“In my time, you were told that you could either become a cop or a criminal. I say that when you are standing in front of a loaded gun, what’s the difference?”
Now, should we take that as the point to start off, or do we smell a rat in here?
The first Scorsese that I had ever seen was Raging Bull. And that ten minute monologue by one of the living Gods of world cinema left me completely spell bound. And then the story unfolded and I was taken over by Martin Scorsese. On a side note, I read somewhere much later that Scorsese at around that time was heavily snuffing up on cocaine. So much so that he had almost given up on making a movie again. His friend, Robert de Niro got him to kick his habit and make another piece of the ‘Marty magic’. It worked, though Scorsese was convinced that he was going to make his last movie – and in the process, he snuffed his life into Raging Bull. That’s why it is the classical classic! Perhaps only!
This is my article, and by now digressions are mandatory. Because when discussing a Martin Scorsese movie, we are talking about a whole institution, a whole school of film making – an institution which is very much Marty, a school where he teaches alone!
He made Raging Bull in 1980 if I remember, and then in 1990 he made another milestone, Goodfellas, hailed by many including me, as the greatest ‘ganstah’ movie ever. Yes, we people are bold enough to put it even before the Godfather series! At this stage you should realise that it would mean something – and those of you who have just heard the name for the very first time should watch it now!
And then in 1995 we got Casino, almost like a de Niro special! I am sure that no one would complain at that, but de Niro of course had that special capability to blend into all types of roles with the most alarming ease. But now this is what I was getting to. De Niro, through no fault of his own, started to look old on screen. That isn’t a negative quality, not for someone like him at all, but the fact remains that there were characters that he could not play anymore. He could not be the Taxi Driver anymore and neither could he play Jack Le Motta. He aged many time when he was young, but now it was a different matter altogether. A new face was sought, a new face we got. Filling in for Robert de Niro was Leonardo de Caprio, who was just not the innocent face from Titanic, but had matured over the years. Let’s not kid around here, Scorsese knows what he is doing.
But hold it there for a second now and let us go back behind the camera and think about the man there. Martin Scorsese. Did he not grow old? Was he stuck in some timeless, ageless vacuum from which he could not be sucked up? Of course not! He’s just as human as the next guy.
But if he did grow old like everyone else, how could he make The Departed? How could slip in with the times so effortlessly?
For mostly everyone, the first Dylan that you hear is “Blowing in the Wind”, I guess! I first heard “The Times, they are a Changing!” And it struck a deep chord within. “... Step aside if you don’t understand”. But the other side of this story would very definitely mean, “Remain where you are if you do understand” and that means that the person has changed with the times. I cannot explain how delightful it is to see a person change with time, to blend in to the next quarter, not cling on to nomenclature and history as a given.
And it is in this context that the sense of amazement that I feel on seeing a Martin Scorsese movie that I speak of the entire ageing process. This to my mind is the best way to gauge a man’s creative genius and this is where Scorsese proves that he is more than merely a director – he proves that he is an iconic legend. Why the two words together you might ask, but well, that is just the way Martin Scorsese is.
My original idea was to write an article on The Departed, but as I went along, I realised that it is just not that one movie which has made me a Marty maniac, it ranges right back from the time I first saw Taxi Driver. That whole “you talkin’ to me” routine kept me fuelled for months after watching that classic. And ever since, Martin Scorsese has remained in my mind as a magical genius. He has moved on from being just another director to being, as I said earlier, an iconic legend.
But there is another point that has become a common refrain in the preceding few paragraphs – and that is that the Scorsese movies that I have so far spoken off are mostly Robert de Niro starrers. And considering the legendary status of de Niro himself, the tide may also sway another way when one can presume that Scorsese proved to be to stoical genius that I make him out to be because of his principal actor. Let’s bite the bullet here. Robert de Niro does carry the reputation of a ‘director killer’. No one realises though that to really be a ‘director killer’ one has to surrender one’s soul and spirit to that very director. Only then can the character be moulded, be developed into something special. And when you become something special, then you become Robert de Niro. But who think so much anyway?
