Martin Scorsese has made a career of crafting legendary films and teaming with some of the best actors working across six decades. Scorsese has made muses of two of the greatest actors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. However, aside from those frequent collaborators, he’s also worked with Daniel Day-Lewis, Willem Dafoe, Winona Ryder, Joe Pesci, Liam Neeson, and Nicolas Cage — to name a few.
Scorsese is not only a master technician, creating a world of cinema onto itself, perfecting the art of montage, but he’s directed some of the finest performances of the previously mentioned actors’ careers. Scorsese has helped win Oscars for Cate Blanchett, Ellen Burstyn, Joe Pesci, and, of course, De Niro. His ensembles are star-studded, getting big names to appear if only for a few scenes. It’s a credit to Scorsese’s artistry that he continues to get heartfelt work from actors and that his films have yet to lose any edge, even into his old age. Here are the best performances in his films (that aren’t from De Niro or DiCaprio).
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10 Al Pacino — The Irishman
Netflix
In a late-career gem and first-time collaboration with director Scorsese, Al Pacino shined as the ill-fated, historical persona of the Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa. Using all of his swagger and bravado as an actor, Pacino rips through lines with a wave of anger and historic gusto that perfectly melds with the classic gangster lineage of a Scorsese picture. Teamed with De Niro, there’s a tragic arc for Hoffa that Pacino paints as the character gets in over his head. Wrestling for power inside the corrupt organizations, the downfall of The Irishman is a classic, heartbreaking mediation on criminality and old age.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
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9 Jonah Hill — The Wolf of Wall Street
Paramount Pictures
Scorsese’s films have a palpable amount of black humor in them. Even in his darkest, most violent films, laughter always finds itself bursting through the shadows. In The Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese took the comedy to the extremes. The film was perfectly suited for the talents of Jonah Hill. One of the most gifted comedic actors working today, Hill’s penchant for improvisational humor gave way to many hilarious moments, including the ludicrous near-death scene where he is saved by his partner in crime. Playing the right-hand man of DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort, Hill found a specific, scumbag, Long Island energy to tap into that earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
8 Daniel Day-Lewis — Gangs of New York
Miramax Films
The phrase “tour de force” could be synonymous with Daniel Day-Lewis’ career. An actor of such magnitude commands the screen like a black hole, swallowing and devouring anything that dare gets near. In Gangs of New York, Day-Lewis takes the reins as fiercely patriotic, conservative, and murderous Bill The Butcher. Helming the end of an era, when gangs ruled New York, Day-Lewis brings his gravitas to a nasty leader, who’s handy with anything bladed. He shakes the frames like he does with his victims and chews them up, inside and out. Through all of his sweaty, profane-laced rants about the country, it’s the failed assassination scene that takes the crown for his most insane.
7 Andrew Garfield — Silence
In a year when Andrew Garfield saw himself nominated for Best Actor for his work in Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, he gave a career-best performance for the master, Scorsese. Playing a Jesuit priest going on a mission to Japan in the 16th Century, where Christians were persecuted for their beliefs, Garfield went to the depths of hell, anguish, and pain to deliver a work of deep spiritual resonance. As Sebastiao Rodrigues in Silence, Garfield must ask himself the meaning of faith and what it means to connect to a power greater than himself. In doing so, it asks if there is a deeper meaning in being burdened with the silence of God. A transcendent work from Scorsese and Garfield, who bring out the best in each other’s artistry.
6 Willem Dafoe — The Last Temptation of Christ
Universal Pictures
Willem Dafoe is one of the most dangerous actors working today. Not because of his personality, but because the choices he makes as an actor are daring and volatile. Bringing esteem and artistic interpretation to an iconoclast is no easy choice. But with The Last Temptation of Christ, Scorsese and Dafoe did just that. Playing the titular role of Jesus Christ, Dafoe brings anguish and poetry to the role that, per LA Times, sparked controversies across the globe. A life-threatening role because Dafoe portrayed Christ not just as a figure of divinity, but as one that is subject to joy, anger, and cruelty. It’s a stunning partnership and one that created a compellingly moral statement.
5 Ray Liotta — Goodfellas
Warner Bros.
In a career-defining performance, Ray Liotta perfectly embodied the manic rage, paranoia, and charisma of real-life mobster Henry Hill in Goodfellas. Initially not the first name Scorsese wanted to cast in the lead role, Liotta had an interaction with the director at the Venice Film Festival that convinced him to cast Liotta as Hill. It’s hard to imagine anyone else taking the reins; Liotta brings desperation to the role in the second half that lacks vanity. Completely losing his soul as the criminal life catches up to him and fills the first half of the film with an open heart that creates a vivid portrait of Henry Hill.
4 Paul Newman — The Color of Money
Buena Vista Distribution
The only sequel Scorsese has ever made and his sole collaboration with the screen icon Paul Newman, The Color of Money is a decadent showcase for pool hall wisdom, furthering the legacy of 60s classic The Hustler. Newman does some of his best work as the grizzled, blue-eyed drinker who finds a young mind to mold in Tom Cruise’s Vincent Lauria. Newman is great as a fast-talking pool hustler, whose slick talk from years of experience kicks Vincent’s ass. It’s an ode to his superstar persona and cements another iconic Newman character, winning him his first and only Oscar for Best Actor.
3 Ellen Burstyn — Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Playing a heartbroken, single mother forced to take up more responsibility after her husband dies, Ellen Burstyn shined as Alice in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, as she takes her son on the road, hoping to support and build a better life for them. The struggles of finding new love while also finding reasonable work and wages create a near-impossible balance for Alice. Scorsese and Burstyn find brevity in vulnerability, as Alice breaks down only to make herself stronger again. It’s tremendous and moving work from Burstyn, which shows the hardships of being a single mother and the strength necessary to keep your head afloat. Burstyn went on to win the Oscar for Best Actress, the first actor to win any award under the direction of Martin Scorsese.
2 Nicolas Cage — Bringing Out The Dead
A blazing travail through the hellish landscape in the streets of New York City. Nicolas Cage shines in Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out The Dead. Cage’s usual belligerence and heightened performance gets quietly muted down to his beautifully expressive eyes. Glaring through the worst of the worst when it comes to New York’s EMT workers, Cage starts to see ghosts. As he unravels with each new partner accompanying him, Cage seeks salvation through death and finds the true nature of purgatory. Cage’s character has a wonderfully tragic arc that feels like an opus, each act heightened by Scorsese’s direction until it reaches its dramatic endpoint, as the spirits of the bodies he tends to pass messages along.
1 Joe Pesci — Goodfellas
In Scorsese’s mafia masterpiece Goodfellas, in a world flooded with memorable Mafioso and two-bit criminals, none struck the screen with the same energy as Joe Pesci as the wild violent Tommy DeVito. Not only is he the most fearful and raging source of pitbull energy, but in Pesci’s small frame too, he was also the source of much of the black humor that comes from Scorsese’s work. Even in a supporting turn, where Liotta tells most of the story, it was Pesci’s “What am I a clown? I amuse you?” scene that will remain forever.
