City of Films

Martin Scorsese has been acknowledged as the greatest American filmmaker of his generation. The evidence of this critical acclaim is abundant: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980) are all listed amongst the 360 Great Films as selected by Sight and Sound and the British Film Institute; Raging Bull was selected as the greatest American film of the 1980s by American Film;  and Raging Bull finished second in the voting of Top Ten Films of all time (behind Citizen Kane) in an international poll of filmmakers in Sight and Sound in 1992.  The evidence is there.

Martin Scorsese is my favorite Director working today.  Goodfellas after thirty screenings is still as hypnotic as it was when I first laid eyes on it.  His lack of recognition from the Academy Awards actually adds to rather than detracts from his reputation; after all, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick were also all denied Oscars, alas Martin won his for The Departed (2006).

With this acclaim by both filmmakers and critics alike, Scorsese has been able to accumulate a great deal of cultural prestige and power, despite the limited success and at times outright failure of his films at the box office. Scorsese’s prestige also comes from his championing of film preservation and his efforts to ensure our “film heritage” is not lost.  He loves film, and makes films that he would want to see.  That is all you can ask from an artist, to do what they do best.  Here are some samples:

Scorsese’s first major critical success came with Mean Streets, unfortunately, most critics have reduced its complexity by imposing an ethnic/religious approach that only focuses on the film’s (and Scorsese’s) Italian Catholicism. And while these elements are certainly present, it diminishes the social dimension of the film to only consider it from a religious and/or ethnic point of view. Mean Streets is a major part of early 1970s American film and in many ways is an American Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959) in terms of innovative technique and influence on filmmakers (ranging from Quentin Tarantino to Spike Lee to Wong Kar-wai and countless others).

This split can be seen in critical responses to all his major films. Perhaps Taxi Driver has divided opinion more than any other. I believe what makes Taxi Driver a great film is the ambivalent attitude to its protagonist. It is a film fuelled by the tension of sympathising with Travis’ loneliness while being repelled by his violent, anti-social behavior. This is echoed in the tension between the reality of the street scenes and the lavish and seductive cinematography and music.  This is the type of film perhaps Robert Altman or Stanley Kubrick would have made. But Scorsese rarely wants this kind of distance from his characters, and his films contain a dynamism few others achieve because of this.

A similar tension exists in Raging Bull, and it has lead to similar critical dissent. It is an exposure of the violence inherent in a masculinity that must viciously repress all signs of femininity and/or homosexuality. The boxing scenes are extremely violent and bloody but are also a virtuoso example of editing (by Thelma Schoonmaker) and cinematography.

Goodfellas (1990) is the most interesting and subversive of all gangster films, combining elements the musical and black comedy in its story of the rise and fall of a mob henchman. The film combines Scorsese’s typically ambivalent view of violence, displaying it in all its nastiness while at the same time positioning the viewer (through editing, camera angles, and music) to identify with it. The most shocking element of Goodfellas is the ending, in which Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) is stuck in the prison of American suburbia. Henry has the American Dream, and he despises it.

I could go on about what Martin Scorsese has giving the world of cinema, but I would not know where to stop.  As an artist, it is ones belief that they take themselves seriously and the work they present.  You are in it for you to share for others.  Mr. Scorsese gets that.  He will not edit down his films for that easy PG-13 rating to make the extra box office dollars.  Thank you Mr. Martin Scorsese, in the words of King Missile “He makes the best fucking films, If I ever meet him I’m gonna grab his fuckin’ neck and just shake him and say thank you thank you for makin’ such excellent fuckin’ movies”

CHECK OUT:
Scorsese’s Acceptance Speech for the John Huston Award for Artists Rights
Key to Reserva: Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock
Martin Scorsese’s Favorite Films
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