Roger Ebert had an interesting theory as to how a film could emerge at the top of the prestigious, once-every-decade Sight and Sound poll.
Quite simply, Ebert believed that a director needed to have a well-known film that everyone could agree as their defining masterpiece. Kubrick has “2001.” Hitchcock, it’s “Vertigo.” Renoir released many great films, but none more towering than “The Rules of the Game.” Lynch has “Mulholland Drive.” Welles’ most obvious one is “Citizen Kane.” With Ford, it’s “The Searchers.”
Myron Meisel, once called by Cahiers du Cinema as “America’s best film critic,” was once asked to participate in a poll aiming to name Scorsese’s best film. Here’s what he stated alongside his pick (“Goodfellas”):
What was interesting in reviewing his filmography for this poll was that while Scorsese has had a career full of superlative pictures, in my estimation he has never made a true masterpiece.
I’ve always attested Ebert’s theory as the reason why Martin Scorsese has had such a hard time cracking the top 30 on the Sight & Sound poll. What’s his defining masterpiece? “Taxi Driver”? “Raging Bull”? “Goodfellas”? Time still hasn’t given us a definitive answer.
In 2022, Scorsese finally hit the top 30 on the S&S poll, that’s when “Taxi Driver” finished at #29. Still, a fairly low rank for a man many believe to be our greatest living filmmaker. A recent WoR Scorsese poll, consisting of 130 critics, told a different story — Goodfellas was #1, and it wasn’t even close. Meanwhile, “Raging Bull” is the highest-ranked Scorsese on the AFI list. See what I’m saying?
You can also constantly change your mind when it comes to what constitutes Scorsese’s effort. Richard Linklater recently stated that “‘Raging Bull’ was in that top slot for a couple decades before ‘Goodfellas’ kind of knocked it off.” Later, when asked of films he can quote every line of, the director again referenced “Goodfellas,” saying he could recite “some version of it” and “can act every role.”
These past few years, my love for “Raging Bull” has slightly waned, I still think it’s a fabulous film, and one of the most gorgeously shot in movie history, but there’s no doubt in my mind that “Taxi Driver,” and “Goodfellas” have aged slightly better. Put a gun to my head to choose just one and I’d have to, reluctantly, point my finger towards “Goodfellas.”
Why Goodfellas? Quite simply, alongside “Pulp Fiction,” it’s the most influential film of the past 40 years, and much like Tarantino’s film, it is endlessly rewatchable, maybe more so than ‘Pulp.’ So many filmmakers have tried to copy it over the ensuing decades, but none have come close to matching its masterful exeution.