Quentin Tarantino’s favourite Martin Scorsese movie
If you were to name two of the most formidable modern American filmmakers, it’s likely that both Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese would come up in conversation. Both displaying distinct filmmaking styles that made them into some of the most influential auteurs of the 20th century, Tarantino and Scorsese have long battled it out at the height of the American movie industry, rubbing shoulders alongside the likes of Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson.
They might be two of the most adored American filmmakers, but there is no rivalry between the pair of directors, with each working in slightly different areas of their craft. For example, Tarantino demands full control over his stories, penning the screenplay before taking charge behind the camera, while Scorsese, more often than not, only directs the stories conjured by other creatives.
“[Tarantino is] a writer… it’s a different thing,” Scorsese once asserted, comparing himself and the Pulp Fiction director, “I come up with stories, I get attracted to stories through other people — all different means, different ways. And so I think it’s a different process. I respect writers, and I wish I could just be in a room and create these novels. Not films; novels. Long stories.”
Formulating his own style by extracting aspects from various other filmmakers and movies that he loved, Tarantino looked to the work of Scorsese during his ascendance in the 1990s. This meant casting his mind back on almost 20 years of Scorsese cinema and gleaning inspiration from the likes of Raging Bull and Mean Streets, but especially 1976’s Taxi Driver, Tarantino’s favourite of the illustrious filmography.
It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that the movie, which told the story of a violent, disaffected victim of the Vietnam War, would become Tarantino’s favourite Scorsese flick, especially as he too has a fondness for lead star Robert De Niro, casting him in his own 1997 film Jackie Brown. A bleak tale penned by Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver has little of the snappy cinematic humour of a Tarantino flick but much of its brooding venom.
Speaking about why he loves the movie so much, Tarantino once stated: “One of the things about Taxi Driver [is] that it is just so magnificent. I actually do feel that it may be the greatest first-person character study ever committed to film. I mean, I really actually can’t even think of a second, or a third or a fourth that can even come into contention with it.”
Take a look at a full analysis of Taxi Driver by none other than Quentin Tarantino below.
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