Ranking All Of Director Martin Scorsese’s Movies
“What are Martin Scorsese’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Scorsese directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!
We took all of the movies directed by Martin Scorsese and looked at his Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, Metacritic, Metacritic User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 6 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.
The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page. We will update the article if/when a new movie by Martin Scorsese is released. Although it probably won’t be immediate so the scores on each site have time to settle and aren’t overly influenced by the early, usually much more opinionated, users.
Happy Viewing!
The Top Film’s Of Martin Scorsese
36 ) Street Scenes (1970)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 33
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 35
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 35
- Letterboxd User Score: 35
Documentary on May 1970 antiwar protests in New York City and Washington D.C..
35 ) Boxcar Bertha (1972)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 32
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 36
- Letterboxd User Score: 34
Based on “Sister of the Road,” the fictionalized autobiography of radical and transient Bertha Thompson as written by physician Dr. Ben L. Reitman, ‘Boxcar’ Bertha Thompson, a woman labor organizer in Arkansas during the violence-filled Depression of the early ’30’s meets up with rabble-rousing union man ‘Big’ Bill Shelly and they team up to fight the corrupt railroad establishment.
34 ) New York, New York (1977)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 30
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 33
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 33
- Letterboxd User Score: 30
An egotistical saxophone player and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long uphill climb.
33 ) Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 31
- Letterboxd User Score: 30
J.R. is a typical Italian-American on the streets of New York. When he gets involved with a local girl, he decides to get married and settle down, but when he learns that she was once raped, he cannot handle it. More explicitly linked with Catholic guilt that Scorsese’s later work, we see what happens to J.R. when his religious guilt catches up with him.
32 ) New York stories (1966)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 33
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 35
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 15
- Letterboxd User Score: 35
Three stories happening in New York. The first, by Scorsese, is about a painter who creates his works helped by high volume music and an attractive assistant; second, by Coppola, is about a rich and bold 12 years old who helps her separated parents to reconciliate; third, by Allen, is a witty piece of comedy about the impossibility of getting rid of the son’s role.
31 ) The 50 Year Argument (2014)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 31
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 33
- Letterboxd User Score: 30
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese and his longtime documentary collaborator David Tedeschi, A 50 Year Argument rides the waves of literary, political, and cultural history as charted by the The New York Review of Books, America’s leading journal of ideas for over 50 years. Provocative, idiosyncratic and incendiary, the film weaves rarely seen archival material, contributor interviews, excerpts from writings by such icons as James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, and Joan Didion along with original verité footage filmed in the Review’s West Village offices.
30 ) Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 29
- Metacritc Critic Score: 19
- Metacritic User Score: 20
- IMDB User Review Score: 31
- Letterboxd User Score: 27
48 hours in the life of a burnt-out paramedic. Once called Father Frank for his efforts to rescue lives, Frank sees the ghosts of those he failed to save around every turn. He has tried everything he can to get fired, calling in sick, delaying taking calls where he might have to face one more victim he couldn’t help, yet cannot quit the job on his own.
29 ) Kundun (1997)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 24
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 21
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 11
- IMDB User Review Score: 29
- Letterboxd User Score: 30
The Tibetans refer to the Dalai Lama as ‘Kundun’, which means ‘The Presence’. He was forced to escape from his native home, Tibet, when communist China invaded and enforced an oppressive regime upon the peaceful nation. The Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959 and has been living in exile in Dharamsala ever since.
28 ) Italianamerican (1974)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 33
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 15
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 19
- Letterboxd User Score: 17
Filmmaker Martin Scorsese interviews his mother and father about their life in New York and family history back in Sicily.
26 Tie ) Shine a Light (2008)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 16
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 27
- Metacritc Critic Score: 13
- Metacritic User Score: 15
- IMDB User Review Score: 26
- Letterboxd User Score: 28
Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones unite in “Shine A Light,” a look at The Rolling Stones.” Scorsese filmed the Stones over a two-day period at the intimate Beacon Theater in New York City in fall 2006. Cinematographers capture the raw energy of the legendary band.
