Martin Scorsese, now in his 80s, is a filmmaker who’s made countless iconic movies over the past 50+ years. While he’s most often celebrated for his influential gangster movies like Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed, he’s far from someone who only makes movies in that genre. After all, he’s also behind films like After Hours, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Hugo, to name just a few, and has also branched out into documentary filmmaking at various points in his career.
These titles aren’t often as well-known but deserve credit for their consistently high level of quality. Quantity-wise, he’s also quite notable as a documentary filmmaker, given he’s been credited with directing 20 (feature-length or short) documentaries. What follows are some of the best, and included among them are music documentaries, auto-biographical films, and even documentaries about the art of filmmaking itself.
10 ‘Shine a Light’ (2008)
Anyone who’s watched a handful of Martin Scorsese movies (particularly his crime ones) will probably know already that the filmmaker’s a pretty big fan of The Rolling Stones. They make plenty of appearances in various Scorsese movie soundtracks, and as such, it’s not too surprising to learn that he once made a documentary/concert film centered on the band.
That film was 2008’s Shine a Light, and it primarily serves as a filmed concert of The Rolling Stones in 2006, with footage taken from two different nights when the band played at New York City’s Beacon Theater. There are also some interviews with the band members – in their 60s at this time – spread throughout, making this an engaging watch for fans of the band.
9 ‘Italianamerican’ (1974)
Just as The Rolling Stones’ music shows up in many Martin Scorsese films, so too do Scorsese’s parents, Catherine and Charles Scorsese, usually in cameo roles. In the case of Catherine Scorsese, she’s probably best known for playing the mother of Joe Pesci‘s character in Goodfellas, Tommy, while in the same film, Charles Scorsese plays one of the men present at Tommy’s execution.
Italianamerican is a brief documentary (approximately 50 minutes long) made up of Scorsese interviewing his parents about their life in America, and their family history back in Italy. It’s a charming and good-natured film about family, shedding light on Scorsese’s parents and, by extension, Scorsese himself, making this a must-watch for fans of the filmmaker who want to know more about his early life.
8 ‘American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince’ (1978)
Some years after Italianamerican, Martin Scorsese applied a similar approach to covering the life of Steven Prince, an associate of Scorsese’s, in the 55-minute-long American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince. Prince himself might be recognizable for some of the brief roles he had in a handful of Scorsese movies made in the 1970s, most notably Taxi Driver, where he played a fast-talking gun salesman.
Like the gun salesman, Steven Prince himself is fast-talking and a unique character, and the film is quite simply him telling Scorsese about various surprising life stories, some funny and some quite sad. Oddly enough, some anecdotes told by Prince in this documentary inspired scenes in movies by other filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino‘s Pulp Fiction and Richard Linklater‘s Waking Life.
7 ‘No Direction Home: Bob Dylan’ (2005)
Before the James Mangold-directed (and Timothée Chalamet-starring) Bob Dylan biopic comes out, why not catch up on the history of one of rock music’s most popular enigmas with No Direction Home: Bob Dylan? This is the first of two Dylan documentaries made by Martin Scorsese, with this one focusing on the musician’s early life and rise to fame during the early to mid-1960s.
Of course, Bob Dylan has continued to be a prolific artist since then, so it can feel a little strange to watch a documentary that’s almost 3.5 hours long, yet only examines a fraction of Dylan’s career. Yet it was a dramatic enough period to warrant such a thorough and lengthy documentary, and that ensures No Direction Home is a must-watch for Dylan fans.
6 ‘A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies’ (1995)
Martin Scorsese’s longest films are both about cinema history, as well as the films that inspired him as a director. The first of these is 1995’s A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, with it only eclipsed in runtime by the second documentary he made about cinema (more on that one later).
As the title suggests, this looks at various classic American movies, and Scorsese’s analysis of various films – beginning in the silent era and moving steadily forward through time – remains compelling because of the immense passion the man has for the art of filmmaking. Hearing someone talk about the movies they love for four hours has never been – and will never be – quite as (surprisingly) riveting as this.
5 ‘Pretend It’s a City’ (2021)
A naturally funny documentary because of its subject – author and frequently sarcastic social commentator Fran Lebowitz – Pretend It’s a City is a six-part miniseries released on Netflix in 2021. As a result, it can be easily watched in chunks, but even if watched in one go, it’s still not as long as Scorsese’s longest documentaries (and only four minutes longer than Scorsese’s newest film, Killers of the Flower Moon).
It’s a very laidback documentary, with Scorsese and Lebowitz conversing while spending time in New York City, which is a place that clearly means a lot to both of them. It’s fairly relaxing to watch, and often proves insightful and funny, making it one of the best (and most underrated) Scorsese documentaries.
4 ‘George Harrison: Living in the Material World’ (2011)
Another epic-length documentary about a musician (this one’s also about 3.5 hours long), George Harrison: Living in the Material World is a comprehensive and perhaps even exhaustive look at the man who was known as the quiet Beatle. By no means could he be called the “boring Beatle,” however, as this documentary about his eventful life demonstrates.
Archive footage is edited together expertly, and combined to great effect with a huge range of interviewees all offering insight into George Harrison, who sadly passed away at just 58 years old in 2001. It’s a great tribute to the late Harrison, and possibly strong enough as a documentary to be compelling even for those who might not be massive fans of Harrison or The Beatles.
3 ‘Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese’ (2019)
The second of Martin Scorsese’s documentaries about Bob Dylan, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese is about an hour shorter than No Direction Home and has an even narrower scope. The film is primarily concerned with 1975, and documents the unique concerts Dylan played throughout that year.
That’s the simplest way to describe Rolling Thunder Revue, but in reality, it’s a whole lot weirder than that might sound. It’s certainly not going to be for everyone, but it is at least unique. Also, Scorsese deserves credit for putting out such an ambitious documentary within the same year he put out an ambitious feature film: 2019’s The Irishman.
2 ‘The Last Waltz’ (1978)
The Last Waltz is probably the director’s most famous documentary, but it still feels a little underrated within Scorsese’s filmography. As far as concert movies go, few can claim to be better than this, with The Last Waltz expertly capturing the bittersweet farewell tour of folk-rock band The Band, alongside interviews with various band members backstage.
It certainly helps if you like music from the 1970s and/or the late 1960s, but either way, the emotional power of The Last Waltz successfully shines through. It’s a compelling and passionate documentary, inherently bittersweet while also being notable for starting the working relationship between Martin Scorsese and The Band’s lead guitarist/songwriter, Robbie Robertson, who’s produced/composed music for numerous Scorsese movies.
1 ‘My Voyage to Italy’ (1999)
The second mammoth-length Martin Scorsese documentary about cinema, My Voyage to Italy runs for just over four hours and centers on the Italian film industry and its history. It ends up being just as riveting as Scorsese’s 1995 documentary on American cinema, with the director clearly having a great deal of respect for Italian filmmaking legends like Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini.
It’s fascinating to hear Scorsese break down what makes certain Italian classics so great, and My Voyage to Italy also pairs well with the auto-biographical Italianamerican. This is because beyond being about Italian cinema, My Voyage to Italy also gives Scorsese a chance to talk about his upbringing and connection to the place where past members of his family lived, making the documentary both educational and remarkably personal.