Best Martin Scorsese movies
Few directors have shaped modern cinema like Martin Scorsese, whose decades-spanning career has given us gritty crime epics, searing character studies, and unforgettable performances from some of Hollywood's greatest actors. From the mob underworld to the boxing ring to the trading floor, his films have sparked endless debate about which masterpiece truly stands above the rest. Now it's your turn to weigh in — cast your vote and help crown the ultimate Scorsese classic.
What counts: Seeded with approximate real-world figures — the crowd's votes decide the order from here.
▲ Rising
Henry Hill's coke-fueled, helicopter-paranoid final day, cut to the frantic pulse of 'Jump Into the Fire,' is the greatest sustained anxiety attack in American cinema, and it's just one trick in Scorsese's bag here. The Copacabana tracking shot alone rewired how movies could seduce an audience into complicity with evil, making 'Goodfellas' the blueprint every subsequent crime saga has been cribbing from for over three decades.
Year: 1990Director: IMDb: 8.7/10Oscars: 1
added by IJRin 7 rankings
97▲ Rising
Two moles, two lies, and a Boston accent thick enough to cut with a knife — Scorsese finally won his overdue Oscar with this twisty, profane cops-and-robbers opera that never once lets you exhale. Jack Nicholson snorting cocaine off a stripper's back and that jaw-dropping elevator-door finale prove the old master could still shock and entertain in equal measure deep into his sixties.
Year: 2006Director: IMDb: 8.5/10Oscars: 4
added by IJRin 8 rankings
36▲ Rising
Travis Bickle mohawked and mirror-talking his way toward a bloodbath turned Scorsese and De Niro into cinema's defining chroniclers of urban alienation, with Bernard Herrmann's mournful score haunting every frame of 1970s New York rot. It's the film that proved a character study could double as a warning shot about loneliness curdling into violence, and nothing since has matched its queasy, unresolved power.
Year: 1976Director: IMDb: 8.2/10Oscars: 0
added by IJRin 4 rankings
9▼ Falling
Jake LaMotta beating his own face bloody against the ropes, then years later reciting Brando's 'contender' speech to a dressing-room mirror, is Scorsese's rawest self-portrait of masculine self-destruction, shot in a black-and-white that makes every punch feel biblical. It remains the film critics point to first when arguing he's the greatest American director of his generation, a boxing movie that's really about a man who can't stop hitting everyone he loves.
Year: 1980Director: IMDb: 8.1/10Oscars: 2
added by IJRin 5 rankings
-26▼ Falling
Ace Rogers narrating Vegas's corporate takeover while Ginger unravels in a haze of pills and diamonds gives 'Casino' its tragic sweep, a bloodier, glitzier cousin to 'Goodfellas' that trades street-level hustle for empire-collapse grandeur. The desert burial and the baseball-bat scene remind you Scorsese could still find fresh, stomach-turning ways to depict violence even after doing the mob thing before.
Year: 1995Director: IMDb: 8.2/10Oscars: 0
added by IJRin 4 rankings
-30
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Comments (4)
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The rewatch value of the top pick settles this for me.
Recency bias is real — the classics belong higher.
The writing in season one alone earns the top three spot.