As both director and producer, Martin Scorsese has a long history of creating extraordinary films set in New York City. This year’s release, Revenge of the Green Dragons, proves his affinity for the Big Apple remains as strong as ever. The new film follows a Chinese immigrant as he rises within the ranks of a notorious street gang. Scorsese doesn’t sit in the director’s chair this time, filling the role of executive producer instead, but his notorious taste for gritty barbarism remains as voracious as ever. In honor of Green Dragons, here are five of Martin Scorsese‘s five best New York pictures:

1. Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver stars Robert De Niro as an ex-Marine, struggling with mental instability and working in New York driving a taxi. A teenage Jodie Foster also stars as a young girl forced into prostitution to survive. The driver gradually loses his tenacious grip on reality as he witnesses despicable actions throughout the city. Martin Scorsese’s eye for violence and sadism explores the effects of a declining city on its citizens. Presuming that when someone is alone in a crumbling metropolis, they will fight tooth and nail to survive, even going so far as to commit murder.

2. After Hours

Martin Scorsese has the ability to imbue an element of comedy within even the darkest of films, and this was never on display more than in After Hours. The film stars Griffin Dunne as Paul Hackett, a rich yuppie from Manhattan that struggles to get home after visiting the SoHo neighborhood of New York. The city is filled with wild people that you won’t find anywhere else in the world, and just about anything can happen if you find yourself in in the right scenario. After Hours displays this fact with brilliant humor when Paul runs into several crazy characters on his way back to his apartment.

3. Mean Streets

Mean Streets was the first film that really showcased Scorsese’s ability to create masterful works of cinema. It was also the first in a long list of collaborations between Robert De Niro and Scorsese. Mean Streets follows a young Italian man, played by Harvey Keitel, as he struggles with his friends and religion while attempting to rise up the ranks in the local mafia. Mean Streets included aspects of graphic violence, “macho” figures, religious elements and gritty shots of New York that would later become his signature style.

4. The Wolf of Wall Street

Scorsese returned to portrayals of New York City criminals when he released The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013. While most of Scorsese’s previous films followed gang and mafia members, The Wolf of Wall Street puts a different type of New York City criminal on display: the soulless stockbroker. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a stockbroker who makes millions illegally while deceiving his clients. New York City went from the vice grip of violent crime syndicates to the arrogant greed of white collar criminals in the late 1980’s. Scorsese portrays this absurdity by making one of the most sardonically funny films of his career.

5. Gangs of New York

Martin Scorsese explores the effect of immigration on New York City during the Civil War in Gangs of New York. Being from an immigrant family himself, this was a subject very near his heart. The early days of New York were filled with violence and corruption, but it wouldn’t have become the greatest city in the world without these tough, lawless times. Gangs of New York was also the first of five collaborations between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

Martin Scorsese has lived most of his life in New York. The city made him the filmmaker he is today, and he clearly retains a personal passion for its urban mystique. Green Dragons, released through a collaborative deal between art house production studio A24 Films and DirecTV, is currently in theaters. Pair his films with those of Woody Allen, Spike Lee or Sidney Lumet, for an all-encompassing look at the city that never sleeps. By seeing the city through the eyes of Martin Scorsese, it’s easy to see why the NYC retains such an enduring charm for filmmakers and film lovers alike.

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