The 10 Best Movies Directed By Martin Scorsese (According To Metacritic)
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Some of the most iconic movies ever made have been directed by Martin Scorsese, but which are considered to be his best by critics?
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Martin Scorsese is unquestionably one of the most well-respected movie directors not just of today’s industry but of all time. Though still best known for his crime movies, Scorsese’s career has shown his talents for a multitude of genres and styles and has resulted in a highly-praised filmography.
Which of his movies rank above the rest is something that is constantly being debated somewhere by fans so this list will look at the 10 movies directed by Scorsese with the highest scores on Metacritic. From documentaries to dramas, these movies are must-sees for any self-respecting film fan.
10 Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019) – 86
Something that even the most enthusiastic movie fans don’t know is just how great Martin Scorsese’s achievements in documentary filmmaking have been. One of his latest was a retrospective on musician Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour in the 1970s.
In true Scorsese fashion, the movie is as much an examination of the documentary filmmaker who shot backstage and behind-the-scenes footage of the original tour as it is of Dylan and his music. It’s ultimately an uplifting story about creative inspiration and features some truly phenomenal footage of the tour’s performances.
9 The Last Waltz (1978) – 88
Another documentary about an iconic live musical performance–the 1976 farewell performance of The Band–but documented at the time of its occurrence by Scorsese and has been considered one of the greatest concert movies of all time ever since its release.
The Band’s lead guitarist, Robbie Robertson would go on to have a long working relationship with Scorsese, even scoring his 1986 movie The Color of Money.
8 Raging Bull (1980) – 89
Scorsese earned his first nomination for Best Director for this game-changing biopic of the career of boxer Jake LaMotta, starring Robert De Niro as LaMotta–who won Best Actor at the Oscars for his performance–and pairing him for the first time with actor Joe Pesci–who was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor–as his brother.
Their incredible performances together set one of the most important standards for the rest of Scorsese’s career but it was the also-Oscar-winning work of Scorsese’s longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker that would prove to the movie’s most lasting and impactful legacy.
7 The Age of Innocence (1993) – 90
Adapted from Edith Wharton’s novel of the same name, this sumptuous period piece aspired to the detail of classic European cinema about the lives of the aristocracy and more than lived up to it.
A drama about hidden meanings and unspoken feelings, The Age of Innocence follows an upright lawyer in the high society of late 19th century New York who falls for a captivating divorcee, much to the concern of the suffocating culture that he lives in. Scorsese demonstrated that he was just as capable of explaining the minutiae of social customs from a previous century to an outsider as he was of humanizing gangsters.
6 Goodfellas (1990) – 90
A decade later, the immense collaborative power of Scorsese, De Niro, Pesci, and Schoonmaker once again changed the style of movies forever with this true-crime saga about mobster Henry Hill’s life within the Italian American mafia.
Goodfellas has since proven to be one of the most influential movies ever made, with a neverending string of following crime movies attempting to capture its breakneck pace and frank portrayals of charismatic sociopaths.
5 My Voyage to Italy (2001) – 90
This documentary is in the educational vein of the director’s output and revolves around the development of post-war Italian cinema and Scorsese’s own personal relationship with it growing up and developing as a filmmaker.
Amongst other topics, My Voyage to Italy chronicles the history of Italian neorealism and there really is no better teacher for the subject. It’s a lot cheaper than film school and just as informative.
4 After Hours (1985) – 90
A unique black comedy revolving around one man’s misadventures in New York City set across one progressively awkward, humiliating, and bizarre evening.
Absurdist and deeply psychoanalytical, After Hours remains both one of the director’s most highly-rated works amongst critics and one of their most underappreciated by movie fans in general.
3 The Irishman (2019) – 94
A continuation of the true-crime mafia movies that Scorsese directed in the 1990s, The Irishman adapts Charles Brandt’s nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses into an epic gangster saga about the tested loyalties of hitman Frank Sheeran.
A long-gestating project for the director, the movie showed Scorsese’s boundless flexibility as a filmmaker despite its similarities to Goodfellas and Casino and earned him his 9th nomination for Best Director at the Oscars.
2 Taxi Driver (1978) – 94
Perhaps Scorsese’s most iconic movie, Taxi Driver was the moment when the world really began to take notice of the incredible pairing of Scorsese and his longtime collaborator Robert De Niro.
Though Scorsese was still yet to receive his first Oscar nomination for Best Director, the movie was nominated for Best Picture and won the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival and earned De Niro his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor, with his performance as Travis Bickle being considered one of his greatest roles still even today.
1 Mean Streets (1973) – 96
Scorsese’s breakthrough movie is still his greatest by Metacritic’s calculations and the director’s first movie with Robert De Niro certainly is an undeniable landmark in the history of cinema.
The humanity that Scorsese found in characters who would ordinarily be nothing more than two-dimensional gangsters in any other crime movie would later evolve into Goodfellas and all that it inspired.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-movies-directed-martin-scorsese-goodfellas-raging-bull-taxi-driver/