Of Innocence and Rage: Martin Scorsese’s Greatest Films

It’s a good month to be Martin Scorsese. Not only does one of America’s greatest film-makers turn 69 today, but his latest film, “Hugo,” has already garnered positive critical buzz before its November 23 release date. Looking back at some of Scorsese’s greatest film achievements is a thoroughly subjective enterprise, but we encourage you to leave your picks in the comments below.

The Greatest Martin Scorsese Films

4) The Age of Innocence

No blood is spilled, no flesh is uncovered, no one even raises their voice, but Scorsese has been quoted as calling “The Age of Innocence” the most violent of all of his films. Based on Edith Wharton’s 1919 novel of forbidden love in 1870s New York, “The Age of Innocence” is a as far from the grittiness of “Taxi Driver” or “Raging Bull” as you can get with its gilded interiors and sumptuous costumes. However, the elegant trappings conceal a web of betrayal, deceit and passion; as the net closes around Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), the audience feels the suffocating hands of convention and propriety as heavily as Archer himself.

3) The Departed

Also known as the film for which Scorsese FINALLY won an Oscar for Best Director (geez, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it took you long enough!), “The Departed” returns to Scorsese’s fascination with organized crime in America (more on that in a bit), but with a sharper focus and snappier look. While Scorsese’s recent films have lost some of their edge in recent years (the Hollywood glossiness of “Shutter Island” comes to mind), “The Departed” successfully combined advances in film technology, an all-star cast and Scorsese’s unerring eye for film-making.

2) Raging Bull

I could go on at length over Robert DeNiro’s performance in “Raging Bull,”  but to give short-shrift to Scorsese’s direction would be a major injustice to one of the greatest sports films of all time. The moody noir-like atmosphere attained by shooting with black and white film, the lighting that shows every scar, bruise and crag in DeNiro’s face but frames Cathy Moriarty’s with a halo of incandescence, the music chosen by Scorsese from the works of Pietro Mascagni… all of it creates a film that is both grim and grandiose in scope and tone.

1) Goodfellas

There are those who believe that Kevin Costner’s Oscar win for Best Director (“Dances with Wolves”) over Scorsese’s direction of “Goodfellas” is one of the greatest thefts of all time, on par with Vincenzo Peruggia’s theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. I am one of those people. “Goodfellas” may be edged out only by “The Godfather” when it comes to naming the greatest mob movies of all time. Vicious, violent and over-the-top, Scorsese took a pitch-perfect cast, set them in a spot-on recreation of the world of the real Henry Hill, and lets the cameras catch some of the most hair-trigger improvised dialogue and shocking action ever committed to screen.

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