But back at hand to Martin Scorsese. Let us move away from de Niro and go to someone who not many think to be a ‘great’ actor – shifting our gaze to Leo de Caprio here. And when you see say The Beach and compare that to Gangs of New York¸ you see a very palpable difference between the two. You see a difference in performance. And then, you take it from there to say, The Aviator, which mind you is a bio-film, so that is one step above everything else already – and of course, you should also keep in mind that it is not playing an unknown personality like Oskar Schindler, it is playing one of the most popular faces of the twentieth century, Howard Hughes. And if we see de Caprio’s performance there, I think it should be pretty simple understanding what I was saying about submission to the captain of the movie.
And that man is Martin Scorsese. I obviously am not saying that he is the only one, but right now I am talking about Scorsese and so everything is limited to this realm. Just see for yourself – here I was all set to right about The Departed and now I have gone off completely in talking about Scorsese. Because it is the Marty ‘touch’ that made me write about this movie in the first place. Every movie is unique and yet there is a common thread that draws all of them together. Scorsese has moved away from his jazz backgrounds and his classical imprints, to include “Comfortably Numb” and “Coming out to Boston” as his soundtrack here. That is what it means to change with the times.
There is obviously no way in which I can touch upon every Scorsese movie – the man has made too many gems for a single sitting. So there is a lot, like The Colour of Money that I am being forced to leave out of here... Maybe another time!
Yes, but there is also another blow that is quite often dealt on a Scorsese feature and that is pace. Though I’ll be very honest, I don’t know why people get so carried away by the speed of a movie. There are a lot of other things that go on in a frame and most importantly, real time imagery. Therefore, to comment straight forth on the speed is not a very wise thing to do. The whole impact is what needs to be felt.
Scorsese is one of the last remnants of the cinematic movement I like to refer to as “genius”. With him and a few others like Milos Forman, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Copolla and though he doesn’t direct anymore, Sidney Lumet, the last stand is still present. I’m not saying that we will sink into depravity after that, but we will lose a huge quantum in our cinematic experience.
Carry forth Marty, we need you more than you need us!
Now, should we take that as the point to start off, or do we smell a rat in here?
The first Scorsese that I had ever seen was Raging Bull. And that ten minute monologue by one of the living Gods of world cinema left me completely spell bound. And then the story unfolded and I was taken over by Martin Scorsese. On a side note, I read somewhere much later that Scorsese at around that time was heavily snuffing up on cocaine. So much so that he had almost given up on making a movie again. His friend, Robert de Niro got him to kick his habit and make another piece of the ‘Marty magic’. It worked, though Scorsese was convinced that he was going to make his last movie – and in the process, he snuffed his life into Raging Bull. That’s why it is the classical classic! Perhaps only!
This is my article, and by now digressions are mandatory. Because when discussing a Martin Scorsese movie, we are talking about a whole institution, a whole school of film making – an institution which is very much Marty, a school where he teaches alone!
He made Raging Bull in 1980 if I remember, and then in 1990 he made another milestone, Goodfellas, hailed by many including me, as the greatest ‘ganstah’ movie ever. Yes, we people are bold enough to put it even before the Godfather series! At this stage you should realise that it would mean something – and those of you who have just heard the name for the very first time should watch it now!
And then in 1995 we got Casino, almost like a de Niro special! I am sure that no one would complain at that, but de Niro of course had that special capability to blend into all types of roles with the most alarming ease. But now this is what I was getting to. De Niro, through no fault of his own, started to look old on screen. That isn’t a negative quality, not for someone like him at all, but the fact remains that there were characters that he could not play anymore. He could not be the Taxi Driver anymore and neither could he play Jack Le Motta. He aged many time when he was young, but now it was a different matter altogether. A new face was sought, a new face we got. Filling in for Robert de Niro was Leonardo de Caprio, who was just not the innocent face from Titanic, but had matured over the years. Let’s not kid around here, Scorsese knows what he is doing.