26 Tie ) American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1990)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 31
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 24
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 15
- Letterboxd User Score: 13
American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince is a 1978 documentary directed by Martin Scorsese. Its subject is Scorsese’s friend Steven Prince, best known for his small role as Easy Andy, the gun salesman in Taxi Driver. Prince is a raconteur telling stories about his life as an ex-drug addict and a road manager for Neil Diamond. Scorsese intersperses home movies of Prince as a child as he talks about his family. When talking of his years as a heroin addict, Prince tells a story about injecting adrenaline into the heart of a woman who overdosed, with the help of a medical dictionary and a Magic Marker.
25 ) A Letter to Elia (2010)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 33
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 11
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 15
- Letterboxd User Score: 21
Director Martin Scorsese speaks candidly and passionately about one of his formative filmmaking influences: the late Elia Kazan. Utilizing precisely chosen clips from Kazan’s signature films including “On the Waterfront,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Gentleman’s Agreement,” “Baby Doll,” “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” “A Face in the Crowd,” “America, America,” and “The Last Tycoon,” and interview footage of the director himself, co-directors Scorsese and Kent Jones recount the director’s tumultuous journey from the Group Theatre to the Hollywood A-list to the thicket of the blacklist. But most of all, they make a powerful case for Kazan as a profoundly personal artist working in a famously impersonal industry.
24 ) Shutter Island (2010)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 29
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 24
- Metacritc Critic Score: 20
- Metacritic User Score: 19
- IMDB User Review Score: 10
- Letterboxd User Score: 13
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by his troubling visions and also by a mysterious doctor.
23 ) Cape Fear (1991)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 26
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 23
- Metacritc Critic Score: 16
- Metacritic User Score: 3
- IMDB User Review Score: 25
- Letterboxd User Score: 21
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? Fourteen years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady’s rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
22 ) The Color of Money (1986)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 12
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 28
- Metacritc Critic Score: 11
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 29
- Letterboxd User Score: 28
Former pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson decides he wants to return to the game by taking a pupil. He meets talented but green Vincent Lauria and proposes a partnership. As they tour pool halls, Eddie teaches Vincent the tricks of scamming, but he eventually grows frustrated with Vincent’s showboat antics, leading to an argument and a falling-out. Eddie takes up playing again and soon crosses paths with Vincent as an opponent.
20 Tie ) Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 17
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 23
- Letterboxd User Score: 17
A recently widowed woman on the road with her precocious young son determined to make a new life for herself as a singer.
20 Tie ) Gangs of New York (2002)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 25
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 19
- Metacritc Critic Score: 18
- Metacritic User Score: 10
- IMDB User Review Score: 19
- Letterboxd User Score: 21
It’s 1863. America was born in the streets. Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic gangland kingpin, Bill the Butcher, who murdered his father years earlier. With an eager pickpocket by his side and a whole new army, Vallon fights his way to seek vengeance on the Butcher and restore peace in the area.
19 ) Silence (2016)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 18
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 30
- Metacritc Critic Score: 10
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 26
- Letterboxd User Score: 13
Two Jesuit priests travel to seventeenth century Japan which has, under the Tokugawa shogunate, banned Catholicism and almost all foreign contact.
18 ) The Age of Innocence (1993)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 20
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 24
- Metacritc Critic Score: 7
- Metacritic User Score: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 26
- Letterboxd User Score: 21
Tale of 19th century New York high society in which a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman’s cousin.
17 ) Mean Streets (1973)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 13
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 23
- Letterboxd User Score: 17
A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.
16 ) Public Speaking (2010)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 13
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 13
- Letterboxd User Score: 21
A feature-length documentary starring Fran Lebowitz, a writer known for her unique take on modern life. The film weaves together extemporaneous monologues with archival footage and the effect is a portrait of Fran’s worldview and experiences.
