SCORSESE ON SCORSESE (2004)
Reviewed By Jerry Saravia
(Original review from 2004)
To be called America's best director is to put a lot of pressure on anyone. You wouldn't know it from watching "Scorsese on Scorsese," the latest documentary on the renown director that mostly recycles elements from past documentaries. It does have some new info that will please many, and will likely underwhelm everyone else. Entertaining in its own right, it seems slightly rushed.
To be fair, I am a huge Martin Scorsese fan and I've read just about every book that exists on the man. I've of course seen almost every film he's made, and I am well aware of his passion for cinema, preserving cinema, and his passion for making films. In "Scorsese on Scorsese," we definitely sense his passionate commitment to an art form that is rarely seen as such. Written and directed by Time critic Richard Schickel, we get mile-a-minute commentary by Scorsese on his background, his moviegoing days when he saw Howard Hawks's "The Thing" with a packed house, his anecdotes on meeting members of the mafia in his childhood, his films ranging from "Who's That Knocking at My Door" to his latest endeavor, "The Aviator," and his rebuttal on criticisms of stereotyping Italian-Americans as mobsters.
There is much to enjoy in "Scorsese on Scorsese" overall. I liked Scorsese's comments about his sarcastic mother, especially in his documentary, "Italianamerican," the nailbiting experience of making "The King of Comedy," the thriller aspects of "Cape Fear," the dementia and obsessive compulsive behavior of Howard Hughes in "The Aviator," the spiritual aspects of the controversial "Last Temptation of Christ," and one revealing tidbit about his father's similarities to Newland Archer's in "The Age of Innocence." Unfortunately, not much insight is given to films such as "Casino," "Bringing Out the Dead," "New York Stories" (surely working with Woody Allen and Francis Coppola on an anthology merits a comment or two), the black comedy classic "After Hours," or even some of his early short films such as "The Big Shave." Granted, not every documentary can cover every film of a director's career yet the documentary on Scorsese from the series, "The Directors," covered more ground in an hour's time. Here, we are afforded an hour and a half and there is still something lacking, such as the spiritual, moralistic weight of his work and why his films are typically not financial successes. Could it be that his films often feature immoral protagonists and that we get an interior emotional experience as if we were inside their heads? No mention is made of this in Schickel's film - he just parades from one film to the next, eschewing any context.
For Scorsese fans, this will be illuminating enough and some new facts are revealed. Still, for those who expect much more, it short-shrifts the acclaimed director's career more than expected.
