I’m sure it’s a favorite sport of most first year film students to rank their top Scorsese movies, but what other director has so many that would fall in someone’s top 10? Starting out in the 60s but getting his first big break with Mean Streets in 1973, Martin Scorsese went on to become a household name, respected in all film circles, master of the award seasons, a gatekeeper for new talent. He created roles that gave voice to larger issues — violence, racism, poverty, misogyny — while incorporating a cutting humor and singular style into the story. He followed with Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, making DeNiro a star. By the time 1990’s Goodfellas came out, no one could be surprised at its success then or its enduring relevance. Making Joe Pesci a villain we almost wanted to root for, and delivering the most talked about one shot when Ray Liota’s Henry Hill enters the Copacabana for a night out. Marty had made it in Hollywood; he commanded respect, but would still go on to tell incomparable stories that lured in audiences despite their often unforgivable protagonists. In 2006 The Departed was released and became one of Scorsese’s most well known crime centered sagas. DiCaprio assumed the role of muse, continuing the tradition started with a young DeNiro. The Departed gave Matt Damon, Mark Whalberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and Vera Farmiga a chance to shine, and the well paced narrative kept audiences rapt. Of course Jack Nicholson doing a cranked up version of his Shining-esque madman moonlighting as an FBI informant solidified a cast performing at its best. The 2013 Wolf of Wall Street was another critical and commercial success and gave not just DiCaprio and Jonah Hill the spotlight but a (at the time) lesser known young Australian actress her big break: Margot Robbie. Who would have known that ten years later she would be staring in the biggest grossing film by a female director!

Which brings us to the latest in a long lineage of interesting, clever, impactful creations by Scorcese: Killers of the Flower Moon. Expertly crafted, perfectly cast, thoughtfully informed by conversations with the Osage Tribe, edited and scored masterfully, this movie reaches to the top of the aforementioned list. With a running time of over 3 hours, I was skeptical that it could live up to its festival and trailer hype. I’ve since heard commentary that it could have even been longer – such a compelling and heartbreaking story told within disparate genres ranging from historical drama to western, love story to mystery. Ultimately it is the tale of the Osage Tribe in Oklahoma that withstood years of abuse and murder. Having become very wealthy from oil, the Tribe was targeted by greedy white men. Based on a book by the same name, the film pulls from its source, but pivots from highlighting the role of the FBI to telling the story of the Burkhart family: a mother, her four daughters and their families. DeNiro’s calculating villain shows how a thief and murderer masqueraded as an upstanding community leader with complicity and protection from the Klan-connected law enforcement, bank, and doctors to silence and steal from the Osage. While this story remains specifically focused on a family, with DiCaprio as the two-faced husband of Mollie, one of the Burkhart sisters (played by the excellent Lily Gladstone), it does not shy from highlighting the widespread horror of the murders, or the painful and pervasive oppression of American Indians. The parallel drawn with the Tulsa Massacre is especially effective.

A criticism of Scorsese, with all of his layered, complex and imperfect characters, is the lack of central female characters. He changes that approach in this most recent release by giving the appropriate screen time to Gladstone, lead narrator and heroine.

My list:

  1. Goodfellas
  2. Killers of the Flower Moon 
  3. The Departed
  4. Wolf of Wall Street
  5. Taxi Driver
  6. Raging Bull