Has one of the most diverse filmographies, his longevity is unmatched, has made at least one classic each decade since the 70s, and even his mediocre films have soul.
I love him too. Of every director who made mafia based films, his are the only few that are accurate to the real thing.
Goodfellas was lifted from a book that Henry Hill lied about much of the stuff, but the movie is pretty accurate how it displays the lifestyles of the middle class level gangsters in the mafia. That's how it really was for them, to walk around with cash in their pockets and spend it left and right. Much of the historical inaccuracies of that movie can be contributed to how badly Henry Hill lied through his teeth in Wiseguy. Hill was a mess of an individual. There are stories about him being drunk and getting thrown out of bars in NYC before his death.
Another movie of his; Mean Streets is pretty accurate for what it's like being the sorta lower class of the mafia. That movie was all about hustling with Harvey Kietel's character constantly trying to get paid and get a foot up the ladder to hopefully becoming made in the family, meanwhile his friend played by DeNiro is a fuck up who just burns through money left and right and is always getting himself caught up in shit. I always liked the quote that Kietel's uncle tells him in that movie: "honorable men go with honorable men". His uncle is basically telling him that he knows he wastes a lot of his time with a friendship to a scumbag (DeNiro) and he can kiss his dreams of being made goodbye.
The only other mafia movie outside of anything by Scorsese that is accurate in capturing the atmosphere, is Donnie Brasco. That movie has historical inaccuracies in it like Goodfellas and Casino, but it gets one major thing correct; Lefty in that movie has more kills to his name than money he can keep in his pocket. That movie is accurate showing that even a guy who is a stone cold killer on the street, still has to hustle and struggles to make a break.
I think Scorsese deserves a lot of credit how he uses music in films. Being a teenager and coming across some of his movies for the first time, he was how I discovered a lot of cool classic rock music. First time I ever heard the song 'Layla' was in Goodfellas, and Mean Streets has that scene introducing DeNiro to the Stones' Jumping Jack Flash. Pretty much every song used in the movie Casino hits and syncs so well to the action on camera. There's an entire montage of Joe Pesci's character killing people and breaking into houses set to the Stones' 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking' and it just fucking rocks.
The only other mafia movie outside of anything by Scorsese that is accurate in capturing the atmosphere, is Donnie Brasco.
Have you seen Il traditore, by Marco Bellocchio? It's a great film, about the internal war in the Sicilian mafia of the 1980s. Very beatifully shot, but as factual as a documentary.
There was one scene near the end where I thought the director had maybe taken some liberties, when the informer Tommaso Buscetta confronts Toto Riina - probably the greatest butcher the mafia has known, responsible for the death of 100s, maybe 1000s - in the courtroom. Buscetta accuses Riina of being responsible for the destruction of the Cosa Nostra, not informers, or cops, or the justice system - and Riina just sits there laughing.
I wondered if that really had happened, so I looked it up, and not only did it happen, it's on YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cKJ0foc3E&t=3m20s
I will say, one big difference I’ve noticed between Italian Americans and Italian, the former idolizes the mafia, the latter almost never has anything good to say about them. I’ve seen that reflected in film too, every Italian film concerning the mob I’ve seen presented them in a totally dark unflattering tone. Scorsese is better than most but even he can’t avoid romanticizing them a little
Absolutely, like the scene when they cook dinner in prison in Goodfellas, Scorsese clearly loves that part of their world.
I think it is just unfortunately the fact that the mafia is really ingrained as a feature of Italian American culture, it’s hard to separate from it. What we see in Goodfellas is the truth, your average mafia enforcer wasn’t some noble tuxedo wearing gentleman but coked up thugs who’d shoot teenagers in the leg while drunk, and then shoot them to death when said teenager expressed unhappiness about getting shot in the leg. But I think the issue is for a lot of early Italian American communities affiliation with the mod was one of their only means of upward mobility. My current partner is Italian American and she openly admits her family’s success partly comes from the fact her grandpa started a mod supported business (he owned like 6 dry cleaners in PA).
I think he definitely romanticized the “family” aspect for sure. Cool guys cooking and cracking jokes together. It always falls apart at the end though showing how fragile and fake their “family” is.
i usually like his films but I've never heard of Mean Streets and now I want to watch it. i agree his use of music though, that scene in Goodfellas with that donovan song Atlantis is really good and it was the first time I heard that song, and after i saw it started to hear that song everywhere lol.
i still think that the irishman is an abomination
I watched Color of Money last night for the first time. I didn't think it was that great, but I do think Paul Newman is so fucking cool.
Something I noticed in mediocre gangster films is that the girlfriends and wives are reduced to be barely a prop. Scorsese in making Karen and Ginger central characters gives a depth to his gangsters that his copycats cant fathom.
While his gangster movies are critically acclaimed and rightfully so, he's also made a lot of other movies outside of that.
If you are into documentaries, Scorsese did an awesome set of Blues music documentaries for PBS some years back. He followed the roots of the music from the south and covered just about every scene, the players and followed it right up to the modern era with classic rock bands who were influenced by that music. It's a really good beginner's guide into blues music.
I haven’t even heard of that one which proves the depth of his filmography lol.
What did you think of The Irishman? I ended up watching it on a whim recently and thought the ending was a great deconstruction of the mafia/crime genre, but I don't know if those last ~20 minutes justify the runtime.
I watched the Irishman with my dad and he wouldn't shut up when it got to the part where
spoiler
They're both in the prison eating the bread with the grape juice and he goes:
"LOOK! JACOB - GET OFF YOUR DAMN PHONE - LOOK, THEY'RE HAVING COMMUNION. THAT'S SYMBOLISM, KID. THAT'S THAT METAPHOR SHIT THEY BETTA HAVE TAUGHT YOU."
Good movie.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Taxi Driver. His darkest and most beautifully shot film for me.
