Scoring with Scorsese Trivia Quiz

Answer: Goodfellas

"Goodfellas" was Martin Scorsese's 1990 movie about life in Mafia families. It followed the story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish mobster who wanted to join the mob because they got dates with the best looking women and waiters always seemed to know their names. Joe Pesci played Tommy DeVito, a robber with a hair-trigger temper. The quote is from a scene in a restaurant where someone made an offhand remark about DeVito being a funny guy and he took it the wrong way before cooling down (in a schizophrenic way). DeVito did not survive until the end of the film.

Scorsese, born in Queens, New York and growing up in New York City's Little Italy section, frequently emphasized the grittier side of city life in his movies. He apparently was drawn to scripts that paralleled his life observations.

Answer: Civil War

Set mostly in the 1860s, "Gangs of New York" was about native-born New York gang members and Irish-immigrant gangs. The New York draft riots of 1863 (U.S. Civil War) brought federal troops to the city; in the movie the gangs were decimated by the soldiers. Based on Herbert Asbury's non-fiction book of the same name, Scorsese directed Leonardo DeCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz in the movie which was nominated for ten Academy Awards, though ultimately winning none.

Answer: dressed in white

One of Scorsese's trademarks as a director is to have his blonde actresses first appear in a film dressed in white, and having an angelic look. Stone was the only person in focus as she walked on in a sequined white dress in "Casino" (1995). In "Taxi Driver" (1976), Cybil Shepherd's character also stood out in white. There is unconfirmed speculation that it may be a tip-of-the-hat to Alfred Hitchcock.

Answer: After Hours

Scorsese found in the 1980s that Hollywood had changed and his personalized style of filmmaking had fallen out of fashion, making it difficult to get financial backing."After Hours", a 1985 black comedy was a low-budget film shot at night in New York City's lower Manhattan. Griffin Dunne played an average guy who got into trouble he didn't create. Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom and Cheech and Chong were part of the cast. And there was the chase scene with the Mister Softee ice cream truck, but I don't want to spoil the movie for you! Scorsese's work was praised by some critics while others wondered what was going on.

Answer: Raging Bull

"Raging Bull" was based on the story of professional boxer Jake LaMotta, nicknamed Raging Bull. It was the story of a fighter who was emotionally and sexually insecure, living a violent life in and out of the boxing ring and his eventual self-forgiveness. Robert De Niro played LaMotta, a then-unknown Joe Pesci played his brother Joey, and Cathy Moriarty, another unknown actor whom Pesci recommended for the part played Vickie, LaMotta's eventual wife.

Documented accounts relate Scorsese's cocaine addiction during this period and how De Niro convinced him to give up drugs and focus on making this picture. Scorsese thought it might be the last film he would ever direct and so put his full talent into making it. The movie was shot in black and white, using unusual camera angles and techniques. It received eight Academy Award nominations, including those for De Niro as Best Actor, Moriatry as Best Supporting Actress and Scorsese for Best Director. De Niro won his category and Thelma Schoonmaker won for the film in the Best Editing category. Over the years it has been named to many top 100, and some top 10, movie lists by film critics and organizations.

Answer: Casino

Another movie for which he wrote part of the screenplay as well as directed, Scorsese brought forth "Casino", a movie that some consider the most violent American gangster movie ever made. Robert De Niro, in his eighth collaboration with Scorsese, played Sam Rothstein (based on real-life mobster Frank Rosenthal) who oversaw the operations of a Las Vegas casino. Joe Pesci played another psychotic gangster and Sharon Stone played a former prostitute who married Rothstein.

The film was based on a book by Nicholas Peleggi who also wrote the book on which "Goodfellas" was based. Though "Casino" was a box-office success it has often been compared to "Goodfellas" in its mood and treatment of characters. Sharon Stone was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance.

Answer: The Wolf of Wall Street

Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up with Martin Scorsese for the fifth time in "The Wolf of Wall Street". DiCaprio's character, Jordan Belfort, was a New York stockbroker whose firm engaged in securities fraud in the 1990s. Though his firm was already very successful the lure of more money sent Belfort down a dangerous path. Skirting around the margins of good taste the movie, about underhanded dealing in the stock market, got an R-rating for excessive profanity, drug use, nudity and sexual content. Animal rights activists also disparaged it. Still, it was nominated for five Academy Awards but won none.

Answer: The Hustler

"The Color of Money" was Martin Scorsese's first attempt at mainstream filmmaking. It starred Paul Newman, reprising his role as "Fast Eddie" Felson from the 1961 movie "The Hustler" in which the character wanted to prove himself the best pool hustler by beating the legendary "Minnesota Fats", played by Jackie Gleason. In this movie Tom Cruise played the part of an up-and-coming pool hustler who Felson took on the road to teach him how to hustle more profitable pool games. Scorsese used camera tricks which he ascribed to learning from the 1947 film "Black Narcissus".

