A prolific filmmaker whose career began in 1967 with Who’s That Knocking at My Door and has covered every decade since, Marty (as his friends call him) is a cinephile of the highest order, and of course an exquisite storyteller whose films have cemented themselves into cinema’s historic and sacred vault of masterpieces. His upbringing as an Italian American in Queens and Little Italy meant that he became accustomed to the crime-riddled streets of New York and the plethora of interesting characters that called that place home; an aspect of his life that is said to have started his love for character examination.

Everyone and their dog knows about Scorsese’s great narrative films – there have been 27 of them altogether: Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), The Departed (2006), and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), being just some of his most iconic releases over the years. But what you might not be so aware of are the great man’s many acclaimed documentaries.

Martin Scorsese’s work as a documentarian has resulted in 17 films over the course of his career. What began with the production of short films in conjunction with the United States Information Agency (USIA) for educational and information purposes, was Marty’s first insight into documentary filmmaking – it wasn’t until Scorsese made the now-iconic Italianamerican in 1974 that his love for the medium began to take shape. Scorsese’s love of people, film, and music, is the basis for many of the great non-fiction offerings he has put his name to; the passions, themes and experiences that define so much of his filmmaking legacy.

We at The Film Magazine would like you to join us in exploring this legacy in our Movie List of 5 Unmissable Martin Scorsese Documentaries.

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1. Italianamerican (1974)

The 1970s was an important decade for Martin Scorsese. It became the decade that allowed him to cultivate the famous auteur style of filmmaking that forged his career. By the time 1974 came around, Scorsese had already directed Who’s That Knocking at My Door, Boxcar Bertha (1972), and Mean Streets (1973), with the former and the latter taking great inspiration from our first documentary in question.

Italianamerican is an obscure film that explores the relationship between the director and his parents. Starring Catherine and Charles Scorsese, and set in their New York apartment on Elizabeth Street, Martin lays the foundations down for a conversation; a sincere and frank discussion with his parents that covers his upbringing, the importance of family, religion, their Italian heritage, and the difficulties that poor immigrants faced when hoping to gain opportunities in the United States. Even with all these crucial themes being inspected, the most memorable sequence of the film involves Catherine demonstrating how she makes her world-famous (they are to Martin at least) meatballs, a recipe that you can find in the end credits (for all you would be chefs out there).

This is Scorsese’s most intimate and personal documentary. And it comes so early on in his filmmaking journey too. How basic the film appears on the surface is what makes it work, as we follow the Scorseses around their family home and pay homage to a heritage that he is obviously proud of. The talk of religion is an important theme throughout as well; it lays out the ideas that Martin has about Catholicism and its role in his life (he was famously about to pursue priesthood as a vocation before finding his calling). Religion has become one of the most powerful motifs throughout Scorsese’s filmography, with the questions surrounding it becoming the primary structural themes in several of his pictures – think Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Silence, and of course, The Last Temptation of Christ.

The importance of Italianamerican is celebrated by the masses as the most important insight into the mind of the famed director – it foreshadows certain subjects and messages that would soon enough become known about Scorsese’s films. Even in its brief 50-minute runtime, we get all we need to know about the origins of the man, as well as an inkling into the style and substance of what his future documentaries might consist of.

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2. The Last Waltz (1978)

Between the years of 1974 and 1978, Martin Scorsese stepped up his filmmaking game. He graced us with the hugely underrated Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) before gifting us with Taxi Driver, arguably his most highly renowned film of all time, before his final film of the decade, New York, New York (1977), a romantic musical forged as a tribute to Scorsese’s hometown of New York and the city’s relationship with Jazz music. It feels almost poetic that Scorsese’s second documentary of his career, The Last Waltz (1978) would be another musical tribute, this time dedicated to Canadian rock band The Band.

Filmed in 1976 during The Band’s farewell show at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, The Last Waltz features concert performances from the band, intermittent song renditions that were shot on a studio soundstage, as well as interviews with the members of The Band conducted by Scorsese himself. The origins of the film began when The Band’s tour manager from 1969 to 1972, Jonathan Taplin (who also produced Mean Streets) proposed that Scorsese should direct the upcoming project while introducing him to Robbie Robertson (lead guitarist for Bob Dylan and member of The Band) as a means of sweetening the deal.

The Last Waltz was marketed as The Band’s “farewell concert appearance” and consisted of dozens of special guests such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and Eric Clapton. Scorsese’s love of music, specifically rock music, made this the ideal subject matter to get stuck into. The director’s vision of what he wanted the film’s aesthetic to look like was definitive, and his role with the editors to sift through hours of footage and angles took almost two years of dedication.

The film begins with the title card, “This film should be played loud,” which is exactly how a rockumentary should be experienced. The collection of footage that was gathered and produced offers a unique experience into the backstage goings-on of the music industry, and the interviews that are interspersed during the film are brilliantly insightful and engaging. The Last Waltz is not only one of the most definitive documentaries on Scorsese’s CV, but it has also been dubbed as one of the greatest documentary concert films ever made.

