Best Martin Scorsese Movies, Ranked

One of the first names that comes to mind when thinking of the greatest living directors is Martin Scorsese. Despite not having as many Oscar awards as you would think, he has an impressive career. Here are the best Martin Scorsese movies, ranked by TechTrends.

Martin Scorsese has been nominated for the Academy Award eight times, but has only won it once when he directed The Departed in 2006. This is the greatest injustice that has ever happened in the Oscars’ history. However, he is still known as one of the most talented and exceptional filmmakers of all time. He has given us the modern popular image of the gangster and he does not need awards to prove that as he has a vast legacy and a staggering influence. Scorsese graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and started by directing the movie Who’s That Knocking at My Door in 1967. In 1973, after directing Mean Streets, he became a star and started working with Robert De Niro. The two have many movies together. Let’s take a look at the best must-see Martin Scorsese movies ever.

Best Martin Scorsese Movies of All Time

Since he is one of the most iconic directors in the movie industry, Martin Scorsese’s catalog is quite impressive. Some of them are even the greatest of all time, so here are the best Martin Scorsese movies of all time, ranked.

11. Shutter Island 2010

Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 68%, IMDb 8.2

Shutter Island is another amazing movie in which Leonardo DiCaprio collaborated with Martin Scorsese, the director. Following his Oscar award for The Departed, the audience were keen to see what he has to offer. He decided to dive into the horror genre by making an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s psychological thriller. It became one of the best Martin Scorsese movies ever made. Moreover, it is considered one of the best performances of DiCaprio’s career. He performs as a US Marshal, Teddy Daniels, investigating a murderer’s disappearance. The woman escaped the criminally insane hospital. While he goes deeper into his operation in the asylum, he realizes he is losing his grasp on reality. There are a lot of disturbing imagery and lingering dread in the movie, but Scorsese was incredible and had DiCaprio lead an earnest performance.

10. Casino 1995

Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone, Frank Vincent, John Manca
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 79%, IMDb 8.2

Casino was directed by Martin Scorsese and is a pretty ambitious, entertaining film, despite being a mess. This is one of the best Martin Scorsese movies of all time and an adaptation of Nicholas Pileggi’s book. Robert De Niro performs as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, who is a Jewish American gangster in charge of the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. This character is based on Fran Rosenthal, the real life mafioso. Although he does his best to remain above the fray, the glamour of sin city destroys him, his wife as well as his friend. At the beginning of going to the Tangiers Casino, he was a great success, but as time goes on, his problems with mob enforcer Nicky, played by Joe Pesci, his wife Ginger, and many other puts Sam in danger.

9. The Wolf of Wall Street 2013

Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughe
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 79%, IMDb 8.2

Once again Leonardo DiCaprio worked with Martin Scorsese in the movie the Wolf of Wall Street. Following his impressive performance as Jordan Belfort, the real-life stockbroker, he won his second Golden Globe Award. Belfort’s fraudulent practices helped him gain a fortune but he spent it on sex and drugs. Following a lot of movies in which DiCaprio had interior-based performances, watching him let loose was interesting. This is indeed one of the best Martin Scorsese movies of all time and it is also his highest grossing film.

8. The Aviator 2004

Genre: Drama
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 86%, IMDb 7.5

Cate Blanchett played the role of screen legend Katharine Hepburn in the movie directed by Martin Scorsese. The first Academy Award that she won was for her performance in The Aviator. Scorsese masterfully achieved a coherent biography of Howard Hughes and made it look very easy while doing so. We highly recommend this movie as one of the best Martin Scorsese films ever. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of billionaire Hughes. When his life gets darker, the film shows how OSC and fear of germs drove him to seclusion and took his sanity. Due to the fact that the incredible director never judges the subjects, we are encouraged to never turn our back on him

7. The King of Comedy 1982

Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 90%, IMDb 7.8

The King of Comedy is a cautionary story for anyone who has ever wanted the spotlight at the expense of everything else. Martin Scorsese works with De Niro once again when directing the movie. Robert De Niro plays the role of Rupert Pupkin, who is a delusional comic exercising his average routines in the basement. The nation’s greatest late-night host, portrayed by Jerry Lewis, is his ideal and he follows him relentlessly, with his friend, who is also as unstable. Once his stalking is out of control, he kidnaps the host and does not want to release him unless he gives him a spot on the show. The King of Comedy is yet another one of the best Martin Scorsese movies ever.

