2. Martin Scorsese
The best. My favorite director of all time and maybe that's telling because he's made some of the most brutal films in cinema history. Even in films that contain little death, like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, there is precedent of death and violence that permeates every frame. Scorsese has constantly found himself making films that examine the beast we hold within. The duality of mankind. It has been a career long study and left us with a better understanding of ourselves while still being supremely entertained. There were important character deaths in Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino but those were tame when compared to two of his newer films. In Gangs Of New York, hardly ten minutes went by without a character getting murdered. The opening gang fight alone qualifies the movie but considering death continued for the next two and a half hours and you're left with one of the bloodiest movies in film history. Lastly, The Departed needs to be talked about not only for the insane talent that was killed on screen but for the fact that three people get murdered in the span of thirty seconds at the climax only for the last man standing to get murdered a few minutes later. Run down the list of names in the movie: Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlburg, James Badge Dale, Anthony Anderson, Ray Winstone and Vera Farmiga. Now, only Farmiga and Wahlburg make it out alive. Oh Marty, that's about as deadly as it gets.