was a movie about pool hustlers starring Paul Newman. In The Color of Money, Newman has now retired Paul has reprised his role from the older film. He has become the mentor figure to a younger pool hustler (played by Tom Cruise).
The Departed (91%)
The Departed is a 2006 American crime film.
The remake of Infernal Affairs is based on a script written by William Monahan. The Departed stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg in the lead roles. Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, and Alec Baldwin star in supporting roles.
This one is a cat and mouse chase of an undercover cop and a mole infiltrating a criminal gang and the police respectively. The Departed takes place in Boston.
Irish Mob boss Francis “Frank” Costello (Nicholson) plants Colin Sullivan (Damon) as a mole within the Massachusetts State Police. The police plan an undercover state trooper William “Billy” Costigan (DiCaprio) to infiltrate Costello’s crew.
Over the years this American version of the foreign film has lead to the debate over which version is better.
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story By Martin Scorsese (92%)
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (or Conjuring the Rolling Thunder Re-vue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese is a 2019 American pseudo-documentary film.
This isn’t Scorsese’s first Bob Dylan documentary, he has done Direction Home in 2005. But this is definitely the better one. It can be classified more as a pseudo-documentary film, which has both fictional and non-fictional material. The material covers Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour. Most material is taken from outtakes from Dylan’s 1978 film Renaldo and Clara.
You cannot tell from the start what parts are and aren’t real.
Scorsese’s other documentaries include A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, My Voyage to Italy, and Public Speaking.
Hugo (93%)
Hugo is a 2011 American adventure drama film with steampunk influences.
This movie is a tribute to the early age of cinema. It is directed and produced by Martin Scorsese, adapted for the screen by John Logan. Just as The Aviator covered the Golden Age of Hollywood (1920s and 60s), Hugo released at a time when 3D became popular again.
The story is centered around an orphan boy living inside the Gare Montparnasse train station, in Paris in the 1930s. He becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding his late father’s automaton.
Hugo couldn’t do well financially upon release. But it was a hit with the critics.
Goodfellas (96%)
Goodfellas (stylized GoodFellas) is a 1990 American crime film.
This one is known as Scorsese’s career-best film. It came during the crime dramas such as The Godfather. The story is about the rise and fall of an Italian mobster.
The mobster-in-question is Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta). Henry Hill, friends and his family from the years 1955 to 1980 have been shown in the film. Goodfellas is produced by Irwin Winkler and distributed by Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of the 1985 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi.
The trio Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci made Goodfellas what it is. The movie also introduced a distinct style of editing.
Raging Bull (96%)
Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film.
Besides Rocky, Raging Bull is considered to be the greatest boxing movie. It is produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta’s 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story.
The story is about Robert De Niro’s Jake LaMotta, an Italian-American middleweight boxer. He suffered from rage, sexual jealousy, and animalistic appetite. LaMotta was a real person. The supporting roles in the film include Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, and Frank Vincent.
Raging Bull won two Academy Awards in the Best Actor and Best Editing categories during the 53rd Academy Awards.
Mean Streets (97%)
Mean Streets is a 1973 American crime film.
Martin’s other crime classic, this one is co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. Mean Streets is another holy alliance between Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese. It also stars Harvey Keitel in the lead role.
You will always see themes of Roman Catholic guilt in Martin’s movies, because of his Italian-American background.
Mean Streets is the story of Charlie Cappa and his loyalty to his loan shark uncle and his self-destructive gambler friend “Johnny Boy” Civello.
The Last Waltz (98%)
The Last Waltz is one of the greatest documentary concert films ever made.
The Last Waltz is one of Scorsese’s more straightforward documentary films, unlike Rolling Thunder Revue. The movie was released in 1978, although it was made in 1976. It shows the documented concert of the same name performed by The Band.
It featured Bob Dylan and many such artists who previously had collaborated with The Band early in their career. The focus of the movie was on Robbie Robertson because of which it was criticized by one of The Band’s vocalists Levon Helm.
Robbie Robertson was one of the movie’s producers and the lead guitarist of The Band. The Last Waltz was meant to be a farewell concert.
Taxi Driver (98%)
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American neo-noir psychological thriller drama film. The movie stars De Niro as a mentally unstable veteran who drives taxis and plots several murders. The film stirred hornet’s nest for its intense violence and focus on child prostitution. Iris (played by Jodie Foster) starred as a child sex worker in the movie. This was something met with severe criticism.
Taxi Driver stars Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. It is set in New York City following the Vietnam War, the film tells the story of Travis Bickle (De Niro), a lonely taxi driver.
Taxi Driver is known as Scorsese’s best film. No wonder it is referenced in pop-culture to this day.
The Irishman (100%)
The Irishman is a 2019 American epic crime film.
Scorsese’s latest is The Irishman. It was written by Steven Zaillian and is based on the 2004 nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt. The story concerns
The film stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci in the lead roles. Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Jesse Plemons, and Harvey Keitel star in supporting roles.
The story is about Frank Sheeran (De Niro), who is a truck driver, and who becomes a hitman involved with mobster Russell Bufalino and the Teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino).
Robert De Niro stars as Frank Sheeran, Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa, Harvey Keitel as Angelo Bruno, Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino.
