April 9, 2007: My Ten Favorite Martin Scorsese Films

Someday, if I’m lucky and my kids have kids, my grandchildren will ask me about what the hell was everyone thinking back at the turn of the century with this blogging business:

“Grandpa,” they’ll squeal, “Did people really air all their personal stuff online?”

“They sure did,” I’ll say in an incredibly high-pitched nasal and somewhat feminine voice. “And not only that, but some folks actually took the time to publish lists of their favorite songs and movies and cookies. In fact, I remember one day--I think it was back in April of ought seven--when I devoted an entire hour to creating a list of my favorite Scorsese flicks!”

10. The Departed: These folks rank The Departed in the top 70 of all films. Netflix stocks thousands of films for your rental pleasure. I ask the voters: Do you really, really believe that The Departed ranks higher than all but 69 of these thousands of other films? And if you were stuck on a desert island like Lost’s and only had a limited supply of electricity in a hatch with an unreliable dvd player from 1997, and you had to limit the rest of your queue to only 70 films because John Locke blew up your submarine midway through the third season, would you really, really include The Departed as one of your 70 best films of all time. Think about that.

9. The Aviator: This was a fun film--for the first hour and a half. I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to watch a three-hour film, then I want to see wizards and talking trees in it.

8. Gangs of New York: You’re probably wondering why I don’t provide links to all these films. The answer’s simple: Most people won’t click on more than a couple links. I know that because I’ve checked my sitemeter, and sitemeter never lies. I also figure that if you’re interested in learning about this film, you’ll click on the above link for The Departed and follow the associated Scorsese links. This follows from my own “Contrarian Rule of Blogging #5: Never provide more than three links per post.”

7. The Age of Innocence: I watched this with a girlfriend when it first premiered. What I remember most about this film is that it featured a lady character that had several small, yappy dogs, and that my girlfriend really dug Daniel Day-Lewis.

6. Cape Fear: Ok. Now we’re getting into the really awesome Scorsese flicks. The first four were good. These next six fall into the category of “Yeah, I’ll watch these films over and over until the dvd degrades.” Counselor. Oh, counselor. De Niro, Nolte, Lange, Juliette Lewis AND cameos by Mitchum and Peck. Awesome.

5. The King of Comedy: Watching De Niro and Jerry (not Juliette) Lewis together here merited my purchase of this dvd. It’s been almost 25 years since its release in the theaters, which makes this film all the more prescient about our current culture of celebrity worship. Sandra Bernhard’s great in this one, too.

4. Casino: When I listed my “most disturbing movie moments” ever, I somehow neglected to include one of the scenes from this film. I don’t own it, but I watched it again late last year. It’s a slightly paler version of Goodfellas. (Note: “Contrarian Rule of Blogging # 6: Don’t link to a page within your own site when you’re feeling tired or you’re sick with a respiratory virus and you’re too lazy to locate the entry you wrote.”)

3. Raging Bull: Scorsese was robbed when he didn’t get the award for best picture here--at least that’s the conventional critic’s approach. I would agree. This is another film I need to add to my wish list.

2. Taxi Driver: This was a tough decision. I own a copy of this film, and I absolutely dig this cast: De Niro, Boyle, Foster, Cybill Shepherd and Harvey Keitel. But the truth is that if I have to take only one Scorsese film to that desert island, then my award goes to:

1. Goodfellas: The imdb.com voters rank this film #19 of their top 250 films. I agree. I’ve watched this film several times, which for me is the hallmark of a great film.