The movie received generally good reviews and raised Scorsese's image in Hollywood. It was nominated for four Oscars; after several nominations, Paul Newman finally won an Oscar for Best Actor in this film.

Answer: Shutter Island

Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Scorsese's "Shutter Island", a fictitious island in Boston harbor upon which there was a hospital for the criminally insane. The movie concerns DiCaprio's character, a U.S. marshal, trying to find out the truth about some people who have gone missing from the institution.

Scorsese acknowledged Otto Preminger's "Laura" as influential in his directing of the movie; other people see likenesses to some of Alfred Hitchcock's movies.

Answer: Cape Fear

Robert Mitchum, who played the main character in the 1962 film, portrayed a county sheriff in the 1991 remake of "Cape Fear". The story concerned a man sentenced to prison for rape who sought revenge on his attorney after his release. Gritty and violent in Scorsese fashion, we followed along as character Max Cady (Robert De Niro) preyed upon lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and his family. The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards.

Answer: Jesus Christ

Controversial even before it was released, "The Last Temptation of Christ" marked Martin Scorsese's return to the non-commercial, personal style of filmmaking he had become famous for. Based on the (also controversial) novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, Willem Dafoe played the part of the conflicted, self-doubting Jesus Christ. Much of the criticism centered on the character's hallucination, while on the cross, of being married to Mary Magdalene and having a family. (In years to come this theme would become very popular, due in large part to Dan Brown's use of it in his book "The DaVinci Code".)

Raised as a Roman Catholic, Scorsese had wanted to do a film about Christ since he was a boy. The film viewed Christ as primarily human rather than supernatural. Despite the controversy it was critically well-received by film reviewers and some religious leaders, but one film critic called it "poisonous morally and spiritually...worthless".

Answer: Dalai Lama

Kundun means 'presence' in the Tibetan language and the film is about Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama; Kundun was the nickname (if you will) of the first Dalai Lama. The movie was from a script by Melissa Mathison; you may be familiar with her best-known work which became the movie "E.T." "Kundun" is a chronological tale of the finding and coming of age of Tenzio Gyatso. Typically, Scorsese paid scant attention to the effect the movie would have on the Chinese government, whose army had invaded Tibet looking for the Dalai Lama resulting in his exile to India.

The Walt Disney company wasn't so facile; they were the distributor of the film and it caused them many headaches as they were preparing for a major expansion into China. At first standing behind the film, Disney eventually equivocated, hurting the film's commercial success. While it initially enhanced Scorsese's reputation, when the dust settled it was considered a detour from Scorsese's usual style and success.

Answer: The Aviator

Leonardo DiCaprio once again teamed up with Martin Scorsese in the 2004 film "The Aviator", a biopic about Howard Hughes. The story covered Hughes' life and his worsening obsessive/compulsive disorder, from his inheriting of the family fortune through the development of the Spruce Goose, a huge airplane made of wood and other planes made by the Hughes Aircraft Company.

The movie was nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Scorsese's fifth nomination for Best Director; it ended up winning five, the top one being Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, Hughes' one-time lover; Scorsese failed to win Best Director again.

Answer: The Departed

"The Departed" was a 2006 movie in which just about everyone departed by being murdered. It was a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong crime-thriller "Infernal Affairs" reset in Boston, Massachusetts. Former Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger was the basis for the film's Francis Costello (Jack Nicholson) character. Leonardo DiCaprio (in another collaboration with Scorsese) and Matt Damon also starred in the movie. It was the story of a mole in the mob, a mole in the Massachusetts State Police, and people on both sides with their own agendas.

The movie opened to rave reviews; some critics hailed the movie as Scorsese's best since 1990's "Goodfellas". It won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and, finally, on his sixth nomination over a 26-year period, Best Director for Scorsese. Presented with the Oscar by directors Francis Ford Coppola, Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas, Scorsese quipped "Could you double-check the envelope?"

Answer: Taxi Driver

As a young director, Martin Scorsese experimented with various film styles and locales. By the mid-1970s he had settled on gritty city life, violence and conflicted, borderline-psychotic leading characters as main elements in his films as was evident in his fifth film "Taxi Driver". A saints and sinners drama about a Vietnam veteran trying to cope with depression and homicidal tendencies, Robert De Niro cemented a place for himself in film history as loner Travis Bickle. His "You talkin' to me?" posturing in front of a mirror has become a most-recognizable movie quote.

De Niro had worked with Scorsese before, as had Jodie Foster; her portrayal of a teenaged prostitute was a breakthrough role for her. The film won Academy Award nominations for De Niro and Foster as well as Best Picture and Best Music. Though winning none, it established a style Scorsese would return to again and again in his career and made legitimate stars of De Niro and Foster.