14 Tie ) The Aviator (2004)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 15
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 20
- Metacritc Critic Score: 11
- Metacritic User Score: 3
- IMDB User Review Score: 19
- Letterboxd User Score: 17
A biopic depicting the life of filmmaker and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes from 1927 to 1947, during which time he became a successful film producer and an aviation magnate, while simultaneously growing more unstable due to severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
14 Tie ) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 17
- Metacritc Critic Score: 14
- Metacritic User Score: 17
- IMDB User Review Score: 6
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
A New York stockbroker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, corporate banking world and mob infiltration. Based on Jordan Belfort’s autobiography.
13 ) Hugo (2011)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 8
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 21
- Metacritc Critic Score: 7
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 19
- Letterboxd User Score: 21
Hugo is an orphan boy living in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris. He learned to fix clocks and other gadgets from his father and uncle which he puts to use keeping the train station clocks running. The only thing that he has left that connects him to his dead father is an automaton (mechanical man) that doesn’t work without a special key which Hugo needs to find to unlock the secret he believes it contains. On his adventures, he meets with a shopkeeper, George Melies, who works in the train station and his adventure-seeking god-daughter. Hugo finds that they have a surprising connection to his father and the automaton, and he discovers it unlocks some memories the old man has buried inside regarding his past.
12 ) The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 19
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 15
- Metacritc Critic Score: 9
- Metacritic User Score: 12
- IMDB User Review Score: 15
- Letterboxd User Score: 13
Jesus, a humble Judean carpenter beginning to see that he is the son of God, is drawn into revolutionary action against the Roman occupiers by Judas — despite his protestations that love, not violence, is the path to salvation. The burden of being the savior of mankind torments Jesus throughout his life, leading him to doubt. As he is put to death on the cross, Jesus is tempted by visions of an ordinary life married to Mary Magdalene.
11 ) George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 16
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 10
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
Director Martin Scorsese profiles former Beatle George Harrison in this reverent portrait that mixes interviews and archival footage, featuring commentary from the likes of Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Yoko Ono.
10 ) The King of Comedy (1982)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 12
- Letterboxd User Score: 5
Aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin attempts to achieve success in show business by stalking his idol, a late night talk-show host who craves his own privacy.
9 ) The Last Waltz (1978)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 6
- Letterboxd User Score: 7
Martin Scorsese’s rockumentary intertwines footage from “The Band’s” incredible farewell tour with probing backstage interviews and featured performances by Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr and other rock legends.
8 ) Casino (1995)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 20
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
- Metacritc Critic Score: 16
- Metacritic User Score: 2
- IMDB User Review Score: 6
- Letterboxd User Score: 7
The life of the gambling paradise – Las Vegas – and its dark mafia underbelly.
7 ) After Hours (1985)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 3
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 13
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
An ordinary word processor has the worst night of his life after he agrees to visit a girl in Soho whom he met that evening at a coffee shop.
6 ) A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
- Metacritc Critic Score: 21
- Metacritic User Score: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 2
- Letterboxd User Score: 5
Martin Scorsese celebrates American movies from the silent classics to the Hollywood of the Seventies.
5 ) My Voyage to Italy (1999)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 11
- Metacritc Critic Score: 3
- Metacritic User Score: 14
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
“I saw these movies. They had a powerful effect on me. You should see them.” That’s Martin Scorsese’s message for this documentary. We meet his family on Elizabeth Street in New York; he’s a third generation Italian with Sicilian roots. Starting in 1949, they watched movies on TV as well as in theaters, lots of Italian imports. Scorsese, with his narration giving a personal as well as a public context, shows extended clips of these movies. Films of Rossellini and De Sica fill part one; those of Visconti, Fellini, and Antonioni comprise part two. Scorsese takes time with emotion, style, staging, technique, political context, and cinematic influence. It’s his movie family.
