In
a world where the superstars or actors pull-in the crowd, how many directors
manage to do the same? How many
directors command a bigger pedestal than the cast of the movie? Not many, I
guess.
During
the Academy awards, one name was invoked more often than anybody else’s name.
Martin Scorsese.
After
giving us 22 movies, 13 documentaries, many commercials and just 1 Oscar,
the 70 year old Marty, as he is fondly called, gave us HUGO.
Whether
it is gritty and violent like MEAN STREETS, TAXI DRIVER or poignantly romantic
like ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, or satirical like THE KING OF COMEDY,
AFTER HOURS or just plain stylish like AVIATOR, GOODFELLAS, Marty‘s uniquely
versatile vision has made him one of cinema’s most acclaimed directors.
As
a young kid, bought up in the little Italy section of Manhattan, he decided to
“Make movies about what really happens”. In hindsight, you will know that Marty
does not only make movies, but also is a great movie fan with a insatiable
appetite to watch, discuss and enjoy cinema. His inspiration for making movies
can from came from his own childhood spent in the Bronx. By his own admission,
he said that the biggest research he did for making Mean Streets, his first
major release, was his life. He would watch people in the gritty neighborhood
go about their life and business and just poured his experiences in the movies
that have made him the man he is today.
40
years after he made his first major Hollywood movie, his balance sheet looks
balanced. He is one of the few directors today who have received both critical
and box office acclaim. Of course, like anybody, he did go through a lean patch
in the late 70s and early 80s when none of the studios supported him after box office
disasters like New York, New York and The King of comedy. His professional life
dipped further when studios did not accept The last temptation of Christ, as it
was deemed too radical. All the while,
he lived in Los Angeles, he learnt the mechanics of how large cities function.
It was this knowledge that he put to use to bounce back. He moved back to New
York to set his professional career on track.
The
second part of his career is the part where-in he came into his own. He belted
out movies like The last temptation of the Christ (he made Universal studios to
produce the movie), Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino and Kundan
before ending the millennium on a high. Post 2000, having juiced DeNiro with
some fine performances his association with Leonardo Dicaprio began. The
noughties saw Scorsese shed his Mafia fixation and dabble into big budget set
piece movies. Scorsese and Dicaprio would collaborate to give us movies like
Gangs of New York (a script that he had been wanting to make for 20 years, with
DeNiro in the lead), Aviator, Departed (the movie that won him the most coveted
Oscar, finally), and finally Shutter Island.
While
all of us love the overall feel of his films, he should be credited for all the
factors and innovations that he bought to cinema.
Known as the “king of tracking shot”, he is
known for his lengthy takes. Most of his movies start and end with 2-3 minute
scenes, which is a mean feet. Other
contributions like bring the “New York vernacular” talk in movies like Mean
Street, Goodfellas, color treatment in movies like Aviator, Gangs of New York,
and now re-interpretation of how 3D can bolster a film’s beauty without
intruding on the story only add to his
folklore.
Having
been fed on movies by Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, Sidney Lumet, he was adamant
about learning from them and developing his own unique style of film making. He
was mainly influenced by these greats, because, they did not bend down in front
of the Hollywood studio system and got their creative vision on screen.
When
not giving in to the big studios or simply battling it out with them, he vented
out his creative genius into making documentaries , music videos (the Rolling
Stones concert and Micheal Jackson shows were legendry) and restoration of old-movies.
His
style of movie-making combined a rough and gritty attention to the everyday
life of the urban jungle with a monumental visual sensibility. In one of his
most acclaimed films, Taxi Driver 91976), he focused on the particulars of an
individual and his obsessions. Starring Robert DeNiro (with whom Scorsese has
had one of the most celebrated collaborative relationships in American cinema),
Taxi Driver elevates the obscure specifics of a disturbed life with greatest
drama.
Through
movies like Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, Departed, he has shown us the
engaging world and power structure of Mafia. He bought together and style and
theoretical content with great flair. Scorsese often focused on a theme that
has permeated nearly everyone of his movies – the plight of the desperate and
out-of-control individual. Often unsympathetic, his characters display a crazed
violence that mimics the repressive social structures in which they live.
Almost all his movies are engaging and social commentaries.
Martin
Scorsese is the most important living American filmmaker – one whose relentless
search for the furthest emotional reaches of his genre have led him to the
center of the American ( and global) psyche.
In
an era where careers are measured in months rather than years, Marty has served
us for close to 45 years. In Hollywood, that is no lesser than a battlefield,
he has battled it out with studios, stars and himself.
But
all this has not resulted in a burn-out. At the age of 68, he set out to make a
3D movie. For a man who has always believed in old-school film making, and who
has never tasted massive box office success (his most successful film was
Shutter Island, that grossed $ 300 million worldwide), he adapted to the rigors
of a new technique of film making. He has achieved three things that very, very
few filmmakers achieve in life – (1) Enough money to make movies and
documentaries that interest him, (2) enough freedom to make the movies in the
way he wants to make them, (3) Enough acclaim and appreciation (not in the way
of awards , though) from his peers and fans.
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 Cubrick were also all denied Oscars.
Just like a 3 minute show reel of a lifetime’s work cannot do
justice to a man or his body of work, this is just a sincerely written piece of
tribute to a man who has worked his lifetime to entertain us. I raise a toast
to Marty, the movie fan, who also makes movies.
( This post was first published on www.madaboutmoviez.com - http://tinyurl.com/brhcxov )
