All Robert De Niro Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer
Robert De Niro began his seven-decade career in movies with a starring role in the Vietnam War-era comedy/drama Greetings. The 1968 film would be his opening joint effort with Brian De Palma (they followed up with The Wedding Party, dark satire Hi, Mom!, and gangland epic The Untouchables), and would be the first of many fruitful actor/director partnerships that would come to define De Niro’s image.
Martin Scorsese is the most obvious director he’s worked with in this way: Their legendary collaborative run began with 1973’s Mean Streets, continuing into Taxi Driver, New York, New York, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, and The Irishman. De Niro’s performances in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull especially changed the acting game, executing a method-style of performance wherein the actor not only mentally inhabits their character, but transforms their physical shape entirely. De Niro won the Best Actor Oscar for becoming boxer Jake ‘The Raging Bull’ LaMotta in 1981, topping his Best Supporting Actor win in 1975 for The Godfather: Part II as young Vito Corleone, and nominations in ’77 and ’79 for Taxi Driver and The Deer Hunter, respectively.
Just as he did in the ’70s, De Niro appeared in some of the best movies of the decades that subsequently followed. In the ’80s, he worked with Terry Gilliam for Brazil and Sergio Leone for Once Upon a Time in America, and delivered enduring action-comedy Midnight Run. Inside the ’90s, aside from the aforementioned Scorsese collaborations, De Niro starred in Michael Mann’s Heat and Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Wag the Dog might belong on someone’s best-of-’90s list if you asked around a bit, but Barry Levinson is another director De Niro has frequently worked with; outside of Dog, they also put together What Just Happened?, Sleepers, and The Wizard of Lies.
Towards the end of the ’90s, De Niro began to satirize his on-screen tough-guy persona, returning to the comedy mode of his early career with films like 1999’s Analyze This, 2000’s Meet the Parents, and 2007’s Stardust. He would be nominated again for an Oscar for his role in 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook, kicking off another director partnership with David O. Russell. They would continue with the decidedly Scorsese-like American Hustle, Joy, and an upcoming historical drama. Another recent Scorsese-esque movie, Joker, echoed the bleak media dystopia presented in The King of Comedy and grossed $1 billion worldwide. But why settle: After starring in and being nominated for Best Picture as a producer on The Irishman, he’s back with Scorsese for the upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon.
Now, we’re ranking all Robert De Niro movies by Tomatometer, Certified Fresh Films first! —Alex Vo
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