6. The Departed 2006

Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Vera Farmiga, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 90%, IMDb 8.5

Sixth time was the charm for Martin Scorsese as he won the Oscar for Best Director in The Departed. DiCaprio featured in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning Best Picture as a Massachusetts cop. Named Billy Costigan, he is tasked to go undercover to infiltrate a group of Irish-American mob, with Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson, as their leader gangster. DiCaprio urges the audience to sympathize with him and get worried when he encounters Nicholson as he may slip up. He juggles the dangers of his work undercover because he could get caught and murdered. For his impressive performance, DiCaprio got his fifth Golden Globe Award nomination. Moreover, he was also nominated for his fifth and sixth Screen Actors Guild. This was indeed one of the best Martin Scorsese movies ever.

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5. Hugo 2011

Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 93%, IMDb 7.5

Martin Scorsese took his first foray into using 3D when directing this family movie based on Brian Selznick’s novel named “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.” Asa Butterfield plays the role of Hugo, who is a Parisian orphan boy. He is keeping the clocks at the railway station at Gare Montparnasse, while trying to stay away from Station Inspector Gustav (Sacha Baron Cohen). Scorsese used this technological development in his film. Many film critics praised his attempts and so did the Academy as the movie got 11 Oscar nominations, with one of them being Scorsese’s seventh nomination for Best Director. Therefore, we highly recommend this wonderful film as one of the best Martin Scorsese movies, ranked.

4. The Irishman 2019

Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 95%, IMDb 7.8

The Irish man is the fourth one on the list of the best Martin Scorsese movies of all time. Notwithstanding the shocking Oscar snub, Robert De Niro delivered one of the best performances of his life in another one of the Martin Scorsese movies. The movie is three-and-a-half-hours long and this is a great one among the many themes Scorsese and De Niro have worked on during their careers, going far beyond the glamorous gangster effects they explored before. De Niro plays the role of Frank Sheeran, who is a low-level truck driver. He then becomes a hitman when he crosses paths with Teamsters head Jimmy Hoffa, portrayed by Al Pacino and Mafia Russell Bufalino, played by Joe Pesci. The special effects are mind-blowingly good and through make up, De Niro was able to portray the character over many decades, starting from his humble character to his tragic end.

Read more: Best Drama Movies of All Time

3. Mean Streets 1973

Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Amy Robinson, David Proval
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 96%, IMDb 7.2

It appeared to come out of nowhere. Mean Streets was in the New York Film Festival in 1973 and it seemed like a small movie with a director, who was not known that much. However, when the premiere happened and the reviews surfaced, everyone in the New York movie world started talking about Martin Scorsese. Despite being a roughly shot movie, it gave us some themes that would later appear in Scorsese’s career, like a fascination with the urban underworld and gangsters. This is indeed yet another one of the best Martin Scorsese movies of all time.

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2. Taxi Driver 1976

Genre: Drama
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 96%, IMDb 8.2

There are not many chilling scenes like the one Robert De Niro (portraying Travis Bickle) looks into the mirror and asks, “Are you talking to me?” In the movie Taxi Driver, De Niro is quite frightening. Martin Scorsese and De Niro collaborated once again and the film revolves around an alienated cabbie as he goes through the streets at night driving his yellow chariot. De Niro’s character suffers from insomnia and is a loner, taking a job as a cabbie in New York City. While going through the streets at night, he began to be entirely detached from reality and aimed to clean up the filthy city. When he meets Betsy, played by Cybill Shepherd, who is a campaign worker, he becomes obsessed with saving the world.

Therefore, he makes a plan to assassinate a candidate for presidential election, then he thinks about saving a 12-year-old prostitute named Iris, played by Jodie Foster. Therefore, Taxi Driver is an incredible film among the best Martin Scorsese movies ever.

1. Goodfellas 1990

Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Paul Sorvino, Lorraine Bracco
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes 96%, IMDb 8.7

Another one of the best Martin Scorsese directed movies of all time where he collaborated with Robert De Niro again is Goodfellas, which creates a sense of family among criminals. Aside from money, girls and great food, there is the feeling of acceptance from peers that makes Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta want to be a wise guy. Then, he forms a bond with fatherly Jimmy Conway, played by Robert De Niro, and Tommy DeVito, portrayed by Joe Pesci, who won the Oscar for his performance. For this reason, the ending of their brotherhood is kind of tragic. However, prior to that, it is a quite lively and a very entertaining mafia movie, courtesy of The Godfather.

Despite not having the showiest role in Goodfellas, his performance was crucial to the tale of the movie. the movie revolves around Henry Hill, a mafia who has a good relationship with De Niro’s character. Although he mostly appeared as protagonists in Scorsese’s movies, his role in this film was charming and insidious.