10 directors inspired by Martin Scorsese
With over 50 directing credits and the most Academy Award nominations held by any living director, Martin Scorsese is one of Hollywood’s greatest legends. His success as a filmmaker is evident in the fact that five of his greatest creations have since been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, three of which are ranked on the AFI’s Greatest American Films list.
Scorsese’s most notable and iconic films include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and GoodFellas. These features explore the psychology of their main characters and elements of violence, key elements that follow the director through a career that most could only dream of.
Scorsese, who was mentored by directors such as Michael Powell, John Cassavetes and Roger Corman, has a passion for cinema that arrived to him during childhood. He has since inspired a whole new generation of filmmaking, as many mainstream and contemporary directors employ his thematic values.
As today is Scorsese’s 80th birthday, let’s honour his legacy by looking to those who follow his filmmaking vision. Here are ten directors who show inspiration from Scorsese in their work.
10 directors inspired by Martin Scorsese:
Bong Joon-Ho
Bong Joon-Ho, the Korean director, made landmarks in the film industry with his 2019 release Parasite. This critical drama explores a lower-class family infiltrating a higher-class environment through employment. The film comments on class division through a thrilling plot as elevated through some terrific editing and narrative build-up.
Parasite was the success story of the 2020 Academy Awards, winning Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature, Best Director and Best Picture. The final win was a groundbreaking historical moment in the history of cinema, as Parasite became the first non-English film to win the award. In one of his many acceptance speeches, Joon-Ho put aside his own moment to take the time to share the filmmaker who inspired him to get to this point. As translated by Sharon Choi, his interpreter, the filmmaker shared: “When I was young and starting in cinema there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart which is, ‘The most personal is the most creative,’” Bong said. “That quote was from our great Martin Scorsese.”
Todd Phillips
Too Phillips is another director who achieved success in 2019 and the 2020 Oscars with his intense and loose comic adaptation Joker. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix in an Academy Award-winning performance as Arthur Fleck. Fleck is an aspiring comedian who struggles with severe mental health issues. Joker is an insightful but difficult watch, communicating ideas on mental health treatment, and people becoming the faces of protests and societal rejection. However, it is harrowing and tragic in tone, as a haunting sadness infiltrates the attempted comedic moments.
Any die-hard Scorsese fans will recognise the influence from the plot layout alone, as Fleck’s journey in Joker is a direct parallel to The King of Comedy. This film also explores a mentally ill aspiring comedian who stalks his idol. Both films even feature Robert De Niro, whose central role in Scorsese’s film is a direct mirror of Phoenix’s. Joker was also compared heavily to Taxi Driver, where we see veteran Travis Bickle submit to his paranoia. Both films have a gritty and bleak tone, alongside some precise and stylised camerawork.
David O’Russell
American filmmaker O’Russell received acclaim for his 2013 feature American Hustle. The film follows two con artists who are forced by an FBI agent to set up an elaborate sting operation on corrupt politicians. American Hustle’s cast was one of his strengths, with some magnetic performances by Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale.
American Hustle signals Scorsese in its blend of darkness and comedy. Its story of crime and deception borrows from Scorsese’s favoured ideas, with some brilliantly executed black comedy to break the tension when appropriate. As an echo of Scorsese’s features in style, O’Russell also matches Scorsese in success as American Hustle racked up $240 million and ten Oscar nominations.
Robert De Niro
Film icon Robert De Niro isn’t just associated with Scorsese through acting in front of his camera in some of film’s greatest contributions. The actor also experimented with directing in the 1994 crime drama A Bronx Tale, a projecy in which he also stars. An Italian-American boy befriends a local mobster and becomes immersed in the gangster way of life.
De Niro found inspiration from Scorsese’s Goodfellas, which he also starred in and was released four years prior. A Bronx Tale develops the more personal elements of Scorsese’s film as De Niro plays the father of the misled boy. This results in De Niro tapping into family dynamics and the childhood experience, as Goodfellas outlined in its intro before presenting the aftermath of this seduction into crime.
Lynne Ramsay
Lynne Ramsay’s 2017 thriller You Were Never Really Here explores a jaded enforcer tracking down a missing teenage girl. He finds corruption and exploitation of power in his dedicated journey to find the girl.
Joaquin Phoenix gives another impressive performance in Ramsay’s picture, and this film gets it right in replicating Scorsese’s vision, simply because it emphasises the vigilante as a person as opposed to his actions, as did Scorsese with Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. You Were Never Really There is a terrific character study residing in an outer story of crime and corruption, again like Taxi Driver.
Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson has his own unique and impressive directorial style but he still pays tribute to others. His two lauded films, There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights, hold some influence from Scorsese when it comes to style and narrative. There Will Be Blood is a period drama about a ruthless oil prospector. Boogie Nights is a period comedy about an upcoming adult star.
The first film dissects the American Dream, proposing it has more downsides than ups. Scorsese once said: “When I was growing up, I don’t remember being told that America was created so that everyone could get rich. I remember being told it was about opportunity and the pursuit of happiness. Not happiness itself, but the pursuit.”
Boogie Nights replicates Goodfellas’ story but in a different industry; pornographic films. It also presents some stimulating visuals and intriguing humour as does Scorsese.
Mike Newell
Scorsese is the king of making gangster movies, successfully managing to balance the criminal acts with the compromised humanity of the criminals. Mike Newell also situates this contrast with Donnie Brasco, a crime story about an FBI agent who went deep undercover with a mafia family in New York in the ‘70s.
Newell analyses the masculine dynamic between characters in Johnny Depp’s Joseph D.Pistone and Al Pacino’s Lefty, as the two form an alliance. Scorsese also explores alliances and mentor relationships in his male characters, as seen in Goodfellas and Raging Bull. Donnie Brasco is cited as one of the best gangster films, an appraisal Scorsese has also received through his work.
Wong Kar-wai
This ‘80s crime drama directed by Wong Kar-wai follows a small-time triad member as he attempts to liberate his friends from the corruption and deception that plagues them.
As Tears Go By was directly inspired by Mean Street in narrative structure, as Scorsese’s film also showcases a small-time hood who turns to his friends in times of need. Kar Wai also employs Scorsese’s style through his soundtrack, as his film features a Cantonese addition of ‘Take My Breath Away’. This echoes Mean Street using ‘Be My Little Baby’ in its opening.
Michael Cimino
In Michael Cimino’s take on a Vietnam war tale, we see three Slavic Americans as they navigate their lives during the fight in Nam. However, they are captured by enemy forces and are separated.
The Deer Hunter can be read as a study on the psychology of war, with portrayals of how the exterior affects the interior. Scorsese never took up a Vietnam film, however, Taxi Driver references the war through Bickle being a veteran who is left damaged from his time on the battlefield. However, Cimino puts his own spin on the concept by executing some extensive violent actions that emphasise the acts of war.
Guy Ritchie
Snatch a British crime comedy about two intertwined plots, was famously directed by Guy Ritchie. One section of the plot follows the search for a stolen diamond, while the other is about the conflict between a boxer and a gangster.
Ritchie’s sophomore film presents some humour in an otherwise gritty gangster film, as Scorsese blended humour with his stylised Goodfellas. Snatch is carried heavily by a talented cast of colourful and magnetic characters. Their actions and disagreements elevate the story material effortlessly and there’s a perfect blend of tough guys and good guys.
