“The Departed” (2006)
Marking both Scorsese’s first Oscar for directing and his first time collaborating with fellow ‘70s film legend Jack Nicholson, “The Departed” is a latter-day Scorsese triumph. It’s an adaptation of the Hong Kong film “Infernal Affairs,” but feels entirely a product of the city of Boston and its director. The film follows two parallel tracks in the Beantown crime world: Scorsese’s 21th-century muse Leonardo DiCaprio is good-man-playing-bad Billy Costigan, who attempts to move past his family’s history with crime; meanwhile, Matt Darmon co-stars as wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing Colin Sullivan, a mole working inside the organized crime unit with the state police. The film is ostensibly about their dual struggles with identity, but of course, Nicholson looms large as Irish mob boss Frank Costello. Like Nicholson’s Costello, “The Departed” blooms a bit broader than it probably should, but it’s an energetic return to form and genre for the director. Thanks to the hilarious, profanity-spewing turn by Mark Wahlberg (he drops the “c-word” less than 10 minutes into the movie), it’s also Scorsese’s funniest film, with plenty of caustic asides also coming from Alec Baldwin’s police captain. Critics might say that Scorsese’s statuette was more of a lifetime achievement award than one deserved for directing this single film, but we were rooting for him to win based on this movie’s merits alone. [A-]
“Shine a Light” (2008)
What makes “Shine a Light,” Scorsese’s Rolling Stones IMAX concert documentary, especially frustrating is that at the beginning of the movie, we see Marty planning his shots and how the documentary is going to look. He talks about how he’s going to track this way and that and add some real Hollywood-special-effects-oomph to the Stones’ already electrifying stage show (at one point be hilariously bemoans, “We cannot burn Mick Jagger.”). The problem, of course, is that the stage show he describes (and the movie he envisions) isn’t the same one that we, as an audience actually get to see. Instead, it’s a fairly humdrum Stones documentary that occasionally splices in vintage interview footage of the band and some other insignificant razzle dazzle (the first of the two nights doubled as a benefit for one of Bill Clinton‘s philanthropic ventures, with the former president on hand to introduce the band, every bit as rock star as anyone else on stage). Given Scorsese’s long-standing history with the band (how many times has he used one of their songs?) and his nimble ability with visual pyrotechnics, you’d think that the movie, the filmmaker’s first in the large-screen IMAX format, would have been something special, bordering on the downright remarkable. Instead, with an over-reliance on rapid fire editing (which doesn’t really work with an image projected that huge), and strangely uninventive direction, it becomes one of the few Scorsese films in which the music is much stronger than the images. [C+]
“Shutter Island” (2010)
Scorsese is as much a film fanatic as he is a filmmaker, and with “Shutter Island,” his sprawling, rococo thriller about a missing mental patient on an island full of them, the director was able to indulge his love of B-grade horror movies and loony bin melodramas (you get nods to Hitchcock, Nicholas Ray and Henri-Georges Clouzot among others). Depending on your sensibilities, it was either an embarrassment of riches, a gorgeous, gilded ode to splashily exploitative drive-in movies, or a waste of considerable talents (not only of Scorsese himself but his crack team of collaborators, including cinematographer Robert Richardson, longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker and star Leonardo DiCaprio). We tend to fall somewhere in the middle. DiCaprio plays a rattled U.S. Marshal who is given a new partner (Mark Ruffalo) and sent off to the titular island, home to an insane asylum, off the coast of Boston. It’s 1954, and DiCaprio’s character has already faced the horrors of World War II concentration camps, which makes for some very vivid flashbacks brought to life in wonderfully poor taste. It also somewhat dampens the fun of the more phantasmagorical aspects of “Shutter Island,” where fantasy and history (both personal and cultural) uncomfortably mix into one paranoia-infused stew. “Shutter Island” goes for broke in such a manner that it almost makes a virtue of its somewhat clunky plotting (at one point a character explains the plot in front of a chalk board where major narrative beats are literally spelled out for the audience) and cartoonishly broad characters; the entire enterprise is bloated with a kind of more-is-more over-the-top-ness. Either you’re on board, or you can’t wait to leave this island. We were happy to stay, through what is no doubt one of the filmmaker’s slightest features, but who said Scorsese has to always be so serious? [B]
Great to see After Hours score a A-. Such an underrated movie.
Correction. Only DeNiro was nominated for Cape Fear. Nolte was also nominated in the same year\’s Oscars but for The Prince Of Tides.
Nick Nolte was nominated in 1991, but for Barbra Streisand\’s "Prince of Tides" and not Cape Fear. Juliette Lewis was the other nominee from that film.
You should include now The Wolf of Wall Street. These are very valuable lists and they should be updated every time a new film comes out.
matt darmon in The Departed. LOL
The films of Martin Scorsese are all "B" movies if you really think about it. Most of the films have a common thread and by that I mean the racial epithets and the violence perpetrated against Black characters in some scenes. If you take away these controversial scenes each movie would lack any substance other than being a poorly conceived and directed mellow drama. Scorsese is an overrated bum.
