Martin Scorsese

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Martin Scorsese summary

Films of the 2000s: Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed

inMartin Scorsese

Also known as: Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese

Written by Michael Barson

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Nov 14, 2024 • Article History

Quick Facts

Original name:: Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese

Born:: November 17, 1942, Queens, New York, U.S.

Also Known As:: Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese; Martin Charles Scorsese

Awards And Honors:: Praemium Imperiale (2016); Emmy Award (2011); Cecil B. DeMille Award (2010); Kennedy Center Honors (2007); Academy Award (2007); Grammy Award (2005); Academy Award (2007): Directing; Cecil B. DeMille Award (2010); Emmy Award (2012): Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming; Emmy Award (2012): Outstanding Nonfiction Special; Emmy Award (2011): Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series; Golden Globe Award (2012): Best Director - Motion Picture; Golden Globe Award (2007): Best Director - Motion Picture; Golden Globe Award (2003): Best Director - Motion Picture; Grammy Award (2006): Best Long Form Music Video

Notable Works:: “After Hours”; “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”; “Boxcar Bertha”; “Bringing Out the Dead”; “Cape Fear”; “Casino”; “Gangs of New York”; “GoodFellas”; “Hugo”; “Killers of the Flower Moon”; “Kundun”; “Mean Streets”; “New York, New York”; “New York Stories”; “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan”; “Raging Bull”; “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese”; “Shine a Light”; “Shutter Island”; “Silence”; “Taxi Driver”; “The Age of Innocence”; “The Aviator”; “The Color of Money”; “The Departed”; “The Irishman”; “The King of Comedy”; “The Last Temptation of Christ”; “The Last Waltz”; “The Wolf of Wall Street”; “Vinyl”

News •

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Gangs of New York (2002) was a project Scorsese had sought to film since the late 1970s. It had an epic canvas: the chaotic peril of 1860s New York City, culminating in the Draft Riot of 1863. Leonardo DiCaprio (in the first of a number of films he did with Scorsese) starred as Amsterdam Vallon, a young man seeking to avenge the death of his father at the hands of Bill the Butcher (Day-Lewis at his most mordant), a kind of godfather to the unruly Five Points mobs. Gangs of New York was nominated for 10 Oscars, including nods for best picture and director.

The Aviator (2004) was a biopic of aviator and movie producer Howard Hughes, and Scorsese lavishly re-created 1930s and ’40s Hollywood. As Hughes, DiCaprio gave an appropriately intense interpretation of a man driven by both his own genius and an acute case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The film was a box-office success and garnered 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture and director. Cate Blanchett picked up the award for best supporting actress for her spot-on performance as silver-screen legend Katharine Hepburn. Scorsese and cinematographer Robert Richardson (who also won an Oscar that year for his work on the film) did impressive work in replicating the various stages of color-film technology that evolved over the years in which the film was set.

Scorsese then made The Departed (2006), which was based on the Hong Kong action film Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs, 2002). DiCaprio and Matt Damon starred as doppelgängers who live on opposite sides of the law—Billy (DiCaprio) as an undercover cop assigned the highly perilous task of penetrating the organization of crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson, submitting one of his showiest performances as a psychopathic mastermind based on Boston mobster Whitey Bulger) and Colin (Damon) as a Boston detective raised since childhood by Frank to become his mole. The film became one of Scorsese’s biggest box-office hits, and it enabled him to finally win an Oscar for best director. The film itself also won for best picture.

In the 2000s Scorsese also directed a pair of musical documentaries. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005) was a wide-ranging exploration of the iconic singer-songwriter, and the concert film Shine a Light (2008) starred the Rolling Stones.