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Martin Scorsese vs Steven Spielberg - who has the best filmography?

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JB1981

Member
Ridley Scott is a visual master, but nobody has a better sense of mise en scene than Spielberg. Definitely not Scott. Spielberg's ability to communicate information through his visual navigation of tenspace is second to nobody.

Examples of mis-en-scene? Schindlers, Ryan, Jaws, Raider?
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
From the artistic view I'd say Scorsese, from the sheer entertainment view Spielberg. I'm more the guy who likes to be entertained with movies. Not really into most of Scorseses movies. Taxi Driver was a borefest and I couldn't stand more than half an hour of Raging Bull. Funnily enoguh though I like Scorseses latest movies a lot more than Spielbergs. Spielberg has really lost steam in the new millenium. Before he made classics, now he makes only bad to mediocre movies...
 
Examples of mis-en-scene? Schindlers, Ryan, Jaws, Raider?

If you want a specific example from one of those films,the opening introduction to Schindler as he enters the nazi party is a perfect example.

But I've talked about this at length before. Happy to have a new discussion about it though. :)

Spielberg never overstays his welcome. He's always in and out of a shot before you notice he was feeding you information in the best possible way.

munichspielbergshotqtenc.gif


The blocking of the first assassination/target sequence (not the same pictured above) in Munich is a fucking ballet.
 

Toothless

Member
Spielberg has had his hand in so many other classics that he didn't even direct. Granted a lot of them are bad, but a lot are great. I'll go with Spielberg more because of overall achievement than just directing.
 

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
Spielberg is a weird animal. People kinda sleep on him. My filmmaker friends and I sometimes call him "the most underrated of the overrated"

Dude has a weird combination of old hollywood and naturalism to his style and he has range.

I think Scorsese has mad better movies, but Spielberg the better career overall.

EDIt: Whenever filmmaking nerds on the internet talk about filmmaking they inevitably jerk off to a bunch of ones. Ones are neat, but that ain't what it's all about. Hell, the fact that you notice them makes them kind of a double edged sword. I can point you to some prettttty crazy oners done by web series directors that put goodfellas to shame ethnically... that doesn't mean those directors are any good as artists.
 
I personally prefer Scorsese movies, but I would completely understand someone choosing Spielberg instead. Both have classics.

Goodfellas alone puts Martin over Steven for me. Love that fucking movie.
 
Spielberg is a weird animal. People kinda sleep on him. My filmmaker friends and I sometimes call him "the most underrated of the overrated"

Dude has a weird combination of old hollywood and naturalism to his style and he has range.

I think Scorsese has mad better movies, but Spielberg the better career overall.

EDIt: Whenever filmmaking nerds on the internet talk about filmmaking they inevitably jerk off to a bunch of ones. Ones are neat, but that ain't what it's all about. Hell, the fact that you notice them makes them kind of a double edged sword. I can point you to some prettttty crazy oners done by web series directors that put goodfellas to shame ethnically... that doesn't mean those directors are any good as artists.

Not about oners with Spielberg. It's about his setups and his organic movement throughout the frame. It's also about his mastery of op-signs - which to be fair, usually aren't filled with semiotic value, but still feed audiences information in the most unobtrusive ways possible. Spielberg's talent is easily overlooked because it often doesn't draw attention to itself.
 

a916

Member
I personally prefer Scorsese movies, but I would completely understand someone choosing Spielberg instead. Both have classics.

Goodfellas alone puts Martin over Steven for me. Love that fucking movie.

I'm in the exact same boat. I would replace Goodfellas with Departed (my personal favorite)
 
Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is someone who stood up.
 
That's a really tough call. I really can't decide (copout answer I know) for as much compelling dramas and thrillers Scorsese has given us Spielberg was one of the dudes who pretty much trademarked the magic of cinema. The man is responsible for some of the best in adventure, monster, sci-fi etc.

And when he did dabble in dramatic movies like Schindler's List and Munich I think he did a very good job of it, I'm also impressed at how objective he made Munich. In the hands of many other filmmakers that movie would be so much more black and white.

They're both responsible for some of my favorite movies of all time. I gotta say about Scorsese though in the 00s I'm starting to appreciate Shutter Island a lot more now. The ugly green screen effect and soundtrack really lent itself to the 50s b-movie thrillers he was trying to emulate. I think that went over some people's heads but when I finally got what he was going for I loved it.

Aviator is a movie I really don't care for though, it's kind of a long slog of a biopic to me. I liked Departed and Shutter Island a lot more. But I don't like any of his 00s work as much as Bringing out the Dead. All these movies are great and all but his best work has been with stuff like Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Goodfellas, King of Comedy etc.
 
That's a really tough call. I really can't decide (copout answer I know) for as much compelling dramas and thrillers Scorsese has given us Spielberg was one of the dudes who pretty much trademarked the magic of cinema. The man is responsible for some of the best in adventure, monster, sci-fi etc.

And when he did dabble in dramatic movies like Schindler's List and Munich I think he did a very good job of it, I'm also impressed at how objective he made Munich. In the hands of many other filmmakers that movie would be so much more black and white.

They're both responsible for some of my favorite movies of all time. I gotta say about Scorsese though in the 00s I'm starting to appreciate Shutter Island a lot more now. The ugly green screen effect and soundtrack really lent itself to the 50s b-movie thrillers he was trying to emulate. I think that went over some people's heads but when I finally got what he was going for I loved it.

Aviator is a movie I really don't care for though, it's kind of a long slog of a biopic to me. I liked Departed and Shutter Island a lot more.

One thing that I still remember going over people's heads big time was the editing of Shutter Island. It was an embarrassing time for GAF.

Like you, though - I can't really choose one or the other.

I do think that Spielberg is closer to what he was in his old age than Scorsese - whose films feel like they've become much more one-note in his old age, like they no longer contain any of the depth of his old films. They feel more like showcases of a particular genres tenants than the multi-textured stories of people. Wolf of Wall Street is a prime example of this.

You compare movies like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Casino, After Hours etc to the glossy one-layer stuff of The Departed or even Shutter Island. He never seems to want to step beyond the boundaries of a genre anymore. Even Hugo felt super-weak until he got to what he really wanted to say in the second half.
 

Snake

Member
I haven't seen about a third of Scorsese's work and have seen everything from Spielberg except Tintin, so it's not exactly a fair match-up. I would give it to Spielberg though, for now.
 
Nice of Marty to take the L for Berg there

It was Spielberg's project first, but he gave it to Marty because he didn't think he could direct Schindler's at that point in time. Then after Empire of the Sun, Spielberg felt confident enough to do it and traded him Cape Fear to get Schindler back.
 

GavinGT

Banned
I just learned that Spielberg was originally supposed to direct Cape Fear. But when he felt the script was getting too violent to have his name on it, he switched films with Scorsese. Speilberg got Schindler's List from Scorsese in return.

BTW, you should watch Cape Fear. It's fucking awesome.
 
This threads are useless without a scoreboard. Some posts were hard to comprehend , i didn't notice if someone repeated their opinion but as it stands

Scorsese - 60
Spielberg - 33

Neogaf decides Scorsese is a better filmmaker.

Spielberg fans you lost.
People with good taste , we won.

I feel vindicated.
 
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