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Favourite underappreciated/underdiscussed scenes from a MS film?
▲ 10 r/MartinScorsese

Favourite underappreciated/underdiscussed scenes from a MS film?

Everyone knows/talks about the Cococabana scene from Goodfellas, the "I'm not leaving" speech from Wolf of Wall Street, or Werewolves of London from Color of Money, but what are the scenes that rarely get discussed, yet still hit a nerve for you? There's so many I have from large set pieces to one-second shots that I rarely see discussed, even though they make their films so much richer and more engrossing. A few of mine:

  • The Chinese invading in Kundun. Most of the movie is quite with the only score being this pyschadelic/meditative Phillip Glass piece that creates this otherworldly atmosphere, but once the Chinese come there is this loud, chaotic, and brash piece with cymbals, strings, and tightly structured propandistic military choir. Mix that with the shot of soldiers who literally look like an alien force from Star Wars with their goggles and the dizzying dutch angle and the contrast with the Tibetans in their traditional clothing, just signifies how things are about to change. (3) Kundun - "The Chinese have invaded" - YouTube
  • The Terminal Bar scene in After Hours (where "Youre Mine" is playing). The whole movie feels like a Hopper painting come to life, but this scene always felt like the best encapsulation of everything the painter went for. There's a comforting blue collar atmosphere in the bar, but also there's something kind of sad, lonely, and a little scary about it as well. Without saying anything, you can tell all the characters in that bar have a story to tell. The music feels a little maddening which also fits the late night divey atmosphere perfectly too haha. Crave | Summer Offer V2 | :30s
  • The "babybabybabybabybabybaby" scene from Casino where the gangsters are shooting some guys house. There's nothing really deep here, but the music just has this manic energy that fits perfectly with the quick cutting and rapid gunfire. MS is a master at fitting music in a score that captures the energy of a scene that few other directors can match (the only one who operates at a similar level is Linklater, IMO), and this scene just feels like the 1:1 match for Devo here. (3) Casino (1995) Shooting - YouTube
  • Other standouts:
    • Intro to Gangs of NY before the fight. Maybe not super underrated, but this is my favourite opening to a MS film. The energy of the drums+fluts, navigating through the subterranean NY with its pagan atmosphere and exclamation of Brendan Gleeson kicking the door open is so exhilarating. Gangs of New York - Opening Sequence
    • Gangs of New York dance scene with Leo and Cameron Diaz with the lamps. It's not necessary to the film really, but I just find the scene really sweet and romantic, which is not something MS often portrays. Shortened: SMB BFORM25Q4 US CA EN Video COBOL SJ 15s NOFR WM
    • Draft riots scene (also Gangs of New York). Just an amazing way of putting a historical moment to film. It's exhilarating and terrifying, which is how I imagine it would have felt like. Again the drum flute score fits perfectly and the narration does a great job of selling the sheer terror and chaos of the moment.Gangs of New York - Draft Riots

What are your favourite scenes that are not the ones endlessly discussed/listed as the best of all time?

u/seven_costanza_jr — 11 hours ago
▲ 3 r/MartinScorsese

Scorsese Ranking

  1. Silence ( 10/10)
  2. taxi driver (10/10)
  3. the last temptation of christ (10/10)
  4. goodfellas (10/10)
  5. raging bull (9/10)
  6. killers of the flower moon (9/10)
  7. The irishman (9/10)
  8. kundun (9/10)
  9. shutter island (9/10)
  10. hugo (9/10)
  11. the king of comedy (9/10)
  12. Alice doesn’t live here anymore (8/10)
  13. after hours (8/10)
  14. the departed (8/10)
  15. the aviator (8/10)
  16. new york New York (8/10)
  17. cape fear (8/10)
  18. bringing out the dead (7/10)
  19. the wolf of Wall Street (7/10)
  20. casino (7/10)
  21. mean streets (7/10)
  22. who’s that knocking at my door (7/10)
  23. the age of innocence (6/10)
  24. the color of money (6/10)
  25. boxcar Bertha (6/10)
  26. gangs of New York (6/10)
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u/EdwardFL2026 — 3 days ago
▲ 11 r/MartinScorsese+1 crossposts