This is just wrong. Taxi Driver and Goodfellas get A+ but Raging Bull gets only an A. Goodfellas doesn't even hold a candle to the depth and complexity of Raging Bull. It's one of his more over-praised films.
Just started a blog about Scorsese – The Wolf Of Elizabeth Street.
Would love people to have a look and let me know if they agree…
'The Wolf Of Elizabeth Street' – thoughts on Scorsese.
http://sheldrakemovies.wix.com/blog
Another correction: Barbara Hershey wasn't nominated for an Oscar for "Last Temptation of Christ."
I don't understand this list…at all. It's nice that you've awarded two A+s to two of his best films, but why not Raging Bull? How is Mean Streets only an A- and not a straight A? Honestly, reading through all of these, it seems like the contributors don't actually care about Scorsese, or are trying to knock him down a peg. Only a B for Last Temptation of Christ? It seems that in every case in which some critics love a film, while others are indifferent toward it, The Playlist decided to take the indifferent route. Age of Innocence, Casino and Kundun are all better than they're represented here. The Last Waltz only a B? After the totally positive retrospective you did on the Coens, this list makes Scorsese seem like the weaker artist.
What's with all the indifference towards The Age of Innocence still lurking around even after 20 years? That film is a piece of art, never failing to bring tears to my eye after all those viewings over the years in awe of the wonderful direction, set and costume design and not least of all the tragic and impossible love affair between its two lovers achingly brought to life with almost career best performances by its two leads Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day Lewis? A thorough reevaluation is long overdue for that glorious film in my opinion. And for its 20th anniversary which inf fact is right now, a special features laden new Bluray edition would be so helpful for this. Are you hearing Sony?
NICK NOTLE Was Not Nominated For An Oscar For "CAPE FEAR",
De NIRO Was Though!,NOTLE Did Nab A Nod For A Movie That
Came Out The Same Year As "FEAR" BUT It's Was For "THE PRINCE
OF TIDES"!
1. Raging Bull
2. Taxi Driver
3. The Goodfellas
4. Casino
5. Shutter Island
6. The Big Shave
7. Kundum
8. Mean Streets
9. Cape Fear
10. The Aviator
I am just going to do a top 5 because I feel like 6-10 could change on my mood.
1. Goodfellas
2. Casino
3. Gangs of New York
4. Age of Innocence
5. Taxi Driver
At the moment these are my favorites.
1. Raging Bull
2. The Departed
3. Taxi Driver
4. Goodfellas
5. Mean Streets
6. The Aviator
7. Hugo
8. Life Lessons
9. The King of Comedy
10. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Also, must say that I have to agree 100% with After Hours and New York Stories. I had After Hours as a teenager and couldn't stop watching it, must have watched it twenty times and loved it the twentieth as much as the first. And the perception of Nolte's ambition coming to life as he discovers a new muse in NY Stories is priceless!
And Age Of Innocence? Uh, yeah, I guess I forgot all about that one, like everyone else on the planet. (except the Playlist, of course!)
Better version of "Key To Reserva" http: //www. scorsesefilmfreixenet. com/video_eng.htm (correct the url yourself, cut/paste to address bar)
IMO Bringing Out The Dead is hugely underrated while Hugo is overrated. Yes, it's technically brilliant but a bit dull and some performances are uninspired.
Scorsese also directed "Bad" in 1987 (both the short film and the accompanying music video) for Michael Jackson, and the half hour (with commercials) episode "Mirror, Mirror" for the Steven Spielberg-produced television series "Amazing Stories." Not to mention the three short films he made at NYU, and whatever involvement he had in the 1970 "Street Scenes" documentary on the student riots at NYU.
I've said this before, but I'll keep saying it – the way you break out articles into so many pages really discourages me (and I imagine others) from visiting this site. Please CUT THE CRAP!
I've always felt Bringing out the dead was far too underrated (it's a great book too), and Shutter Island and the Departed have been way overrated in general.
Excellent list and a labour of love, a good read too. You may have been too kinda to some of the later stuff, or I'm just a curmudgeon.
Gangs I think suffered more from Weinsteins interference than Scorseses direction. This was during a dry spell where he unfortunately took the bait offered to him. It's not a bad movie but it's certainly not up to his general standards.
casino a B-? that's an A+.
bringing out the dead and departed also deserve an A
my 10 favorite Martin Scorsese movies are
1-Goodfellas
2-Casino
3-The Departed
4-Taxi Driver
5-Raging Bull
6-Cape Fear
7-The Aviator
8-Gangs Of New York
9-Hugo
10-The Last Temptation Of Christ
Scorsese films in my time..
Bringing Out The Dead
Gangs Of New York —saw it in the cinema
The Departed —saw it on pirate dvd
The Aviator
Shutter Island
Wolf of Wall Street —will watch it online
As great as Scorsese is this list is way too kind to Hugo, Gangs of New York & Bringing Out The Dead.