Legendary Filmmaker Martin Scorsese

He’s an Oscar Award winning director who has become famous for his long running collaborations with actors as well as his focus on Italian American subject matter.

Welcome to WatchMojo.com. And today, we’re taking a look at the critically acclaimed career of Martin Scorsese. Martin Scorsese was born on November 17th 1942 in Queens, New York. In his youth, he attended a catholic high school in the Bronx and sought to one day joined the priesthood. However, numerous visits to the local movie theaters stirred an even greater passion for cinema which led him to study at NYU. There, he obtained a masters degree in film directing. Scorsese began creating full length films in 1968 with Who's That Knocking at My Door. The feature not only began his career but also set the stage for several long running collaborative bonds beginning with his former classmate Harvey Keitel.

In 1972, Scorsese directed the depression era picture Boxcar Bertha for Roger Corman, an experience that taught the principles of movie film making. Fortunately, this training experience prepared Scorsese for the rough filming conditions of 1973’s Mean Streets. A film that truly established Scorsese’s signature style of rapid editing, it also began yet another fruitful partnership this time with actor Robert De Niro.

The dual then went onto release their iconic film Taxi Driver. The movie became a wild success for the pair and firmly established his reputation as a filmmaker by winning hi four Oscar nominations and a Palm Door Award at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. Due to his new found fame and reputation, Scorsese found himself in a position to take on his first big budget project. He chose to create a musical tribute to his hometown. Unfortunately, New York, New York turned into a devastating box office failure and draws Scorsese into a long period of depression and cocaine use. In the following years, Scorsese doubled in documentary film making with projects like the Last Waltz. However, his creative energy finally rebounded with the making of 1980’s Raging Bull. The picture ultimately became one of the greatest sports movies of all time due to Robert De Niro’s involvement both on and off screen as the actor help Scorsese kicked his cocaine addiction. Though Raging Bull was a huge success, one of Scorsese’s biggest failures was his next project The King of Comedy.

The desperate need for a commercial success then prompted Scorsese to take on his first mainstream project, The Color of Money, starring Paul Newman. These box office draw enabled Scorsese to find financial backing for his deeply personal religious project The Last Temptation of Christ. However, the film spurred violent backlash and was band in several countries. With mixed results behind him, Scorsese entered the 90’s with newfound focus that enabled him to put together a string of high profile successes such as his gangster epic Good Fellows and 1995’s casino. These films have come to be considered some of the greatest achievements of his career yet with each success Scorsese had also taken on more questionable projects such as 1997’s Kundun which confused and alienated many of his fans. Still, as the millennium came to an end, Scorsese crafted his biggest venture to date. Gangs of New York not only got nominated for numerous awards but marked his first collaboration with actor Leonardo DiCaprio who would also star in his critically acclaimed biopic, The Aviator in 2004. In 2007, the departed finally granted Scorsese his first academy award for best director.

In 2010, Scorsese reunited with DiCaprio for the 4th time for the film adaptation of the novel inspired thriller, Shutter Island and was announced as a director for the highly anticipated biopic centered on the life of Frank Sinatra.