Ranking every Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro collaboration from worst to best
Great cinema relies on great collaboration. From the editors who piece the film together from mere digital files to the extras that bring a scene’s background to life, filmmaking relies on a group of committed artists working towards one common goal of cinematic excellence. Indeed, some of the greatest collaborations have proven this beyond doubt, with Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson, Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant, and Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro having each created masterpieces of cinema.
First collaborating together way back in 1973, Scorsese and De Niro have gone on to make ten movies together and one short film, each showing off the artistic best of both icons. From Mean Streets to Killers of the Flower Moon, the partnership between the duo has led to one of the most formidable collaborations of the medium’s history, defining how male characters were represented in the late 20th century.
Surprisingly, fellow filmmaker Brian De Palma introduced the pair in the early 1970s, with De Niro appearing in the former’s earliest movies, including Greetings, The Wedding Party and Hi, Mom!, Noting that De Niro was shy during their first encounters, the director noted that he was “shocked” that the actor could give such explosive performances on cue.
Charting half a century of filmmaking splendour, take a look at our rundown of every Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro collaboration below.
The greatest Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro movies
10. New York New York (1977)
Often considered to be the very worst Scorsese movie, and for a good reason, 1977s New York New York stars De Niro as a saxophonist with a large ego who romances a young lounge singer. Sharing similarities with Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, which approaches a similar musical-inspired romance with a little more singing and dancing, New York New York is very much Scorsese-lite, showing off little of what makes the filmmaker so great.
Also starring the likes of Liza Minnelli and Lionel Stander, De Niro does most of the heavy lifting in this film, but admittedly, he doesn’t have a lot to work with, thanks to a flimsy script from Earl Mac Rauch and Mardik Martin.
9. The Irishman (2019)
Based on Charles Brandt’s 2004 book, I Heard You Paint Houses, this movie marked the ninth collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro. Utilising innovative, if not slightly questionable, de-ageing technology, the two presented us with an epic decade-spanning mobster saga that delved into family, responsibility and growing old. Bolstered by supporting performances from Al Pacino as Union boss Jimmy Hoffa and Joe Pesci as mafia leader Russell Bufalino, De Niro’s performance as driver-turned-hitman Frank Sheeran was sufficiently compelling.
However, when considering their whole oeuvre, it was just yet another sprawling gangster movie. He may have garnered the “tough guy” reputation in his later career, but there are only so many stoic yet violent criminals one man can play. Looking at their other work, we know that De Niro can do much better.
8. Casino (1995)
Relative to other movies, Casino is fantastic. One of the reasons it’s so fantastic is the core dynamics between De Niro’s calm and collected Jewish mobster Sam Rothstein and Pesci as the volatile and scarily unpredictable Nicky Santoro. Scorsese once described the main character of Goodfellas as the criminal underworld itself, and the same can be said for Casino — it’s less a character study and more of an exploration into the intersection of the mafia and the Vegas gambling industry.
However, this movie came out five years after Goodfellas. And, dare we say it, it’s a little bit too similar to Goodfellas, both in terms of its epic scope and the character De Niro plays, which is, yet again… a stoic gangster. That being said, it still makes for a delightful watch.
7. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
The Leonardo DiCaprio-led movie Killers of the Flower Moon is Scorsese’s latest cinematic beast. Adapted from the non-fiction novel of the same name by David Grann, the film depicts the real-life murders of the Osage tribe, whose land stood above valuable oil reserves that were highly sought-after by opportunistic capitalists looking to create their own twisted American dream.
Recency bias aside, Killers of the Flower Moon is up there with one of Scorsese’s very best, being a cinematic epic that captures the greed that flourished through such a time in American history. De Niro plays William Hale, the film’s detestable villain, and does so with perfect nuance.
6. Cape Fear (1991)
A year after their indelible gangster epic, Goodfellas, Scorsese and De Niro decided to switch things up big time, in this case with a remake. Before that word took on the cynical associations we now know, back in the day, it was an exciting prospect — and the pairing of this director/actor duo on a reinvention of the 1962 film was very exciting indeed. De Niro played Max Cady, a shredded and tatted-up convict who gets released from prison.
Uniquely gifted and intelligent, and having studied law during his 14-year sentence, he makes it his mission to exact revenge on the upper-class lawyer whose feeble defence resulted in his incarceration. Camp, melodramatic and gleefully cartoonish, this is one of the two’s collaborations that yields something seriously different, therefore making it one of their more special shared creative endeavours.
5. Mean Streets (1973)
Remarkably, Scorsese’s first collaboration with De Niro remains one of their very best. Released in 1973, Mean Streets was a formative classic for Scorsese, being his first foray into crime fiction, telling the story of a small-time criminal who attempts to keep the peace between his maverick best friend and some pretty unforgiving gangsters. Playing Johnny Boy, the erratic criminal, De Niro is simply a joy to watch.
Well, we say a joy, but in reality, he’s more uncomfortable to watch in the best way possible. Never quite sure what he will do next, De Niro perfectly embodies the role, showing shadows of his forthcoming cinematic characters who would soon set the world alight.
4. Goodfellas (1990)
For modern audiences, Scorsese’s iconic gangster flick, Goodfellas, is their first foray into the director’s filmography. Starring De Niro as a big-time crook, his character, James Conway, shares screen time with Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito and Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill in a story that follows a young man’s rise from a teenage crook into being one of the biggest gangsters in Brooklyn, New York.
Carrying the weight, mannerisms and demeanour of a real-life gangster, De Niro delivers a powerhouse performance as Conway, giving the film a much-needed sense of authenticity.
3. The King of Comedy (1983)
The lasting legacy of this unique and singular comedy/drama is still felt today, most recently in Todd Phillips’ Joker movie, which basically owes Scorsese and De Niro royalties considering how much of The King of Comedy’s DNA was “borrowed”. De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin, a wannabe stand-up comic who is plagued by delusions of grandeur and psychotic visions of success.
Obsessed with talk show host Jerry Langford, Pupkin hatches a plan to kidnap him. The result is an incredibly stylised and blackly comic tale that entirely hinges on the performance of De Niro — an unstoppable character study of a man who is genuinely scary, empathetic and pitiful, all at the same time.
2. Taxi Driver (1976)
There’s little we can say about Taxi Driver that film scholars and young blossoming movie fans haven’t already sung to the heavens. Indeed, among the crème de la crème of Scorsese and De Niro collaborations, the film, penned by Paul Schrader, tells the story of a man, scarred by his involvement in the Vietnam War, who prowls the streets of New York in a yellow taxi cab assessing how the city has given in to degradation.
Whilst the likes of Jodie Foster, Hervey Keitel and Albert Brooks help to carry the load of the film, Taxi Driver is well known for being one of the most incredible vehicles for proof of De Niro’s sheer dramatic power.
1. Raging Bull (1980)
Raging Bull is a testament to both the quality of cinema at the time and to the pure, unparalleled vibrancy, zeal and zest of two filmmakers who hadn’t even reached middle age. The movie is celebrated and remembered for its astonishing and innovative editing and sound mixing, which put audiences in the centre of the blood-spattered ring. It is, however, wrongfully forgotten (or at least not talked about enough) that Raging Bull contains the best performance of De Niro’s entire career and of any Scorsese movie.
Portraying Jake LaMotta, the deeply troubled yet explosively charismatic Italian-American boxer, De Niro immersed himself into an entirely new persona elevated further by brilliant prosthetics and a phenomenal body the actor trained vigorously for. The result is a De Niro character that’s barely recognisable and the ultimate collaboration between him and Scorsese.
