Martin Scorsese named the most essential New York movies, including films from Lumet, Lee, the Safdies, and more.
Martin Scorsese is the quintessential New York filmmaker. Sure, some of his greatest films are set in New York, but that asthma kept him inside of a Little Italy apartment to do nothing but study cinema says a lot about how embedded the city is in his blood and his own movies. Now, Scorsese has listed more than 30 of the most essential New York films – and yes, he was modest enough to not list Mean Streets and Taxi Driver and Goodfellas and…
Check out Martin Scorsese’s list of 30+ greatest New York movies below:
Daybreak Express
The Naked City and Kiss of Death
Fourteen Hours
Cry of the City
A Double Life and The Marrying Kind
It Should Happen to You
On the Waterfront
The Wrong Man
Sweet Smell of Success
Shadows
Midnight Cowboy and Marathon Man
The French Connection
Bye Bye Braverman
Prince of the City
Manhattan
Bad Lieutenant and Heaven Knows What
Good Time
Uncut Gems
The Apartment
Do the Right Thing
Dog Day Afternoon
Midnight Cowboy
The Musketeers of Pig Alley and Regeneration
Odds Against Tomorrow
On the Waterfront
Sweet Smell of Success
Expectedly, that is one hell of a list of essential New York movies (who’s putting the Letterboxd list together?), with Martin Scorsese hitting on everything from D.W. Griffith all the way up to the Safdie Brothers, even giving the fellas three movies – as many as Sidney Lumet and George Cukor, the latter being someone who I don’t generally equate as a “New York director” but I’m not about to argue with Marty (although I would contest the inclusion of On the Waterfront, which he admitted is set in New Jersey…).
Scorsese put the list of movies together for the “Living, Breathing New York” series, tied to Olmo Schnabel’s film Pet Shop Days, which Scorsese executive produced.
One of the great things about Martin Scorsese compiling a list like his picks for the best New York movies is that it automatically generates a queue. Many of us are familiar with the works of Sidney Lumet, Spike Lee and others we tend to associate with the city, but giving us new films to explore – kind of how I learned more about Italian cinema from his 1999 documentary My Voyage to Italy.
For me, I’d name my quintessential New York movies as Mean Streets, Dog Day Afternoon, Manhattan, Do the Right Thing, and Maniac, if I had to narrow it down to five. But we’d rather hear from you! So, what do you think are the most essential New York films? Drop your picks in the comments section below.