Raging Bull (1980): From Blindness to Sight, What the Bible Quote Really Means. A Religious Analysis

Raging Bull (1980) ends on a wonderful note, with this text quoted from The Bible:

>"Speak the truth before God, we know this fellow is a sinner"
and the man replied: "Whether or not he is a sinner, I don't know, but once I was blind, Now I can see"
- John 9:24-26

In the Part I of this post, let's try to explore what this quote could mean. In the Part II, we will look at Raging Bull from a more religious lens and analyze what makes Jake LaMotta a "sinner" in the religious sense.

PART I

In the Biblical context, there was a blind man who was miraculously cured of his blindness by Jesus' touch. There were plenty sceptics of Jesus' power around that time and they approached the cured man, asking him to tell the truth and testify against Jesus by labelling him as a sinner in front of God. The cured man however, simply replies that he doesn't know if Jesus is a sinner or not but atleast he opened up his eyes.

Coming to how this quote might connect to this film, whether the things Jake LaMotta did are morally correct is a different conversation but the raw portrayal of his downfall in this film we all spent a couple hours watching atleast opens up some eyes in us. That quote nicely explains the purpose of the film without being very on the nose. The film, much like that blind man, isn't more interested in absolving or condemning Jake, it's more so interested in showing the truth of Jake's existence without flinching in an unfiltered manner. It helps us "see" how arrogance and rage corrupts a person.

I read online a couple theories from other people on how Jake's posture in his last match v/s Sugar Ray Robinson evokes the crucified posture of Jesus with the arms wide and blood pouring down the body from his wounds, which adds to this interpretation. While I don't personally rock with a person like Jake being potentially portrayed as a Christ-like figure, I can pass it off because it is subtle and the final Biblical quote also connects to this, because the person addressed in the quote is Jesus.

Or maybe this crucifixion pose is to show that Jake LaMotta has gone so far down his delusional vanity that he feels like Jesus getting crucified when he finally loses and if the whole boxing world conspired against him. He even leaves by frantically repeating "I never went down Ray" . Ironically enough, there is a big cross showing Christ's crucifixion placed above Jake & Vickie's bed centrally in their house, which adds weight to this theory. During the scenes before his matches, religious artifacts like crosses and images of the Virgin Mary are framed around Jake.

Another interpretation of the quote could be the fact that Jake finally "sees". The quote is flashed on the screen right after the final scene, where Jake looks at himself in the mirror and recites "Let's face it, It was you Charlie" as a rehearsal for his stand up comedy. This also functions as a moment of self "reflection" into a mirror where Jake realizes the problem was always him. "I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am" also cuts deep in this monologue.

This interpretation goes along so well with confessions from the real Jake LaMotta in later parts of his life about himself, which is what made him write the autobiography in the first place to admit his wrongs. The film itself is based on that autobiography.

PART II

Let's now analyze what makes Jake LaMotta a "sinner" in the religious sense. As a quick recap, Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth are the seven deadly sins in Christianity. Raging Bull portrays Jake LaMotta indulge in all seven of them strongly in some way or form.

The #1 thing I love about Raging Bull is the fact that it epitomizes the age old teaching and Christian saying that "Pride" is the deadliest/worst one out of the 7 deadly sins. On paper, "Pride" doesn't sound that bad right? What's so wrong in having a bit of respect for yourself and why is "Pride" said to be worse than Envy, Greed, Lust or Wrath/Rage, all of which look instantly dangerous. This film sketches out all the answers to that.

Pride is called the "root/father of all sins" because it doesn't just destroy you by itself but it subconsciously plants the seeds for all the 6 other deadly sins to insidiously cultivate. "I still remember those cheers, they still ring in my ears" is the iconic opening line of the film where Jake reflects on where his immense amounts of pride stemmed from: the success and validation being a great boxer brought him. It planted the idea in him that he is the superior and can beat down anyone in a ring and hence he can beat down anyone in his personal life, even if it is his wife or brother.

