Best Scorsese Film

[Ideologue]

SURRENDER DOROTHY

[PRC]

Voted for Goodfellas. 

It may not be my favourite of his films, but it's the total package.  Great production value, great artistic vision, great "rise & fall" story and great acting.  Raging Bull comes close but I don't think it's as accessible as Goodfellas so that's why it got the vote.

If the poll was for favourites I probably would have voted for the Last Temptation of Christ, shamefully missing from this list (I haven't read Kazantzakis's book or the Bible).  It's nowhere near the production value of most of Scorsese's films other than maybe Mean Streets... all the money probably went to being on location or there was no money from studio fear of being associated with the project... but it's the one movie that actually made me contemplate Christian spiritual matters in a way that Ben Hur or the Ten Commandments never could.  Catholics say it's heretical, as not-a-true-believer I have no opinion on that, but I can say the movie made me think of who and what Christ was more than any of my interactions with a true believer or my less than ten visits to a church ever has. 

[Caliga]

Since this is the second person to mention it:  I didn't forget Last Temptation of Christ.  I left it off because I thought it was critically panned and didn't think anyone would want to vote for it.  I just checked Rotten Tomatoes and saw that I was incorrect about that.  Sorry.

[Capetan Mihali]

I just watched the Cape Fear remake and I thought it was, as Yi would say, ossum.  DeNiro with a southern accent is priceless.  And it's a good message film out there for defense attorneys: the ethics rules mean you have to dredge any possible dirt on rape/torture victims and use it to destroy them on the stand if it might help your client.

However, I'll go out there and say Taxi Driver.  This was such a definitive movie in my life.  So many great performances, including Scorcese's own best performance as a homicidal passenger. ("You know who lives there?  Well, you couldn't know who lives there, but I'm just saying, you know who lives there?  A nigger lives there.  How bout that, hm?")   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G85y-bK-H9o

[Syt]

I just watched the Cape Fear remake and I thought it was, as Yi would say, ossum.  DeNiro with a southern accent is priceless.  And it's a good message film out there for defense attorneys: the ethics rules mean you have to dredge any possible dirt on rape/torture victims and use it to destroy them on the stand if it might help your client.

It was so awesome it's also responsible for one of the best Simpsons episodes.

[Savonarola]

King of Comedy is better than all but 2 or 3.

De Niro was never funnier or creepier.

I went with Raging Bull, but Goodfellas and Taxi Driver are strong contenders.

[Queequeg]

King of Comedy is better than all but 2 or 3.

De Niro was never funnier or creepier.

I went with Raging Bull, but Goodfellas and Taxi Driver are strong contenders.

You know, I never understood if his ending schtick was supposed to be funny or not.  Scorsese has a minor part as a cameraman laughing at DeNiro's jokes, which is some indication that my response (I thought it was hilarious) was intended. 

[Savonarola]

You know, I never understood if his ending schtick was supposed to be funny or not.  Scorsese has a minor part as a cameraman laughing at DeNiro's jokes, which is some indication that my response (I thought it was hilarious) was intended.

I thought it was funny too; though most of his jokes are clichés.  The studio audience laughs at his jokes, but so did the cardboard cutouts at his apartment.  DeNiro's character is probably more disturbed in this film than the one he played in Taxi Driver.  That might be what makes the routine funny, seeing such an off-kilter character standing up and telling harmless jokes.

[The Brain]

It was funny.

[CountDeMoney]

If the poll was for favourites I probably would have voted for the Last Temptation of Christ, shamefully missing from this list (I haven't read Kazantzakis's book or the Bible).  It's nowhere near the production value of most of Scorsese's films other than maybe Mean Streets... all the money probably went to being on location or there was no money from studio fear of being associated with the project... but it's the one movie that actually made me contemplate Christian spiritual matters in a way that Ben Hur or the Ten Commandments never could.  Catholics say it's heretical, as not-a-true-believer I have no opinion on that, but I can say the movie made me think of who and what Christ was more than any of my interactions with a true believer or my less than ten visits to a church ever has.

You don't have to read Kazantzakis to appreciate Last Temptation.  Setting aside Harvey Keitel's painful Judas-from-da-Bronx ("Whattsa matta witchu?  Where's ya head?") early on, it's by far the most complex, compelling and ultimately uplifting interpretation of Jesus and the highlights of synoptic gospels ever filmed, and always brings out in me the little kid that loved the story of Jesus in his Children's Bible. 

Certainly beats that snuff film porn Mel Gibson made, which I couldn't even fucking finish.

And Peter Gabriel's soundtrack is not only a classic in world music, but his most mature work ever as an artist.

[mongers]

Damn, now I'm gonna have to watch a few of these films again.