From Kubrick to Carpenter: Martin Scorsese’s favourite science fiction movies of all time
The overwhelming majority of Martin Scorsese’s filmography has unfolded in a reality as close to authentic and tangible as it gets, which doesn’t immediately disqualify him from enjoying the more fantastical side of cinema.
Of course, the legendary filmmaker has never made a sci-fi movie, and he’s probably never going to, which is an acceptance of his limitations. There are very few flaws in Scorsese’s directorial game, but if he hasn’t felt the need to take a trip beyond the stars in a feature-length career that’s fast approaching its 60th anniversary, then it’s because he doesn’t think it would be the best use of his talents.
He has dabbled in fantasy on occasion, though, most notably with New York, New York, Shutter Island, and Hugo. That trio comprises an intentionally juxtaposing romantic musical drama, a noir-tinged psychological thriller with sinister undertones, and a lavish coming-of-age drama, respectively, but none of them come close to sci-fi.
Thanks to his extensive and encyclopaedic knowledge of the medium, Scorsese has seen plenty of sci-fi stories because that’s what he does. The veteran eats, sleeps, lives, and breathes the moving image, but it becomes increasingly apparent that it’s not among his most favoured offshoots of the art form.
When most people are asked to name the best movies they’ve ever seen, they tend to name a few. Scorsese, being the cinephile that he is, has rattled off a great deal more than that. Across his top picks, hearty recommendations, and guilty pleasure, the icon has put forth hundreds upon hundreds of features that he’d call favourites, but only a small percentage of them are sci-fi.
Naturally, given its impact on cinema and multiple generations of directors, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of them. The masterpiece is one of the greatest and most influential pictures ever made, and no self-respecting assessment of top-tier filmmaking is complete without celebrating its many artistic, creative, and technical merits.
Thanks to his deep-seated love of cinema history, it’s only fitting that Georges Méliès A Trip to the Moon and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis make the cut, too, with each of them changing the landscape and ushering in a revolution in their own way. So far, so Scorsese, but the remainder of his preferred sci-fi stories are more cult classics than anything else.
Showcasing his soft spot for John Carpenter, Scorsese singled out The Thing and They Live as two of the horror titan’s finest works, with Kurt Russell’s gruesome body horror and Roddy Piper’s unravelling of an intergalactic conspiracy comfortably ranking among the genre maestro’s top tier.
William Cameron Menzies’ Invaders from Mars is definitely the most unexpected, if only because it’s a decidedly B-tier effort. Then again, Scorsese would have only been ten years old when it was released in cinemas in 1953, and watching humanity repel alien attackers as a youngster was clearly burned into his brain for the rest of his days.
Martin Scorsese’s favourite sci-fi movies:
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
- The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
- They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)
- Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
- Invaders From Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 1953)
- A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès, 1902)
