Martin Scorsese: Legend in our time.

This blog is my way of celebrating the birthday this week of movie directing legend Martin Scorsese.

Martin Charles Scorsese was born November 17, 1942  in Queens, New York. His grandparents originated from Palermo in Sicily. He attended New York University's film school and made short films that included What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963) and It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964) but by far his most famous short was the dark comedy The Big Shave (1967). In the 70's he became good friends with  Brian De Palma, and it was De Palma that introduced Scorsese to a young actor by he name of Robert De Niro.

Scorsese and De Niro would go on to work together on some of the greatest films of a generation, eight in total. He has always been innovative with his style of direction, and often imitated but never surpassed. It's somewhat of a travesty that even though actors in his films collected awards he didn't win an Academy Award for his work until The Departed in 2006. After over 40 years at the head of his field Scorsese is still going strong and has many projects lined up for the future. I personally can't wait to see what he has in store for us next.

To celebrate the birthday of one of the truly great directors of our time, I would like to share with you my top three choices of what I believe to be his best films.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle

The story goes that it was fellow director Brian De Palma who introduced Scorsese to Paul Schrader, the eventual writer of Taxi Driver. Schrader was inspired by the diaries of Arthur Bremer, who had  shot presidential candidate George Wallace four years earlier in 1972. In interviews Scorsese has given his view that the character Travis Bickle, a Vietnam war vet with insomnia, was in fact akin to an avenging angel and compared him to a saint who wants to cleanse or purge both his mind and his body of weakness.

The film was just one of many collaborations with Robert De Niro as the lead, and was the first film role of a certain child actress Jodie Foster. To prepare for the role De Niro obtained a New York City taxi driver's permit and would drive around the city. The film is famous for the phrase "You talkin' to me?" uttered by Bickle. Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, unfortunately it didn't win any of the nominations but did collect the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.

Raging Bull (1980) Adapted by writer Paul Schrader from American/Italian boxer Jake LaMotta's memoir Raging Bull: My Story. Again it stars Robert De Niro as the lead Jake LaMotta and a relatively unknown actor at the time Joe Pesci.  De Niro read the autobiography upon which the film is based on the set of The Godfather Part II, and he became fascinated by the character of Jake LaMotta. He showed the book to Scorsese, who continually turned down the chance to direct as he wasn't a fan of boxing or indeed any sport that didn't have a ball.

De Niro as boxer LaMotta

Eventually Scorsese agreed to make the film for De Niro's sake, and his own as he was struggling with drugs at the time. When the film, which portrays LaMotta's turbulent life was first released it had mixed reviews, but has since gone on to be considered as one of the greatest movies ever made. Nominated for 8 Academy Awards it only won two: Best Actor, for De Niro, and Best Film Editing.




Goodfellas (1990) This film is my personal favourite of Scorsese's. I love the story and the characters around main character Henry Hill as he grows up as a Wiseguy, surrounded by the Lucchese crime family from the 50's up until the 80's. It is a film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese. The film follows the rise and fall of Lucchese crime family associate Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta , and his friends.

The Goodfellas

Once again Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci star with Pesci giving a chilling performance as nutjob Tommy.  With a budget of $25 million it was Scorsese's most expensive film at the time. It is probably most famous for the long tracking shot through the Copacabana nightclub following Henry and his girlfriend Karen from the back entrance of the club through the busy kitchen right up until they get to their VIP table at the front of the stage. Pure brilliance from Scorsese. Nominated for 6 Academy Awards and only winning for Best Supporting Actor: Joe Pesci, well deserved but should have won many more.

The three films I chose are the films that I consider to be Scorsese's best work, but of course there are many others that came so close to being included and deserve to be mentioned: Mean Streets (1973) The Colour of Money (1986) Casino (1995) Gangs of New York (2002) The Aviator (2004) The Departed (2006) Shutter Island (2010) and producing and directing the pilot of one of my favourite TV shows of recent years Boardwalk Empire.

So I would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to Mr.Martin Scorsese and I hope he enjoys many more and continues to entertain us with his films.

Oscar winner for The Departed.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Miles Dunton.