In celebration of this month’s release for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” a critics poll of Martin Scorsese’s best films should be published next week. What film will top the poll? “Taxi Driver”? “Raging Bull”? “Goodfellas”?
Francis Ford Coppola went on Instagram to rave about his friend’s new film, but has also distinguished Scorsese with a title that I would say many of our readers could agree on:
“My longtime friend [Martin Scorsese] has a new film coming out this month, “Killers of the Flower Moon” — He is a wonderful person and the world’s greatest living filmmaker. His new film delivers on every level.”
So, “the world’s greatest living filmmaker.” I believe that’s not any sort of reach on the part of Coppola. Scorsese is a legend, a national treasure, and we’re lucky to be alive at a time when he’s still making films at this fairly top-notch kind of level.
What other legendary filmmaker still alive today matches Scorsese’s towering filmography? I can’t think of any.
Some of the other great ones include Spielberg, Lynch, PTA, Malick, Coen, Eastwood, Allen, Polanski, Almodovar, Haneke and Coppola himself (who would be a close second in my books), but none have had the kind of impressive longevity.