Netflix's 'The Irishman' marks 10th collab between Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, built on the legacy of these 9 films
Some creative collaborations seem like fate or destiny -- collaborations that bring artistic visions to life without which the world would have been poorer. Martin Scorsese, known for his exploration of the Italian-American identity, often drawing from his childhood in New York's Little Italy, he found his muse and his consistent leading man in the fellow Italian-American actor Robert DeNiro.
The pairing went on to create films that would define 'American New Wave' cinema, consistently creating cult hits over five decades. Known for their exploration of violence, hyper-masculinity, Catholic guilt, crime and moral decay, Scorsese and DeNiro created nuanced and grounded on-screen portrayals of significant aspects of their shared heritage.
The pair has made a total of 10 films together, one of them, a short. Here is a quick refresher of their work, before you head on to Netflix to watch 'The Irishman'.
1. 'Goodfellas' (1990)
'Goodfellas' has consistently been voted the "best gangster film" by critics and audiences alike. Roger Ebert named 'Goodfellas' the "best mob movie ever", overshadowing the other cult classic 'The Godfather'.
The film chronicles the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill. Improvizations were baked into the filming process with Scorsese making transcripts of the actors' ad-libbed rehearsals and used the lines he liked best from these sessions to revise the script.
2. 'Taxi Driver' (1976)
'Taxi Driver' gave De Niro the line that would haunt him for the rest of his career - "You talkin' to me?" A portrait of violence, hyper-masculinity and the decay of both a man and a city, the neo-noir classic was written by Paul Schrader.
Set in New York City soon after the end of the Vietnam War, the film stars Robert De Niro as the titular taxi driver and war veteran while Jodie Foster is Iris, the teenage prostitute that he ends up rescuing.
3. 'Raging Bull' (1980)
Chosen as the best sports film by the American Film Institute, 'Raging Bull' starred De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a violence-prone, self-destructive Italian-American middleweight boxer, whose destructive anger brings him honors inside the ring and alienates his family outside it. After Scorsese nearly died of a drug overdose, De Niro saved his life (and career), by pushing Scorsese to make the film and getting him to kick his cocaine habit.
According to Scorsese, he and De Niro spent two-and-a-half weeks on the island of Saint Martin working on the script, reshaping it extensively to create the final screenplay. De Niro won an Oscar for his performance in the film while Scorsese was nominated for the Best Director award.
4. 'Mean Streets' (1973)
'Mean Streets' was Scorsese and De Niro's first collaboration after Brian De Palma introduced them to each other. It was also Scorsese's first independent project as a director. Starring De Niro and Harvey Keitel, it won De Niro the National Society of Film Critics award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Johnny Boy" Civello.
The film has consistently been quoted as the first modern crime film that subsequently influenced the genre in TV and cinematic portrayals. In 1997, 'Mean Streets' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
5. 'Casino' (1995)
'Casino' is often called the spiritual successor of 'GoodFellas' (with the same principal writer Nicholas Pileggi), it was inspired by the true story of mob infringement in Las Vegas during the 1970s and its characters were broadly based on real people. The film starred De Niro as a sports handicapper and Mafia associate Sam "Ace" Rothstein who is sent to run a casino in Las Vegas so that the mob can run a skimming operation on the casino profits before taxes are paid.
Sharon Stone played Ginger McKenna, Ace's girlfriend and wife. Stone won the Golden Globe for Best Actress and secured a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. The movie was a box office hit.
6. 'New York, New York' (1977)
'New York, New York' is Scorsese's only musical drama film, made as a tribute to his hometown, New York City, and as an homage to the musical films of Classical Hollywood. He purposely created an artificial look and feel for the sets, taking a break from the gritty realism he was known for.
It stars Robert De Niro as a jazz saxophonist and Liza Minnelli as a singer, who are lovers and get married. But the marriage falls apart as they struggle with each other and struggle to succeed in New York as artists.
7. 'Cape Fear' (1991)
'Cape Fear' is a remake of the 1962 film and classified as a psychological thriller. Besides De Niro, it starred Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Joe Don Baker, Juliette Lewis, Robert Mitchum, and Gregory Peck (in his final film).
Mitchum, Peck and Martin Balsam (who appeared in a brief cameo) had all starred in the original film. The story is about a convicted rapist, who seeks revenge against a former public defender whom he blames for his 14-year imprisonment, believing that the faulty defense tactics used were the reason he lost the case and his freedom. The film received positive reviews and received Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor (De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Lewis).
8. 'King of Comedy' (1983)
'King of Comedy' is a black comedy that featured, besides De Niro, Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard. To play the mentally deranged aspiring stand-up comedian, Rupert Pupkin, De Niro chased down his own autograph-hunters, stalking them and asking them lots of questions to understand America's celebrity worship culture.
Scorsese remembers how De Niro even agreed to meet and talk with one of his longtime stalkers, who when asked about why he followed De Niro, said: "To have dinner with you, have a drink, chat. My mom asked me to say hi." De Niro also spent months watching stand-up comedians at work to get the rhythm and timing of their performances right. Though the film opened to positive reviews from critics, it was a big box office flop, one of the few misses that the frequent collaborators had to face.
9. 'The Audition' (2015)
'The Audition' is a short film, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring his two favorite actors, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. Both actors play fictionalized versions of themselves, traveling through Asia as they compete against each other for a potential role in Scorsese's next film.
It was the first project to star both actors and filmed a promotional piece for the Studio City Macau Resort and Casino. The short film has never had a commercial release but was played before feature film screenings in cinemas across Hong Kong and China. With a budget of approximately $70 million, each actor was reportedly paid $13 million each.
10. 'The Irishman' (2019)
The most recent collaboration between the two, it can be seen as a mature take on all the themes Scorsese and De Niro have explored together in the mob and gangster genre in their years of working together. It is also a film about growing old.
Speaking about the film, De Niro said: "It's about getting older and what's happening, with us. And just realizing this is what it is. And you know, that's it". 'The Irishman' is centered around Frank Sheeran (played by De Niro), a hitman, who was the friend and murderer of the leader of the Teamsters Union, Jimmy Hoffa. As an old mob hand, Sheeran takes stock of his life lived violently.
'The Irishman' comes to Netflix November 27.