Every Martin Scorsese Gangster Movie, Ranked

A little over 50 years ago, a movie called Mean Streets barreled its way into theaters across America. We didn’t know it at the time, but that film announced one of Hollywood’s most breathtaking directorial talents of all time: Martin Scorsese. While Marty has displayed a talent for bringing to life stories of dangerous loners, Wall Street white-collar criminals, reclusive billionaires, and religious ascetics (to name but a few), the one character archetype he knows better than any other is the American gangster.

In many ways, Martin Scorsese laid the foundation of his career by depicting the American-Italian way of life in New York City, specifically through the eyes of confident wannabe gangsters. Some of these gangsters were inspired by what Scorsese saw as a young man growing up on the streets of Little Italy. He’d take those experiences and expand upon them, dramatizing them into some of the greatest and commercially successful gangster movies of all time. He’s so good at making these types of pictures that sometimes it feels like he’s made dozens of them, but the truth is, Scorsese has only made six.