With Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street hitting screens today off the back of wild critical acclaim (“Best Since Casino” etc), this is as good a time as any to look back over his considerable resumé and bathe in the wonder of some of his best set pieces.
With Scorsese’s best work, there is always so very much to savour – bravura camera work, iconic framing and dialogue, memorable characters – so here are ten scenes or moments that have long lingered in the memory and will likely enduringly appeal for as long as we could care to imagine.
1. Are You Talkin’ To Me?
As undeniably powerful as the final shoot-out of Taxi Driver is, Travis Bickle talking to himself in the mirror gets the nod here. Of course, the sequence has been copied, aped and parodied to within an inch of its life, in everything from Rocky & Bullwinkle to the upcoming Neighbors, but that has done nothing to diminish the impact of the original sequence, Robert De Niro bringing his A-game in a way we have rarely seen in more recent years.
By turns, the scene is disturbing (the product of a fracturing mind), threatening (a man clearly itching for a fight) and amusing (there is an undeniably pathetic/tragic quality to Travis’s vain posturing) and the scene’s attainment of iconic status is all the proof you need that this is important and significant work by all involved.