But hold it there for a second now and let us go back behind the camera and think about the man there. Martin Scorsese. Did he not grow old? Was he stuck in some timeless, ageless vacuum from which he could not be sucked up? Of course not! He’s just as human as the next guy.
But if he did grow old like everyone else, how could he make The Departed? How could slip in with the times so effortlessly?
For mostly everyone, the first Dylan that you hear is “Blowing in the Wind”, I guess! I first heard “The Times, they are a Changing!” And it struck a deep chord within. “... Step aside if you don’t understand”. But the other side of this story would very definitely mean, “Remain where you are if you do understand” and that means that the person has changed with the times. I cannot explain how delightful it is to see a person change with time, to blend in to the next quarter, not cling on to nomenclature and history as a given.
And it is in this context that the sense of amazement that I feel on seeing a Martin Scorsese movie that I speak of the entire ageing process. This to my mind is the best way to gauge a man’s creative genius and this is where Scorsese proves that he is more than merely a director – he proves that he is an iconic legend. Why the two words together you might ask, but well, that is just the way Martin Scorsese is.
My original idea was to write an article on The Departed, but as I went along, I realised that it is just not that one movie which has made me a Marty maniac, it ranges right back from the time I first saw Taxi Driver. That whole “you talkin’ to me” routine kept me fuelled for months after watching that classic. And ever since, Martin Scorsese has remained in my mind as a magical genius. He has moved on from being just another director to being, as I said earlier, an iconic legend.
But there is another point that has become a common refrain in the preceding few paragraphs – and that is that the Scorsese movies that I have so far spoken off are mostly Robert de Niro starrers. And considering the legendary status of de Niro himself, the tide may also sway another way when one can presume that Scorsese proved to be to stoical genius that I make him out to be because of his principal actor. Let’s bite the bullet here. Robert de Niro does carry the reputation of a ‘director killer’. No one realises though that to really be a ‘director killer’ one has to surrender one’s soul and spirit to that very director. Only then can the character be moulded, be developed into something special. And when you become something special, then you become Robert de Niro. But who think so much anyway?
But back at hand to Martin Scorsese. Let us move away from de Niro and go to someone who not many think to be a ‘great’ actor – shifting our gaze to Leo de Caprio here. And when you see say The Beach and compare that to Gangs of New York¸ you see a very palpable difference between the two. You see a difference in performance. And then, you take it from there to say, The Aviator, which mind you is a bio-film, so that is one step above everything else already – and of course, you should also keep in mind that it is not playing an unknown personality like Oskar Schindler, it is playing one of the most popular faces of the twentieth century, Howard Hughes. And if we see de Caprio’s performance there, I think it should be pretty simple understanding what I was saying about submission to the captain of the movie.
And that man is Martin Scorsese. I obviously am not saying that he is the only one, but right now I am talking about Scorsese and so everything is limited to this realm. Just see for yourself – here I was all set to right about The Departed and now I have gone off completely in talking about Scorsese. Because it is the Marty ‘touch’ that made me write about this movie in the first place. Every movie is unique and yet there is a common thread that draws all of them together. Scorsese has moved away from his jazz backgrounds and his classical imprints, to include “Comfortably Numb” and “Coming out to Boston” as his soundtrack here. That is what it means to change with the times.
There is obviously no way in which I can touch upon every Scorsese movie – the man has made too many gems for a single sitting. So there is a lot, like The Colour of Money that I am being forced to leave out of here... Maybe another time!
Yes, but there is also another blow that is quite often dealt on a Scorsese feature and that is pace. Though I’ll be very honest, I don’t know why people get so carried away by the speed of a movie. There are a lot of other things that go on in a frame and most importantly, real time imagery. Therefore, to comment straight forth on the speed is not a very wise thing to do. The whole impact is what needs to be felt.
Scorsese is one of the last remnants of the cinematic movement I like to refer to as “genius”. With him and a few others like Milos Forman, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Copolla and though he doesn’t direct anymore, Sidney Lumet, the last stand is still present. I’m not saying that we will sink into depravity after that, but we will lose a huge quantum in our cinematic experience.
Carry forth Marty, we need you more than you need us!
