"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking...you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here." A painful scene, indeed, but it's one of the most iconic ever. No question, Taxi Driver is a top three Scorsese film with a powerful Robert De Niro performance. The last twenty minutes is unpredictable.

*table crashing* "Bodder me abott a steak? Huh? You bodda me abott a steak??!" That scene pretty much sums up what Raging Bull is about. As almost unrecognizable as he looks, Robert De Niro gives a performance that's among the ten greatest in history. Both cinematography and editing are the icing on the cake to reach for that certain oomph.

Without doubt, Goodfellas is the hardest-hitting Mafia picture made. There's nothing like it. The first two minutes, complemented by Saul Bass' titles, is what sets the tone for the rest of the film. In order to get Goodfellas made, Martin Scorsese called Nicholas Pileggi, the author of Wiseguy, to say, "I've been waiting for this book my entire life," which was met with "I've been waiting for this phone call my entire life."

The Color of Money is a cinematic rarity: two heavyweight actors, movie idols in their own right yet come from different generations, clash with each other before they make a change of the guard. It's a dog-eat-dog world of hustling. What's interesting is, as the mentor-protégé thing goes astray, the former ends up wanting a shot at the latter who in turn denies him his best game.

Martin Scorsese's version of Cape Fear is more thrilling and suspenseful than the original. The performances are uniformly excellent. Robert De Niro is at once effective and chilling as Max Cady. Juliette Lewis embodies the look of an innocent teenage girl. A terrific scene is when they are alone in the auditorium.

To prepare for his role, Robert De Niro went after his autograph hunters and stalkers, hounding and asking them a lot of questions. He even met with a longtime stalker to explore his mindset and asked him, "Why are you stalking me? What do you want?" which were met with "To have dinner with you, have a drink, chat. My mom asked me to say hi." That's a dedicated actor if there's ever one.

Campy, weird, and unique, After Hours is a different kind of comedy. The film might have a slow start, but it picks up the pace when the meeting occurs for a potential sexual encounter. Then, it turns out the protagonist has to die for it. Finally, he realizes that sex isn't worth losing his life for and that he must survive to get home.

Mean Streets and Bang the Drum Slowly were theatrically released on the same day, offering a first glimpse of Robert De Niro, and people couldn't believe he played two completely different characters. Today, most don't realize Robert De Niro worked for over ten years, hustling for an acting job here and there with little luck. This is his first collaboration with Martin Scorsese, paving the way to legendary films.