Martin Scorsese: Bridging the Hollywood gap

Now that we have come to the end of the Scorsese era, there is no doubt that Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest directors of all time. However, you didn’t come to read about me praising all of Scorsese films and how fantastic they are; and luckily that isn’t what this is about. No, this is a look into why i believe Martin Scorsese’s films are not his greatest achievement.

The reason Martin Scorsese is and always will be seen as a great director is because of the way he makes his films. In particular, it is the extreme down-to-earth feeling of his movies (especially his early work) that created this impression in people. He has allowed directors who would never be given a chance in old Hollywood the opportunity to create what THEY want, not what they are simply told to make. And most importantly, he was a key figure in the creation of independent film.

In order to fully understand this, it is key to look at the directors who came before Scorsese. Throughout the history of film, up until the 1970’s film directors generally came from within the field, or fields closely related to film making. For instance, Alfred Hitchcock started out as a writer, who happened to be given a contract by RKO productions. Then, a director we are familiar with, Stanley Kubrick got started in the area of photography, and simply gravitated toward film. This is the way things were done, an artist would start out in another area (usually writing) and then transfer over to directing.

This all changed with Scorsese. He was one of the first american directors to simply pick up a camera and make a movie. Sure, he had gone to film school but the important fact is that he wasn’t making a film because he was contracted to do it, he was simply making a film because he wanted to. And while his first film “Who’s That Knocking at My Door” didn’t do very well commercially, he continued this same spirit on to his next films, such as “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver”.

Scorsese continued to make films that were able to capture the balance between stylistic and fun, by maintaining the noir look that had been so popular for so many years while also making his films fun and entertaining to watch. The best example of this is his best known film, “Goodfellas”. This film was praised by both the art loving critic community, as well as the average film goer, as both could find things they like about it. For the critics, there’s the classic tracking shot through a restaurant. For the rest of the world, there’s Joe Pesci stabbing people to death. See, there’s something for everyone.

Most importantly his approach to film led the way for future directors, in fact the next two directors we are looking into (Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee) both began as independent directors and not only showed style in their films that was Scorsese inspired, but the simple fact that they could be given a chance as independent directors hearkens back to the fact that Scorsese did it first, and showed the world that independent filmmakers could make films just as good as Hollywood.