Martin Scorsese’s 10 Best Films of all Time (and Where to Watch Them)
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Martin Scorsese's latest film is coming to Apple TV+ on January 12. What better time than to sit down and watch the finest films from across his legendary career. From classics like Goodfellas, to less-well-known offerings such as The Last Waltz, here's where to watch Scorsese's ten best films.
Miramax, Touchstone
Looking for other directors' work? Here are the 10 best original films on AppleTV+.
Warner Bros. Pictures
OK, you can’t watch this as part of any subscription service, but it’s worth shelling out for arguably Scorsese’s finest work. No ranking list is complete without this biographical tale of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), a small-time gangster who climbs up the ranks by committing violent robberies with two cold-blooded associates (Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro).
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists
You may not have heard of The Band, but this concert movie might just make you a fan. In it, Scorsese documents the influential ‘70s rock group’s farewell gig at San Francisco’s Winterland, which happened to also feature some of most acclaimed acts of the time, including Bob Dylan, Dr. John, and Emmylou Harris. A fascinating snapshot of a long-gone era.
Netflix
The film famous for assembling DeNiro, Pacino, and Pesci then shaving 30 years off them using CGI, there’s more to The Irishman than fancy de-aging tech. It chronicles the life of a WW2 veteran (DeNiro) who allegedly killed labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). While slow and methodical, stick with it and you’re richly rewarded with a tense, taught crime drama.
Paramount Pictures
Based on stockbroker Jordan Belfort's 2007 memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort, a fraud-committing Wall Street big wig on a fast rise to the top. Rampant drug-use and excessive parties involving marching bands and head-shaving are soon threatened by Kyle Chandler’s dogged FBI agent. DiCaprio's fifth collaboration with Martin Scorsese is available to watch on Netflix in most territories..
20th Century Studios
Free to watch on both Plex and Hulu as part of your subscription, this social satire rips apart the adoration of celebrity. DeNiro’s fame-chaser Rupert Pupkin is the lens Scorsese does it through, a hopeful comedian with awful material but one driving ambition: to perform a stand-up routine on TV. To get there, he figures, first he needs to kidnap actor Jerry Lewis, who plays himself.
Paramount Pictures
A rare film involving none of Scorsese’s usual muses, the director turns to Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as the leads of this 17th-century-set religious drama. They play Portuguese persists undergoing a monumental crisis of faith as they endeavour to deliver sermons to Japan’s native population. Scorsese’s passion project, one of his most personal films to date, took over 25 years to develop, yet it was largely ignored come awards season, earning only a single nomination for Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography.
Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks
It might not feel as epic or as personal as the rest of his releases, but Shutter Island is a riveting thriller with a gripping central mystery that sweeps you along for the ride. DiCaprio plays U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels who, along with partner Mark Ruffalo, heads to Ashecliffe Hospital to investigate nasty goings on. But the hospital holds some dark secrets, and Daniels will need to confront them - and himself - to get to the bottom of it.
Apple TV+
Scorsese’s latest film is an epic Western crime drama clocking in at three hours and 26 minutes. Good news, then, it’s coming to Apple TV+ on January 12th, so subscribers can put their feet up and soak in the drama. It reunites him with Oscar-winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro as the figures at the center of a conspiracy to kill off tribal members that stand between them and vast sums of oil money.
Miramax, Touchstone
Nominated for ten Oscars, Gangs of New York is one of Scorsese’s celebrated prestige pictures. It’s his first teaming with DiCaprio, but Daniel Day-Lewis is the actor who steals the show as terrifying gang leader Bill the Butcher, who allegedly stayed in character throughout filming in efforts to nail a New York drawl. It follows DiCaprio’s Amsterdam Vallon, a young Irish immigrant returning to the site of his father's death in New York to take revenge against his killer.
Universal
Goodfellas ran so Casino could run even harder. Another biographical crime drama, this one casts Robert De Niro as mobster Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, owner of the up and coming Tangiers Casino in Vegas. He’s excellent at turning a profit, as well as breaking the hands of crooks in backrooms when they try and swindle card games. The enterprise starts to go belly up, however, when Joe Pesci’s loose-cannon enforcer Nicky Santoro get in over their heads.
