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THE BIG RUSH - Do you remember the first time you saw the film "Goodfellas"? I'm serious. Do you remember how things, sights, music, adrenalin rushed at you so fast that you felt you had Attention Deficit Syndrome?
I think that when we will look back on this time, being alive when Martin Scorcese was directing, we will feel that we have been blessed.
The older ones of us got to luxuriate in Hitchcock, John Ford, Brian de Palma (when he was on,) Bergman, Fellini, Chaplin, Clint Eastwood (probably one of the most under-rated directors around,) Spielberg, Lucas, Allen --- but you gottah look hard to find the sensibilities of a Scorcese. The man has done it all, the seminal "Taxi Driver" and the ground-breaking "Kundun" about the Daili Lama. This is a dead-eye on the center of life at work. And, yeah, this is the man who brought Katzantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ to the screen. It's scarey how fearless Scorcese is.
So when I watch some of my haute friends preening over Woody Allen --- who is a unique talent, sure --- I wonder where they've been during Martin Scorcese's career.
"Are you talkin' to me?"
"What? Am I funny to you? Am I a clown?"
You can't think of Scorcese, of course, without thinking about Rober De Niro. Yeah, I know. Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, yatta-yatta-yatta. Two maximum talents who seem to work better when they work together. It's a symmetry made in heaven. I know.
But if you only look at the films Scorcese made with De Niro, and miss how he brought out other talents, you are missing half the game.
Let me tell you something: As a writer and publisher myself, I look at Scorcese's oeurve with envy. No matter what medium you work in, you are always looking to show breadth and gravitas. No one has done it better than Martin Scorcese.
If the man doesn't make another film, his place in history is secure.
From my perspective, despite the brilliant work that Francis Ford Coppola did with The Godfather, Scorcese is the director Coppola wanted to grow up to be.
Ultimately, Scorcese is a consummate story-teller. He weaves us a web of interesting and engaging characters and then tittilates our senses of sight, sound and cultural memory. He plays games with the way we believe things are. Remember Willem DaFoe in "Last Temptation" when he is Christ off-the-cross and living a life like any other man, with a family and dreams? Who could have put us in that place better than Scorcese?
Most of us have few heroes. This essay should let you know that Scorcese is one of mine.
I worship at the foot of this master. I can only wait with anticipation for where he will venture next.
Part of the challenge of the creative life is besting ones previous work. There are ways to do that:
- Doing what preceded one better,
- Producing something in another genre equally well, and
- Replicating the achievement in the "loved" work in a different arena.
When one looks at Scorcese's ouerve, each of these strategies is exploited. The straight line from Goodfellas to Casino is crystral clear and unapologetic, for example. The word "formulaic" would not be misused.
The connection between Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ is less transparent.
But we see a mind at play with similar themes and concerns throughout all of the work.
There are the religious threads, of course, and the issues of family, kinship and friendship. There is also the sense of daring, being outside of the "norm," and the alienation attendant to such stances --- often the violence and death that come along with such stances.
I say all of this to say, the next time you get a chance to see a new Scorcese film, run don't walk. His is a nuanced and extraordinary talent that we will miss when it is gone.
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RDR RECOMMENDED SITE OF THE DAY: Okay, let's have some fun, Kids. Take a listen to this totally X-tended prank call from Blackout.com.
