What was SCORSESE best decade?

[THE WOLF]

Half a century of classics

 

[Evil Twin]

Plus all the documentaries he's put together.

 

[Batmannerism]

Hmmmm.....okay, while IMO Goodfellas is Marty's single best film, his best string of triumphs are Gangs of NY, The Aviator and the Departed, so I go 2000s.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I was very tempted to go 00s where he hit on all three, but Goodfellas + Casino for the win!

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I could rewatch Goodfellas and Casino endlessly so I vote 90's easily.

 

[Persona]

Extremely tough but had to go 80s. All great movies listed in the poll and Raging Bull puts it over the top as that is my favorite movie by him.

Kind of crazy how good he still is, though, this late in his career. Spielberg's making stuff like The BFG and Ready Player One while Scorsese's making masterpieces like Silence and The Irishman.

 

[Batmannerism]

I was very tempted to go 00s where he hit on all three, but Goodfellas + Casino for the win!

Goodfellas is so far above the rest that it almost makes the 90s win by itself.

Having said that, GONY and the Departed seals it for me. Cate Blanchett is amazing in the Aviator.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Kind of crazy how good he still is, though, this late in his career. Spielberg's making stuff like The BFG and Ready Player One while Scorsese's making masterpieces like Silence and The Irishman.

I think you are being way too harsh on Spielberg. Lincoln was one of his best films and Warhorse and Bridge of Spies were also very good.

 

[Luigi]

90s for me with the 10s closely behind.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

As much as I love The Departed, The Wolf of Wallstreet and The Irishman I have to go with the 90's just because of that Goodfellas/Casino combination and Cape Fear is a hell of an underrated Scorsese aswell IMO.

 

[Persona]

I think you are being way too harsh on Spielberg. Lincoln was one of his best films and Warhorse and Bridge of Spies were also very good.

Fair enough. I think my point was more about consistency and also I don't think any of Spielberg's best work of the past couple decades is remotely in the same league as what Scorsese's has been. Personal taste, of course.

I love Spielberg and when he's great, he is really great. But for a director who could have his pick of projects, I don't know why he does some of the stuff he does.

 

[Persona]

0 votes for 70s is kind of crazy, though. Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver... all classics. If it weren't for Raging Bull, which to me is a top 15 movie ever, I probably would have gone 70s. (Though all those other 80s movies are great, too).

Added bonus for the 70s is Alice being easily the best and most complete female character in a Scorsese movie.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Fair enough. I think my point was more about consistency and also I don't think any of Spielberg's best work of the past couple decades is remotely in the same league as what Scorsese's has been. Personal taste, of course.

I love Spielberg and when he's great, he is really great. But for a director who could have his pick of projects, I don't know why he does some of the stuff he does.

I do notice that his historical films tend to be his best ones and have been for awhile, while his sci-fi/fantasy/action films are weaker. My guess is that his classics required a child-like whimsy that at his age he simply doesn't have anymore.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I can't pick between the 80s, 90s and 10s.

 

[weezerspider]

This is incredibly difficult. He’s made relevant work every decade. 1970s have Taxi Driver and Mean Streets. 1980’s have Raging Bull, which is my all-time favorite film. 1990’s have GoodFellas and Casino, arguably his two most popular films. 2000’s is by far the weakest era of his, but it has his one Best Picture Winner, The Departed, which is still a cable TV staple. The 2010’s has his best three film stretch IMO of his whole career with Wolf, Silence and The Irishman.

My initial reaction was the 2010ms because the last three films have been creative highs, but Shutter Island is one of his worst films and Hugo is a strong, but minor work, so I’m going to go with the 1990s. GoodFellas and Casino need no explanation. Bringing Out The Dead is a great reteam with Paul Schrader that works both as a companion piece with After Hours and Taxi Driver. The Age of Innocence is an excellent film and the exact kind of film that casuals claim he can’t make(no violence, strong female characters etc). Lastly, CAPE FEAR is a fun, genre B Movie made with A+ talent. DeNiro and Scorsese both ham it up. IMO, it’s his most underrated film. Rounding out the 1990s is Kundun, the second film in Scorsese’s spiritual trilogy. So the 1990s gives you pretty much every kind of Scorsese: gangsters, genre B-movie, costume character drama, spiritual drama and Streets of New York character study. That’s why, ultimately, I pick the 1990s.