4 ) Raging Bull (1980)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
- Metacritc Critic Score: 2
- Metacritic User Score: 18
- IMDB User Review Score: 6
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
The Departed (2006)
3 ) The Departed (2006)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
- Metacritc Critic Score: 6
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 3
- Letterboxd User Score: 4
To take down South Boston’s Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise. While an undercover cop curries favor with the mob kingpin, a career criminal rises through the police ranks. But both sides soon discover there’s a mole among them.
2 ) Taxi Driver (1976)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 3
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
- Metacritc Critic Score: 1
- Metacritic User Score: 15
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.
1 ) Goodfellas (1990)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- Metacritc Critic Score: 5
- Metacritic User Score: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
Martin Scorsese’s Best Movies
Martin Scorsese Review Website Filmography Rankings
| Film | RT Critic | RT User | MC Critic | MC User | IMDB | Letterboxd | Overal Rank |
| Goodfellas | 6 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Taxi Driver | 3 | 5 | 1 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| The Departed | 9 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Raging Bull | 6 | 5 | 2 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| My Voyage to Italy | 1 | 11 | 3 | 14 | 4 | 9 | 5 |
| A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies | 1 | 2 | 21 | 21 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| After Hours | 13 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
| Casino | 20 | 5 | 16 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| The Last Waltz | 4 | 3 | 21 | 21 | 6 | 7 | 9 |
| The King of Comedy | 11 | 9 | 21 | 21 | 12 | 5 | 10 |
| George Harrison: Living in the Material World | 16 | 5 | 21 | 21 | 10 | 9 | 11 |
| The Last Temptation of Christ | 19 | 15 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 13 | 12 |
| Hugo | 8 | 21 | 7 | 8 | 19 | 21 | 13 |
| The Aviator | 15 | 20 | 11 | 3 | 19 | 17 | 14 |
| The Wolf of Wall Street | 22 | 17 | 14 | 17 | 6 | 9 | 14 |
| Public Speaking | 9 | 13 | 21 | 21 | 13 | 21 | 16 |
| Mean Streets | 4 | 13 | 21 | 21 | 23 | 17 | 17 |
| The Age of Innocence | 20 | 24 | 7 | 6 | 26 | 21 | 18 |
| Silence | 18 | 30 | 10 | 8 | 26 | 13 | 19 |
| Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore | 13 | 17 | 21 | 21 | 23 | 17 | 20 |
| Gangs of New York | 25 | 19 | 18 | 10 | 19 | 21 | 20 |
| The Color of Money | 12 | 28 | 11 | 5 | 29 | 28 | 22 |
| Cape Fear | 26 | 23 | 16 | 3 | 25 | 21 | 23 |
| Shutter Island | 29 | 24 | 20 | 19 | 10 | 13 | 24 |
| A Letter to Elia | 33 | 11 | 21 | 21 | 15 | 21 | 25 |
| Shine a Light | 16 | 27 | 13 | 15 | 26 | 28 | 26 |
| American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince | 31 | 24 | 21 | 21 | 15 | 13 | 26 |
| Italianamerican | 33 | 15 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 17 | 28 |
| Kundun | 24 | 21 | 15 | 11 | 29 | 30 | 29 |
| Bringing Out the Dead | 27 | 29 | 19 | 20 | 31 | 27 | 30 |
| The 50 Year Argument | 22 | 31 | 21 | 21 | 33 | 30 | 31 |
| New York stories | 33 | 35 | 21 | 21 | 15 | 35 | 32 |
| Who’s That Knocking at My Door | 27 | 32 | 21 | 21 | 31 | 30 | 33 |
| New York, New York | 30 | 33 | 21 | 21 | 33 | 30 | 34 |
| Boxcar Bertha | 32 | 34 | 21 | 21 | 36 | 34 | 35 |
| Street Scenes | 33 | 35 | 21 | 21 | 35 | 35 | 36 |
