One of the joys of going back to watch a director’s earliest work is getting to discover creative hallmarks in the making. Such is the case with Scorsese, whose earliest films showcase the birth of a distinct visual & thematic style that defined much of his work to come. (thread)
We all know and love GOODFELLAS, but Scorsese was exploring Italian-American characters & injecting popular songs into his films long before his 1990 classic. You can see the origins of Scorsese’s hallmarks all over WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR (1967) and MEAN STREETS (1973).
KNOCKING, Scorsese’s debut, and MEAN STREETS are so distinctly Scorsese movies you’d know it even if his name wasn't in the credits. Both explore faith, Catholic guilt, and Italian-American identity — all themes the director’s continued to touch on throughout his career. 
In KNOCKING, a baby-faced Harvey Keitel makes his acting debut as J.R., a young man in New York City. The plot is simple — boy meets girl (literally, Zina Bethune’s character is named Girl), boy hangs with his boys, boy screws up the relationship.
Keitel plays a similar role in MEAN STREETS as Charlie, a small-time Little Italy mobster. Both J.R. and Charlie wrestle with the guilt and misogyny of their Catholic upbringing, along with their inability to understand and respect the women in their lives.
Visually, Scorsese’s debut film owes a lot to Godard and Truffaut, with its erratic editing, swift-pacing and non-linear edits. But he also established his own trademarks in KNOCKING, like his penchant for often-ironic upbeat rock and doo-wop needle drops.
Scorsese is known for his iconic soundtracks for good reason. MEAN STREETS is full of counterintuitive musical choices, from Robert De Niro’s erratic Johnny Boy dancing to Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, to this pool hall fight scene set to The Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman.”
Then there’s Scorsese’s slow-motion tracking shots. Of course, everyone knows the iconic Copacabana Steadicam shot from GOODFELLAS. But not everyone is as familiar with the slow-mo party sequence from KNOCKING. It all starts somewhere!
In MEAN STREETS, Scorsese married two of his signatures in one: a slow-mo tracking shot with a killer Rolling Stones needle drop.
Before TAXI DRIVER, MEAN STREETS introduced us to the beginning of De Niro’s tough guy persona. His Johnny is a volatile sleaze with a short self-destructive fuse, but there’s also a charm to his childlike insouciance.
Another notable Scorsese music moment comes in TAXI DRIVER. Breaking from Bernard Herrmann’s score, Jackson Browne’s “Late for the Sky” plays as De Niro’s Travis Bickle watches TV. The melancholic track emphasizes the depression consuming him, and it’s deeply unsettling to watch.
For 1980’s RAGING BULL, De Niro reunited with Scorsese to play the self-destructive fighter Jake La Motta. Shot in stunning black-and-white, this isn’t your typical sports film, but a harrowing psychological study of a flawed man fueled by jealousy and fury.
Just take the fight sequences: once inside the ring, Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Chapman catapult us into the animalistic rage that consumes Jake. His final fight against Sugar Ray Robinson (Johnny Barnes) is at once nightmarish and poetic.
RAGING BULL not only marked the first of three collaborations between De Niro, Pesci, and Scorsese, but gave us Pesci’s breakout role as Jake’s pugnacious little brother/manager Joey and earned him his first Oscar nomination.
And we mustn’t forget the importance of Italian home cooking in a Scorsese picture — especially when that cooking is done by his own mother. It’s pretty perfect that the very first scene of Scorsese’s debut begins with Catherine Scorsese making a calzone.
One character is often left out of conversations around Scorsese’s oeuvre: Alice Hyatt, Ellen Burstyn’s independent single mother in ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (1974).
There’s a naturalness and cheeky defiance to Burstyn’s Alice — a performance that won her an Oscar — that makes ALICE DOESN'T LIFE HERE ANYMORE stand out among Scorsese's early work. This exchange sums her up perfectly:
Just look at the way Keitel’s cocky player Ben gets cooly rejected by Burstyn’s no-bullshit singer (at least, initially).
With ALICE, Scorsese strays from his common themes of male bonding to spotlight tenderness and humor in female friendships. Some of the film’s most affecting moments are Alice’s teary goodbye to a friend and a heartfelt conversation with Diane Ladd's hilariously unfiltered Flo.
As different as ALICE may be thematically and stylistically — you won’t find any voiceover, slow-mo, or jolting needle drops here — there's a brisk vulgarity and toughness to the film’s humor that feels right at home in Scorsese’s filmography.
Before THE IRISHMAN arrives on Netflix (tomorrow!) 11/27, hop back in time to experience the genesis of Scorsese’s style with WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR, MEAN STREETS, ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, TAXI DRIVER, and RAGING BULL, all on Netflix (US).
