Scorsese Pinch

I'm seeing this blog fast become a sort of film reviews thing. That's alright with me.

Tonight I'm going to talk about the Scorsese bits I've (re)watched over the last week: The Departed and GoodFellas. Both of these are superb film making for a variety of reasons. The obvious suspects are razor-sharp editing, brutal imagery and cinematography, and a cast that's at the top of their game at all times. This, of course, doesn't factor in that the stories are both compelling and really really cool. There's something else here, though. I think it's safe to say that Scorsese, for the most part, makes pretty brauny and masculine movies. Of course, if you look at his most-used editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, you really wouldn't expect this kind of stuff at all. But there it is, ripe with rapid cuts, wild camerawork, and sometimes what seems like glee-filled nutbaggery. What's more, this is art. There's a compelling statement being made in all this blood and guts and guns and gore and mobs and wiseguys and crime and uses of the word fuck. It's rare, but Marty, as he seems to be called by people in making-of docs, seems to have found the art in all this shit. He's legitimized the action and violence, and the trick, apparently, is in focusing on everything around that action.

Watch either film, or hell watch any number of his films. The action sequences are tight, but they're hardly the focus. A shootout in an old factory doesn't have half the suspense of the two main characters silently connected via cell phones waiting on each other to speak. It's everything else, and Marty sees that. That's why he's considered a great film maker.

In my Scorsese bug, I want to share a dream I had last night. It involved the John Woo film Face/Off, which is what a film like The Departed could have been in a lesser director's hands. It's interesting to note that Departed is based on a Hong Kong film and John Woo came from there. Again, Scorsese sees something that many others seem to completely miss (and it should be noted that Hong Kong cinema has a wholly different eye that's worth seeing as well). But anyway, my dream involved the plot of that film, but unfolding in a way that was more akin to a Scorsese or like-skilled director telling the tale. I will not share it here, because the idea's not terrible if it is in fact a huge knockoff.

But my main point is to show what HE would've done. Back to the two films...

Where GoodFellas focuses on this one world, it doesn't have the conflicting realities going on that, in my opinion, makes Departed the more powerful and, yes, superior film. This is a hard statement for me to make, but being completely honest, it seems the more fair statement to me. HOWEVER, GoodFellas may well be the more enjoyable film.
What it does, essentially, is give quite possibly the ultimate portrait of a foreign world right within our very streets. It humanizes a regular goon in organized crime and through his eyes glorifies and denigrates that world. On the surface, it's a classic portrait of a treehouse club of guys who have it all, but shows that the treehouse itself is pretty unstable and about to collapse, while at the same time showing that it's the members that make it that way. That's the easy stuff. From fun social stuff to gritty and unbelievably horrific violence that is apparently not at all far off the mark. The more interesting part is the protagonist who's right in the thick of it and not as some outsider we can fully identify with because of his unfamiliarity, but as a guy who we can fully identify with because of his humanity. We're painted a portrait, basically. And there's no specific wording going on, and maybe that's where I'm thrown. Through the classic Rise and Fall plot we're shown a lot of things that shows the mob like only a TV series several seasons long has managed to really compete with since. Even The Godfather series had a message in its carnage. This one leaves it to the viewer. Perhaps that's what makes it the greater artistic achievement, though? Like life, it offers pieces, and we can piece them together however we like, and what we make of it becomes a sort of reflection of our selves. A truly sinister person could look at this film as a mere cautionary tale of what happens when you work behind your boss's back. This all is delivered via charming characters and colorful scenarios of all kinds that you can't help but watch. All the violence is counterbalanced with oddly delightful social banter and shenanigans that you can't help but still kind of like them in some way. It doesn't hurt that it's stylish as all hell, either.
But does that diminish something like The Departed with its punch to your face dissertation on how fucked up and absurd the world is? It's not exactly new territory for Scorsese, but the way it's shown here is, where he basically takes a classic good vs. evil story and twists and swirls it into something where those distinctions mean almost nothing. Where bad guys do good for bad ends, good guys to bad for their good ends. Is it excusable on either side? The film raises such questions and they're almost impossible to answer. These themes are flawlessly tied in with a plot that is so gripping and intriguing, though, that by itself it's totally worth watching. The story is carried by two main characters who undergo about as much distress as you likely will watching it, and rather than throw in a stupid amount of arbitrary plot twists, it's all saved for the end when the tension hits a fucking apotheosis in madness that would indeed look stupid had it all been in someone else's hands. Here, though, we have it presented where the themes and story leave you with those questions and then tying them to any of characters in a number of ways. It's the kind of intricate jacked up shit you probably have going on in your own life but a whole lot more stylish and a whole lot more significant, possibly causing another kind of reflection. Extra props go to Jack Nicholson's performance as Frank Costello. Holy shit that's some fun glib evil! The film does, however, get a little much on the church and rat symbolism. The man can get indulgent, for sure.

Or, of course, you can accept these movies as shining examples of just really fucking cool movies. It's short sighted to stop there, but it's not unreasonable. However, if you ask what makes The Departed or GoodFellas so badass despite a lack of common crime movie elements, you may find why Scorsese's able to legitimize machismo in a whole other and wholly more constructive way.

Clearly, I'll give either movie an immediate recommendation. I was immediately quick to conclude that he was playing it safe by going back to a gangster setting with Departed, and I still do to an extent. It is his comfort zone, but he's looking at it from several points of view, and at completely different aspects, making for what is still a very fresh and worthwhile film. Plus, when I'm honest with myself, departures like The Aviator just don't come off as good, but still good y'know?



Side Shit:
I want to kind of rave about Martin Scorsese as a director too. He's not perfect. As I mentioned, I wasn't crazy about Aviator, Gangs of New York just felt lacking in a lot of ways, and while I haven't seen his entire catalog, I can see myself disliking others as well. What I love, though, is the undying passion the man shows for the medium. The dude still talks about movies as if he was in his 30s working on Taxi Driver, just full of energy and excitement about what can be done. It's ridiculously admirable and is a statement to finding that something you really truly love. For him, it's film. For the rest of us, who knows. We can only aspire to find that one thing though, huh?
While I can be completely wrong, he also just seems like a likable grandpa in his current look. Being the ex-coke head he is, that's kinda cool. Though I can be totally wrong about him. I've never spoken with the dude. It's all just guesses. He has gone through 4 divorces.

PLUS he's in New York, which, as far as my limited frame of mind is concerned, is the greatest city in the country. Call me fucked up, but I wish I saw it the way Travis Bickle did.