This later gives rise to

  • Lust, pursuing other women and staying up all night late at nightclubs while being married
  • Envy, over Vikkie making the smallest compliment over Jake's opponent which escalated to insane amounts of paranoia over his wife
  • Wrath, which should be self-explanatory given his nickname "Raging Bull" and during the scene where he beats up his loved ones like an animal
  • Greed, for success and championships even if it means mutilating his opponents
  • Gluttony, which is exemplified in the later stages of his career by Jake failing to lose weight and always eating junk food to the dismay of Joey
  • and finally Sloth, which is all he ends up with at the end of the film, physically overweight and lazy comedian, forced into retirement due to weight struggles.

The final 20-30 minutes of this film portrays his downfall so viscerally. When Jake screams "I'm not an animal" all alone in an isolation prison, punching his hurtful hands against the wall, it feels like Jake has realized the biggest battle he had to win wasn't inside no boxing ring, but inside his own mental cage that he had built for himself with his vices and excessive pride.

There is this quick run-through of years in Jake LaMotta's life from 1944 to 1947 around the 40 minute mark of this film which does heavy lifting symbolically. In this segment, you get the only colour shots of the film, and those are shots of Jake "winning" in his personal life, building a family/bond with Vikkie & his brother Joey. These colour shots are intertwined with the usual Black & White shots of Jake winning games in a boxing ring.

The colour shots show something transiently beautiful that Jake never really achieves anytime in his personal life later, despite his glorious professional achievements in black & white. His hunger/rage for success in the boxing world and his tendency to get envious of his wife's normal behavior is what hinders his personal life moving forward and makes it colorless.

Overall, I think Raging Bull is one of the best cautionary tales that you can find in Cinema. I was even more impressed by this film on re-watch and got inspired to write this post. I still consider it to be Martin Scorsese's best movie. I wasn't surprised when I later found out that Scorsese grew up devoutly Catholic and even considered becoming a priest.

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u/shadylaundry — 3 days ago
▲ 23 r/MartinScorsese

The best villain of all time

Max Cady is perhaps one of the best antagonists I've ever seen in film, without a doubt. And in my humble opinion, it's Robert De Niro's best performance.

u/Fucking_secuels — 4 days ago
▲ 41 r/MartinScorsese

Why hasn’t Martin Scorsese spoken about Andrei Tarkovsky?

It’s odd when I go through Scorsese interviews and he never mentions him even though one time, when highlighting Russian cinema, he mentions Sergei Eisenstein and two other Russian directors (I forgot their names) while talking about Touki Bouki. Tarkovsky’s name is not said by Martin there and other places of time. I don’t know if I’m not looking deeper but again, it’s weird since Tarkovsky is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time as well as being on the level of guys such as Fellini, Kurosawa, and more.

u/MasterfulArtist24 — 6 days ago
▲ 23 r/MartinScorsese

The 10 movies for which Martin Scorsese won or was nominated for the Oscar for Best Director

Year Movie
1980 Raging Bull (lost to Robert Redford for Ordinary People)
1988 The Last Temptation of Christ (lost to Barry Levinson for Rain Man)
1990 Goodfellas (lost to Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves)
2002 Gangs of New York (lost to Roman Polanski for The Pianist)
2004 The Aviator (lost to Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby)
2006 The Departed (won)
2011 Hugo (lost to Michel Havanicius for The Artist)
2013 The Wolf of Wall Street (lost to Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity)
2019 The Irishman (lost to Bong Joon Ho for Parasite)
2023 Killers of the Flower Moon (lost to Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer)

Of the 9 times he lost, 7 of them he lost to the director of the movie that won Best Picture and 2 of them was to the director of a movie that didn't win Best Picture

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u/LowInteraction6397 — 8 days ago
▲ 12 r/MartinScorsese

Was Max telling the truth?

In Cape Fear (1991), Max Cady tells Sam that as soon as he entered prison, he discovered his sweeter, more affectionate side, his feminine side. That he was a woman, that he was chased by a fat, hairy, ugly redneck, and that he was sodomized by four white guys or four black guys. Was Max Cady telling the truth, or was he trying to manipulate Sam?

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u/FoxIndependent4310 — 11 days ago