As Taxi Driver marks its 50th year, Cineworld is bringing back eight Scorsese classics.
Legacy and power spring to mind when talking about Scorsese; he’s one of the greatest and most influential. That’s why his filmmaking methods matter, and why his films matter. From Travis Bickle’s ‘You talkin’ to me’ in Taxi Driver to ‘There are three ways of doing things around here: the right way, the wrong way, and the way I do it’ said by Ace in Casino, there are certain scenes that have practically embedded themselves in our DNA.
So, ahead of the Martin Scorsese Film Season coming to Cineworld from 20th July, let’s relive some of the best scenes from his most iconic films – all screening soon. Tickets for the film season are sale now.
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Travis Bickle practises his lines in front of the mirror in Taxi Driver (20th July)
Ex-marine Travis Bickle taxis the dark and deranged route from cab driver to vigilante in gritty 1970s New York, post-Vietnam, when the city is lost. While they’d worked together on Mean Streets three years earlier, Taxi Driver was the project that truly cemented Robert De Niro and Scorsese’s 50-year collab.
The mirror scene is still chilling 50 years on. If ever there was a scene that built a character, an idea, a sinister threat, it’s this one. Travis stands in front of a full-length mirror, practising his moves, pulling a gun and repeating the line ‘You talkin’ to me’ over and over.
Before our eyes, he undergoes the final transformation into a vigilante. If we weren’t 100% sure he would be capable of it at the beginning of the scene, we sure are by the end. Famously, the script gave just one direction, and De Niro improvised. Which makes the scenes all the more character-driven and terrifying.
Joe Pesci proves he’s a really funny – and sweary – guy in Goodfellas (24th July)
Martin Scorsese’s 1990 mob movie, based on a true story, starred Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci. This was the moment the filmmaker delivered one of the defining gangster films of the modern era.
IMDB estimates the f-word is used about twice every 60 seconds in Goodfellas, and in the bar scene it’s used a helluva lot more. Slicing from bonhomie to brutality in seconds, Pesci as Tommy picks up on Henry’s (Liotta) ‘you’re funny’ line, and the shift is vicious as he turns accusatory and threatening. Pesci’s volatile switch silences the entire place.
We can’t take any more punches from Raging Bull – but LaMotta can (27th July)
Scorsese poured his heart, soul and personal angst into Raging Bull, made in 1980 and based on the memoir of boxer Jake LaMotta. Some say the film director also exorcised his personal struggles through the film.
And it’s a hard watch. The punches are relentless.
De Niro as LaMotta is exhausted; his opponent Sugar Ray has him against the ropes, and yet LaMotta goads him. There’s a pause as Sugar Ray considers him, rests, continues to look at him and then goes in for the slaughter. You can almost feel the sweat as it flies; and the blood looks even more vivid in black and white. The camera holds on the boxing glove held aloft until Sugar Ray brings it down with force… and wins. Pulverised, LaMotta makes his way over to a celebrating Sugar Ray with a ‘You never got me down Ray’, repeating it until he drives his point home. It’s one of those can’t-watch-can’t-not-watch moments.
‘Are you my drama teacher?’ De Niro dispenses Cape Fear (5th August)
Its origins were very different: Cape Fear (released 1991) originally had Steven Spielberg at the helm, while Scorsese was developing Schindler’s List. It was later marketed as a big-studio suspense movie and became a huge commercial success. And though most people assume Goodfellas was the bigger hit, Cape Fear took almost four times as much at the box office as Goodfellas.
Knowing his lawyer withheld evidence, newly released convicted rapist Max Cady (De Niro) pursues Bowden's (Nick Nolte) family relentlessly, seeking vengeance and targeting Bowden’s teenage daughter (Juliette Lewis) at school. Sitting in the gingerbread house, Danielle thinks he’s her drama teacher. The tension – is he friend or foe – is unbearable as she’s alone on the school drama stage and Cady is manipulating and targeting her.
Rupert Pupkin is celebrity stalker and prince of delusions, in The King of Comedy (10th August)
Rupert Pupkin (De Niro), a struggling stand-up comedian, becomes obsessed with Jerry Langford (Lewis), a late-night talk show host. Delusional fantasies ensue, and Pupkin teams up with unhinged Masha (Sandra Bernhard), kidnapping Langford to get a slot on his show and become king for the night. This 1982 film reached cult status.
We see the scale of Pupkin’s delusions when a suited Pupkin acts out his own show in his house, surrounded by cardboard cut-out guests. His mother’s voice shouts down from upstairs over the heads of a one-dimensional Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, telling him to keep the noise down.
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The Wolf of Wall Street (15th August) is not leaving
Another Scorsese favourite, Leonardo DiCaprio, starred in The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013; it was the pair’s fifth film together and what a ride it was. The story follows DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, a 25-year-old Wall Street stockbroker, in a rampaging tale of illegal trading, excessive earnings, drugs, prostitutes and a highly lavish and entertaining life of criminality and excess, which is then investigated by the FBI.
Belfort agrees to stand down from the firm as officials are getting closer to rumbling him. But his farewell speech at work becomes a roaring validation when he looks round the room at all the people who adore him, and changes tack. ‘I’m not leaving. They’re going to need a wrecking ball to take me out of here. I ain’t going nowhere.” The place erupts.
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Delve into the darkest recesses of Teddy’s mind in Shutter Island (18th August)
DiCaprio as Teddy investigates a disappearance at an asylum for the criminally insane in Shutter Island, and Mark Ruffalo is his partner; Michelle Williams plays Dolores, Teddy’s wife, a manic-depressive. If you haven’t seen the film’s shocking twist, we won’t spoil it here; suffice to say, big-screen viewing will make the experience even more of a sucker punch.
Thinking he has found his missing person, Rachel Solando, Teddy finds her hiding out in a cave. Instead, she confirms his fears that the asylum is the centre of a massive conspiracy. And we are left not knowing if she is a figment of his imagination, or real after all.
Watch your back out there in the desert, Ace – Casino (25th August)
In 1995 came Casino. Described as an epic gangster film, the story centres on De Niro, Ace, an expert gambler deployed by the mob to run a casino in Las Vegas in the 1970s. A stormy marriage to Ginger (Sharon Stone) and a volatile alliance with Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), his childhood friend are in the mix. The tale of gambling, the mob, toxic relationships, the inevitable drugs, corruption and death end with the empire falling as the lives of the people involved crumble.
Ace and Nicky hold a meeting in the desert. Just the two of them, in separate cars, standing in a vast expanse. Nicky’s come to vent about stuff he’s heard Ace say behind his back. He wants a showdown, to shout his old friend down. Nicky’s apoplectic from the off while Ace remains level-headed and calm as he defends himself against the power struggle. It could go either way, but Nicky drives off, leaving Ace in a cloud of dust.
Reliving these scenes is almost a privilege, as we remind ourselves of all the fine cinematic treats Scorsese served – and continues to serve – up. His films were iconic, simple as that. So don’t miss Scorsese season at Cineworld. No, we mean it, don’t miss a single one. And, on that Pesci-style note, we’ll leave you.
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