My overall Scorsese ranking:

1. Raging Bull
2. GoodFellas
3. Taxi Driver
4. The Irishman
5. Silence
6. The Wolf Of Wall Street
7. The King of Comedy
8. Mean Streets
9. Casino
10. Cape Fear
11. Age Of Innocence
12. Bringing Out The Dead
13. The Departed
14. The Aviator
15. After Hours
16. Kundun
17. Who’s That Knocking On My Door?
18. Gangs Of New York
19. Hugo
20. The Color Of Money
21. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
22. Last Temptations of Christ
23. Shutter Island
24. New York, New York
25. Boxcar Bertha

 

[Persona]

Good post, weezer... I expect nothing less from the Offret avatar!

My Scorsese ranking:

1. Raging Bull
2. Silence
3. Taxi Driver
4. The Age of Innocence
5. Mean Streets
6. The Last Temptation of Christ
7. Goodfellas
8. The Irishman
9. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
10. After Hours
11. Cape Fear
12. Who's That Knockin' On My Door
13. The King of Comedy
14. Kundun
15. Bringing Out The Dead
16. The Color of Money
17. The Wolf of Wall Street
18. Casino
19. The Departed
20. Shutter Island
21. The Aviator
22. Hugo
23. Gangs of New York
24. Boxcar Bertha
25. New York New York

 

[Captain Tired]

Went with the '80s for the wider variety of genres explored. Also I just generally like the output better. Goodfellas and Casino are well made films, no doubt, but imo, once you've seen one gangster film, you've seen 'em all. It's just not a genre that massively interests me and I rarely go back to any of them after that initial viewing, save for a few select scenes. So yeah, '80s. After Hours and The Last Temptation are two of my favourite and most underrated Scorsese flicks.

 

[Persona]

Totally agree, Bruce. After Hours is one of the better comedies ever made by a director not known for that genre and Last Temptation is probably the most thought-provoking movie ever made based on a Biblical story. It's funny, when I first saw Last Temptation as a young teenager I thought it was kind of terrible, mostly cuz I thought Harvey Keitel and Peter Gabriel didn't fit, but when I revisited it in college I was like, "Nevermind, this movie is incredible."

 

[shauner111]

Easy.

The 80’s. His two best films of his career Raging Bull and After Hours dropped. And Color of Money is his most underrated.

GoodFellas is solid but overrated. Same with the Departed. Never liked Casino beyond laughing at Pesci.

 

[scarlet-witch]

I went 00's, for me personally those three are some of his strongest films.

 

[DarkKnight88]

For any Scorsese fan, or film fan in general, a must read...

[Essay] Il Maestro, By Martin Scorsese | Harper's Magazine

Flash forward to the present day, as the art of cinema is being systematically devalued, sidelined, demeaned, and reduced to its lowest common denominator, “content.”

As recently as fifteen years ago, the term “content” was heard only when people were discussing the cinema on a serious level, and it was contrasted with and measured against “form.” Then, gradually, it was used more and more by the people who took over media companies, most of whom knew nothing about the history of the art form, or even cared enough to think that they should. “Content” became a business term for all moving images: a David Lean movie, a cat video, a Super Bowl commercial, a superhero sequel, a series episode. It was linked, of course, not to the theatrical experience but to home viewing, on the streaming platforms that have come to overtake the moviegoing experience, just as Amazon overtook physical stores. On the one hand, this has been good for filmmakers, myself included. On the other hand, it has created a situation in which everything is presented to the viewer on a level playing field, which sounds democratic but isn’t. If further viewing is “suggested” by algorithms based on what you’ve already seen, and the suggestions are based only on subject matter or genre, then what does that do to the art of cinema?

 

[Spider-Fan]

I vote 80s-00s

 

[Broseph44]

I could rewatch Goodfellas and Casino endlessly so I vote 90's easily.

Same here, 90’s gets my vote for the same reason.

 

[Broseph44]

Extremely tough but had to go 80s. All great movies listed in the poll and Raging Bull puts it over the top as that is my favorite movie by him.

Kind of crazy how good he still is, though, this late in his career. Spielberg's making stuff like The BFG and Ready Player One while Scorsese's making masterpieces like Silence and The Irishman.

Ready Player One was awesome IMO. So much fun.