Formal Film Study: The Most Critically Acclaimed Films of Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese is a director of legendary status among the greats such as Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg. These are people who have been in the business for decades and have shown and proven their directorial excellence countless times. Throughout his career, Scorsese has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards for Best Director, although he only won once for The Departed (Of all of the films, why The Departed?). One of the gaps in the films I had yet to see (but desperately needed to) was some of Scorsese's better known works. Thus, the choice was made. One film from each decade of his long-spanning and continuous career has stood out among the others, some of which are still recognized to this day as some of the greatest films in modern American cinema. From the '70s, Taxi Driver, from the '80s, Raging Bull, and from the '90s, Goodfellas, a film which Roger Ebert called an even finer film then the Godfather.
All three of which star Robert "You talkin' to me" De Niro,
and the latter two also feature Joe "What do you mean I'm funny?" Pesci.

(This famous scene was surprisingly improvised) 

COARSE LANGUAGE

Cinematically, if one were to look at one scene from each of the movies (without previous knowledge, of course) one would most likely be unable to say for certain that they were directed by the same man. When Scorsese's presentation is compared to a director with a distinctive visual flare, Wes Anderson for example, it just simply is nothing extraordinary. Noticeable stylistic choices do exist, however, they are not overarching choices that he does throughout his works. In Raging Bull, the choice to film in black and white was, in my opinion, a little unnecessary, albeit not taking away from the film itself. Wikipedia reads that one reason the decision was made was to hide some anachronisms, one being the fact that the gloves they had were not the same color as the gloves of the time (kind of lazy at first glance). As well as giving the film more of a period feel and distinguishing itself from other color films of the time (Rocky is a good example). Taxi Driver is noticeably dark, to emphasize the brutal gritty nature of the film of its vigilante struggle. Goodfellas is my favorite in terms of stylistic setup, as the film is given a much warmer color pallet throughout much of the movie to display the effervescent grandeur of mafia lifestyle, while still maintaining the darkness of dirty work. The notable use of freeze frame also make it stand on its own ground. In terms of cinematography, the films are nothing spectacular or groundbreaking in comparison to modern films, but there are some similarities between the films in shot type choices, such as the use of long tracking shots. The best shot of Goodfellas (shown below), and pretty much the only one that stood out, was the tracking shot from behind, following Henry Hill and his soon-to-be wife as they enter the Copacabana nightclub through the back entrance. It really captures the feeling through her eyes, as she is introduced to the lavish (for the time being) life as the girlfriend of a powerful criminal. Other smaller uses include slow motion sequences, used to emphasize brutal physical violence, in both Raging Bull and Taxi Driver.

The core similarity between these films lies in the narrative structure and the accompanying themes. They are all, more or less, character studies. These characters are distraught individuals, with distorted views on the world, have social inadequacies, and at the root, are very broken people. This even extends to Scorsese's most recent work, The Wolf of Wall Street. The films all center around one central protagonist (or antagonist, depending on your perspective) and this man, always a white man I might add, has a clear peak and a downfall. The exception would have to be Taxi Driver because when exactly Travis Bickle ever peaks or plummets, depends on who is asked (A big point of the movie is perspective). Henry Hill loves life in the mafia in the earlier days, but later becomes more frustrated with it, to the point of nurturing an abusive relationship with his wife and then alienating his 'friends' when the whole scheme goes down the toilet. Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull was the best boxer in the business, but as he becomes more and more obsessed with the fidelity of his wife he is lead to eventually become estranged with his brother. In turn, he declines and eventually lets himself get beat into an almost forced retirement. After quitting boxing, he engorges to a balloon (Robert De Niro binge ate for 4 months and gained 75 pounds) and starts letting underage girls get statutorily raped and drunk in his club along with other things, there is no real resolution. Jordan Belfort, the multimillionaire stockbroker in the Wolf of Wall Street, of course, loses everything (do I really need to explain more).

Themes are overarching in the films mentioned, usually concerning morality and its subsequent discussions. These themes are emphasized through the use of heavy profane language use and graphically realistic violence by the central characters that the audience is traditionally supposed to be rooting for. People are shot, stabbed, and beaten, sometimes in callous slow motion. These acts are committed by our protagonists, in order to get the viewer to see if the protagonist they are following is actually a good person, or a scumbag at heart, again to drive the big theme of moral ambiguity. To portray the events in the story through the eyes of the character, Scorsese made the choice to use voiceover in three of the four films I have mentioned. In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle journals about his conflicts in correspondence to the events in the story. In Goodfellas, Henry Hill narrates the proceedings as if it was an autobiography, and the same goes for Wolf of Wall Street. Although the former was adapted from a novel that was not autobiographical and the latter, in fact, was, this choice was made to connect the viewer to the films' morally ambiguous protagonists. Raging Bull was adapted from an autobiography, but it was not given the voiceover treatment. Perhaps Scorsese did not want to make a film 4 years following Taxi Driver with too many overt stylistic similarities.

Of course, there are hundreds of more details that could be nitpicked in a comparison study such as this, but there are only a few more aspects of noticeable importance I noticed in my first viewing of these films. Scorsese keeps a tight ship, sticking with the same actors throughout his movies, first it was De Niro, and now DiCaprio, but anybody who watches his films can pick up on this. A big criticism I have of the films is that many employ very strange jump cuts in the same angle, an example of discontinuous editing. An example of this is in Raging Bull, near the end, where Jake LaMotta is in prison and is beating his head against the wall (2:10 in the video) in a complete breakdown, and a jump cut ensues. It adds absolutely nothing and disjoints the otherwise most emotional scene in the entire film and effectively compromises the viewers train of emotion with confusion instead of sympathetic sorrow. This happens in other scenes in Taxi Driver and possibly Goodfellas too, however, this is the one scene that comes immediately to mind in terms of Scorsese's questionable editing choices. But otherwise, Scorsese's films are art, and require many more viewings for a wider scope and further analysis, and should rightfully be considered some of the greatest films of all time (Taxi Driver being my favorite). Good job Marty.