Start with Goodfellas: the most propulsive film he has made and the one that teaches his rhythm in two hours. Then Taxi Driver for the sickness, Raging Bull for the craft, and The Departed if you want the entertainment. Silence and The Irishman are for once you are committed.
Scorsese's reputation as the gangster director is a distortion produced by five films out of more than twenty-five. The actual preoccupations are guilt, complicity and the possibility of grace, which is why the crime films sit alongside a life of Christ, a Tibetan biography, a Wharton adaptation and a children's film about film preservation.
The technical signature is rhythm: the voiceover, the popular music cut against violence, the long take that keeps going past comfort. He has also spent fifty years preserving other people's films, which is not incidental to the work but the same instinct pointed outward.
Where to start
Goodfellas. It is the most immediately gripping thing he has made, the two-hour runtime never sags, and the Copacabana shot alone explains what people mean by his rhythm. Taxi Driver next, then Raging Bull. Avoid starting with the three-hour late films, which assume patience the earlier ones earn.
Top picks
Filmography
- Who's That Knocking at My Door (1968)
- Mean Streets (1973)
- Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
- Taxi Driver (1976)
- Raging Bull (1980)
- The King of Comedy (1982)
- After Hours (1985)
- The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
- Goodfellas (1990)
- The Age of Innocence (1993)
- Casino (1995)
- Kundun (1997)
- Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
- Gangs of New York (2002)
- The Aviator (2004)
- The Departed (2006)
- Shutter Island (2010)
- Hugo (2011)
- The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
- Silence (2016)
- The Irishman (2019)
- Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Sources and further reading
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FAQs about Martin Scorsese
Is he only a gangster director?
Five films out of more than twenty-five, which is where the reputation comes from and not where the work is. The same filmography contains a life of Christ, a Tibetan biography, an Edith Wharton adaptation, a children's film about film preservation and a screwball nightmare comedy set in SoHo.
Are the three-hour late films worth it?
Yes, and not first. The Irishman, Silence and Killers of the Flower Moon all assume a patience the earlier films earn, and each is about consequence arriving decades late rather than about momentum. Watch Goodfellas and Taxi Driver before committing an evening to any of them.
Which one should I watch with someone who dislikes violence?
Hugo, which is a children's film about film preservation and has none, or The Age of Innocence, where the cruelty is entirely social. After Hours is the third option: a nightmare comedy in which almost nothing physically bad happens to anyone and it is still exhausting.