Hey everybody, and welcome back to another installment in my ongoing Director/Actor collaboration week. I’m exploring my five favorite actor/director combos, in no particular order. Today I’ll be looking at Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.
To me, Leonardo DiCaprio was little more than a heartthrob for most of his early career. With the possible exception of Romeo + Juliet, I don’t think he had any meaningful roles. But then he teamed up with Martin Scorsese for Gangs Of New York, and hasn’t looked back since.
Scorsese on the other hand, has been making great movies for quite some time. Purists will probably tell me that he collaborated better with Robert De Niro, but I disagree. I feel that once he started working with DiCaprio, he found a new level of excellence.
These two have now worked on four projects together, them being Gangs Of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and Shutter Island. Each one of these films is excellent in its own right, but for me, The Departed is their best collaborative work.
Even though The Departed features a great ensemble cast, there is no question that DiCaprio is the lead. Throughout the film, Leonardo maintains a level of quality that is unmatched by any of his previous performances. And Scorsese manages to intertwine the many varying storylines, twists, and complexities of the story in a way that makes it accessible, while still being about as complicated as it can reasonably get.
For me, Shutter Island is the low point of their combo, which is saying something, because I saw Shutter Island twice in theaters. (An obvious sign of quality.) That movie, fantastic though it was, lacked just a bit of the punch provided by their previous three films.
That being said, their work together has been consistently phenomenal. Scorsese transformed DiCaprio from just another pretty face to one of the most talented actors in Hollywood, while DiCaprio challenged Scorsese to raise his level of cinematic quality to heights that he had never reached in the past. And that is what puts this duo on my top five list of actor/director combos.
Until next time,
Harry
To me, Leonardo DiCaprio was little more than a heartthrob for most of his early career. With the possible exception of Romeo + Juliet, I don’t think he had any meaningful roles. But then he teamed up with Martin Scorsese for Gangs Of New York, and hasn’t looked back since.
Scorsese on the other hand, has been making great movies for quite some time. Purists will probably tell me that he collaborated better with Robert De Niro, but I disagree. I feel that once he started working with DiCaprio, he found a new level of excellence.
These two have now worked on four projects together, them being Gangs Of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and Shutter Island. Each one of these films is excellent in its own right, but for me, The Departed is their best collaborative work.
Even though The Departed features a great ensemble cast, there is no question that DiCaprio is the lead. Throughout the film, Leonardo maintains a level of quality that is unmatched by any of his previous performances. And Scorsese manages to intertwine the many varying storylines, twists, and complexities of the story in a way that makes it accessible, while still being about as complicated as it can reasonably get.
For me, Shutter Island is the low point of their combo, which is saying something, because I saw Shutter Island twice in theaters. (An obvious sign of quality.) That movie, fantastic though it was, lacked just a bit of the punch provided by their previous three films.
That being said, their work together has been consistently phenomenal. Scorsese transformed DiCaprio from just another pretty face to one of the most talented actors in Hollywood, while DiCaprio challenged Scorsese to raise his level of cinematic quality to heights that he had never reached in the past. And that is what puts this duo on my top five list of actor/director combos.
Until next time,
Harry
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