Martin Scorsese Movies 1973-2002

 1973: Mean Streets 

                 1974: Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More

 1975: Taxi Driver

 1977: New York, New York

 1978: The Last Waltz - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVPGzOHIIgz_fCsVUREmvLgKceF3XzEoa

                 1980: Raging Bull

 1982: The King of Comedy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6qWRvX3AwE

                 1985: After Hours

                 1986: The Color of Money

                 1988: The Last Temptation of Christ

 1990: Goodfellas

 1991: Cape Fear

                 1993: The Age of Innocence

 1995: Casino - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHM-GJbvCQ4     

 1997: Kundun - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Ns02qzLA8

 1999: Bringing Out the Dead - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvUAzeXQlcc&t=24s

 2002: Gangs of New York 

Having been a theater and film student (directing) the work of Martin Scorcese has never been at the front of my sights, and I have always deferred to Godard, Bunuel, Fellini, Jodorowski, Roeg, Lean, and some of the folks that helped push an element of something or other in their films. 

The one thing that usually is quite visible in Martin's films is that almost all of them have some exceptional acting work done, and that is one of the things that helps enjoy some of his material, however, as a director, he is way too mechanical and conventional (especially in the camera) to be able to be considered a great director, even though the quantity and the numbers within his work, makes him quite a commanding figure in that area of directors.

I like some of his films, and I don't like others ... and I have never come out of one of his films with a ...  wow ... that was amazing ... compared to many other things out there, which at times is my hint as to why I like something or not. 

While he deserves the credit, in some ways, the most creative (and CRAZY!) of all directors in America is Robert Altman, goofing around with the cameras and everything else, and we have no idea what is going on, to the point that even the actors don't realize they are being filmed and not rehearsing, which gives them all a very different feel that is quite opposite what is taught in the universities about acting, in the most advanced of classes!

The one thing that you will see in Martin's films is that the camera rarely gets in the way of the line, and vice versa ... and this makes it cleaner for an audience, when some Europeans take a laissez-faire attitude towards that as if the words might not be as important anyway. And, of course, Godard will turn that inside out even more!

2. Casino

3. The Last Waltz

Of all these I have seen the following: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The Last Waltz, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, Casino, Kundun.

IF, I have a film that I like it would be "The Last Temptation of Christ" but that film will not get more attention because of the quasi religious attitudes in America, that one might consider/suggest do not have the literary/artistic legacy that brought out that book, along with the massive history of it all in Europe (Holy Blood, Holy Grail) ... which has many doubts about the Catholic Church anyway and its fictitious story told 300 years after the event ... known as not exactly timely news for you!!!! But we believe it, and quote it when the translations are really poor, for example!

As you can see, I would not have a whole lot fo say about many of the other films, although I could easily discuss some of the acting in a few of them that stood out incredibly well and are, in many ways a tribute to what acting can do and be, within a stage, or film. At least you can see the "details" on film, that you can't see on stage! Martin would never miss a moment of that, specially if the actor created that moment by accidentally stretching this or that!

For my tastes, just about all the other films are about .... yeah, right ... FILM ... and while I don't think that Martin is not a good director, in the end, I do not find him as creative and experimental and exciting as many others around the globe who managed to improve/update/change the very language of film in different ways. For me, Martin is the "perfect" TV director ... with clean directing and shots to ensure that things are clear and not just a meaningless shot, as TV does in its soaps and evening shows ... all of which have terrible directing, writing and no literary/artistic value for the most part, in my book. Seeing all that cleaned up in Martin's work, makes you wonder how one of the soaps would look and feel with him doing some episodes ... it would likely "change" that simplilstic/cheap/horrible TV design more than likely ... camera left, right and one elsewhere and the worst lighting ever designed and defined by anyone in TV and Film history! At least, this is specially clean in a Martin film.

The other film that is interesting for me, is fine, but, I'm not sure it is that good. It is well put together but it is terribly broken up, and the filming of each and every song is very similar to the opening of MTV, and not specially well suited to the quality of the playing or the singer for that matter. While it is beautifully done, and well put together, in the end, I felt lacking, and it wasn't for a band called this or that ... it felt like so many things on MTV for the longest time, when you finally said ... so what? Nothing else there! Oh, wait, there's a song ... here it comes! I imagine that more could have been done that was less about filming and more about the artistry itself ... as I have criticized in the past ... in a lot of live stuff that was filmed when a moment that should have been caught in its entirety, the camera walked away from the player and wasted the singer's special qualities for a blank shot of the whole stage that spoke nothing for what the singer was doing, or singing for that matter. It just tells you that the wrong folks are behind the camera (and the money that has the cameras!), trying to make something out of it all, and in the end, most of it is wasted.

This is something that Martin, himself, can not fix, and won't, even though it was some of his great camera moments, or ideas that helped make "Woodstock" a visual spectacle as a film, something that many folks still do not see in a film about rock music that looks like a silly MTV show off and not a film worth of discussion whatsoever. We still do not seem to see that, and seeing things broken up in TLW doesn't help ... still makes me feel like the music itself is not important and we have to add film this and that to make it right, and in the end, it is empty, and stoic and has as much excitement as ... a squirrel sniffing your own plate of food!

So I guess that I can mention/saysomething about 2 of his films!