Martin Scorsese was part of the 1970s American auteur wave, and is arguably the most successful of the bunch as an artist. He exemplifies the traditional idea of the film auteur. While Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were working on Hollywood blockbusters, Scorsese was making Taxi Driver, New York, New York, and Raging Bull, three different films that varied with audiences and critics but were undoubtedly Scorsese films. As a lifelong cinephile, his films have always been informed by Hollywood’s past, and have continuously alluded to film history through style, genre, and direct homage. In addition to cinematic fascination, his films have inspiration from his own upbringing. His gangster films reflect the ethos of his Italian youth and culture converging with the big dreams and excesses of American society both in style and content. His editing and cinematography pack as much of a punch as any of the characters, each of whom are driven by powerful performances.

There are all kinds of places to go within the cinema of Martin Scorsese. The goal of this piece is to start at the roots, to really get a handle on what made Scorsese such a great filmmaker and storyteller, and to grow towards his magnum opus. This is Where to Start with Martin Scorsese.

1. Mean Streets (1973)

Mean Streets was Martin Scorsese’s breakout third feature following early recognition for his student films. He wrote the story and collaborated on the screenplay, and this is thought to be the first film upon which he was truly in control of production. In his 1979 book “American Film Now”, critic and author James Monaco described Mean Streets as Scorsese’s one great achievement, noting its status as a personal and original film (154).

Harvey Keitel stars as a small-time gangster in Little Italy, and the character’s practical outlook at the beginning of the film speaks to Scorsese’s own views on Catholicism: “You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.” Keitel’s Charlie struggles with living his best on the streets, his problems exacerbated by Robert De Niro’s character Johnny. The film is rough around the edges, but brimming with style. The red lights of a bar and street-level gangsters offer a different look at the gangster genre than Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, released the year prior. 

It’s important to see Mean Streets because of how the film works as a foundation for Scorsese’s future work. This was the filmmaker’s first collaboration with Robert De Niro (with whom he’d partner on some of the most iconic films of the era), it was a new take on the gangster genre, it took the then-unusual route of featuring hip music in its soundtrack, and its narrative truly drives home the tragic nature of the human condition. If you’re a cinephile, this is exactly the kind of movie people like us were gushing over, the latest film from one of the hottest young directors.

2. Italianamerican (1974)

Martin Scorsese has a body of documentary work almost as large as his feature filmography. His best is his most personal, Italianamerican.

Italianamerican is quite simple: Scorsese puts cameras in front of his parents in their New York apartment and interviews them about their lives and the lives of their family. The parents, Charles and Catherine, were the children of immigrants from Sicily. They have such a fascinating perspective on life because of the working class circumstances in which they grew up, and the film shows how people like his parents were able to achieve what they saw as the American dream.

Scorsese’s parents are natural in front of the camera despite Charles’ protestations that Catherine is putting on airs. The two are honest, and give the impression that we’re sitting down beside them in the kitchen to listen to their stories directly. You can almost taste the meatballs and sauce that Catherine cooks – there’s even a recipe for them at the end.

Italianamerican is important as a window into this great director’s work as it allows you to see another side of his creative output; a soft side that aims to tell real stories of everyday people, to blur the lines between film and reality.

3. Goodfellas (1990)

Goodfellas Review

Goodfellas is Martin Scorsese’s greatest creation as a filmmaker, and the result of the perspective that making a documentary film and making a fiction film are the same process.

In this 6-time Oscar-nominated film, Scorsese tells the dramatized true story of half-Irish, half-Italian gangster Henry Hill, based on crime reporter Nick Pileggi’s novel “Wiseguy”. Goodfellas has all the style of Mean Streets, but it’s incredibly polished after nearly two decades of filmmaking experience. The silhouette of the male leads digging a grave against a red light is just as striking as Mean Streets’ club scene, but its darker nature creates a more provocative image.

Ray Liotta is outstanding as Henry Hill, hitting a variety of emotional beats that are capped off by a frantic, paranoid coke binge at the film’s end. Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci are highlights of the cast, but it’s Lorraine Bracco as Henry’s wife Karen who really steals the show. There’s no true star in the ensemble cast, making the place and lifestyle the film’s central focus. Goodfellas presents the allure of the gangster lifestyle, and hits all the beats expected of the gangster genre by the late 1980s when audiences had perhaps seen it all.

Martin Scorsese’s past and future films address similar themes to Goodfellas, but none are quite so compelling visually. The film is dynamic, the editing and cinematography evolving with the characters over the course of the film, and its function as a representation of reality makes it unlike Mean Streets or even genre great The Godfather, the natural performances elevating the film beyond a general desire for unintrusive acting. Catherine Scorsese herself even makes an appearance in a fully improvised scene. When it comes to Martin Scorsese’s filmography, Goodfellas cannot be beat and is a must for anyone seeking the opportunity to experience this great American director’s unique filmmaking for the first time.

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You can’t go wrong watching anything in Martin Scorsese’s filmography, but these three films will give the most insight into this legendary auteur’s interests, background, and outlook on life. Should you take the advice of this piece, then Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Casino are great places to go next.