Ch. 15 - Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese is seen as a director that went against the Hollywood grain because his films look at the collapse of any sense of coherent self. For example, his close-up of the Alka Seltzer pill dissolving in a glass of water in the movie Taxi Driver is symbolic of the identity in his works as a whole. The characters in his movies have no clue who they are, and try to be what they want to be in their mind rather than who they really are. An example is in Goodfellas, when the character Henry Hill is trying to be a somebody, like a neighborhood gangster, but through the movie he slowly loses that and becomes a nobody, living anonymously under protection. Other directors of the same time did not have characters like this. Directors like Spielberg and Lucas used non complex character that knew who they were. Also in some of their films the characters are indecisive, but by the end of the movie find out who they are and what they want, and keep it. Scorsese uses characters that are lost and can’t find their way. Also Scorsese did not follow the way the other films were being made at that time. His films did not go with the feel-good, happy-ending films that were being made in the 80's. In the 80's the Reaganite cinema tried to do away with alot of violence and sexuality, but Scorsese's film Cape Fear which was his most popular box office film, has all those thing they were trying to do away with. Most of Scorsese's films were about things that were not supported by Hollywood. His movies contained alot of drugs, violence, and sexual scenes. When it comes to the content of the film Scorsese has influenced alot of film makers. His work is kown for spawning the younger generation of hard-boiled filmmaking.