Best Martin Scorsese movie

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.

Pay me.

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

-- Jordan, Friday, August 15, 2008 12:45 PM (Friday, August 15, 2008 12:45 PM) Bookmark Link

somehow still haven't seen Casino. Of the ones I've seen (which i guess is about 3/4 of them) my favorites are King of Comedy, Raging Bull, and After Hours.

I think the Age of Innocence is a really underrated film.

Most overrated: Goodfellas
-- Eric H., Friday, August 15, 2008 2:32 PM (2 hours ago)

silly. wouldn't most overrated go to say, taxi driver? or raging bull?
-- s1ocki, Friday, August 15, 2008 4:54 PM (1 hour ago)

Goodfellas, easy.
-- nate woolls, Friday, August 15, 2008 7:07 AM (2 hours ago)
-- rent, Friday, August 15, 2008 2:21 PM (3 hours ago)
-- Jordan, Friday, August 15, 2008 12:45 PM (Friday, August 15, 2008 12:45 PM)
-- Pleasant Plains, Friday, August 15, 2008 6:32 PM (6 minutes ago)

Taxi Driver is too great to be overrated.

otm

All I'm saying is that no president has ever been shot because the assassin had been watching too much GoodFellas.

that's some prime sub custos bait

(xpost) That's right. Which makes me feel even better for voting Taxi Driver.

I also enjoyed The Aviator which I guess makes me crazy.
Voting KoC.

"one day, a great rain will come and wash the scum BLAH BLAH BLAH FUCK YOU PAY ME.

Cassavetes, after seeing this film, hugged Scorsese and said, "Martin, you just spent a year of your life making shit!"

As if there weren't enough reasons already to worship JC.

Boxcar Bertha is certainly better than Cape Fear

Cape Fear is definitely towards the bottom of his oeuvre. But even there, Scorsese shows some remarkable subtlety. For the first thirty, forty minutes or so, his camera never meets a tripod, gliding all over the place as if it were resting on melted butter....until the scene where the killer and the daughter first talk (on a deserted stage, IIRC). And finally the camera calms down and we get a classic, even rote shot-reverse shot editing pattern during the conversation. Only now, after all that swirling, the rigid back-and-forth becomes unbearably intense.

There's nothing remotely like that in Boxcar Bertha.

No, but there is Barbara Hershey's tits.

Yeah but there is no De Niro's tits.

No, but there is Barbara Hershey's tits.

to be fair scorsese didn't have much involvement in producing those

at least he didn't spend a year of his life making A Woman under the Influence...

Hinckley's lousy aim is not Schrader & Scorsese's fault.

CONTROPS

"Marty! Kundun! I liked it!"

definetely After Hours, no contest at all.

(btw just watched the original Cape Fear and it beats the .. out of his remake, which, I guess was supposed to be funny)

at least he didn't spend a year of his life making A Woman under the Influence...

Oooh looks like a JC poll is up next if it hasn't been done already. That should bring out all the lovers.

wait til the box set comes out, KJ. (Chinese Bookie for me)

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!