| 1 | [[quoteright:295:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/martin_scorsese.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:295: [[MotorMouth He could probably say all the words right next to this picture in under 10 seconds.]]]] |
| 3 | [floatboxright:Influences: |
| 4 | + Creator/MichaelPowell and Emeric Pressburger |
| 5 | + Creator/OrsonWelles |
| 6 | + Creator/JohnCassavetes |
| 7 | + Creator/JohnFord |
| 8 | + Creator/IngmarBergman |
| 9 | + Creator/FedericoFellini |
| 10 | + Creator/EliaKazan |
| 11 | + Creator/RobertoRossellini |
| 12 | ] |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ->''"My whole life has been movies and religion. That's it. Nothing else."'' |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Martin Charles Scorsese[[note]]Pronounced "scor-SEH-see"[[/note]] (born November 17, 1942) is an American filmmaker of Italian descent, born in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity and raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy. He began his career as part of the MediaNotes/NewHollywood generation of film school students, and is regarded as one of America's (if not the world's) greatest filmmakers and one of the most influential in the latter half of the 20th century. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Scorsese gained fame in TheSeventies for his gritty urban dramas starring Creator/HarveyKeitel and Creator/RobertDeNiro, movies that were shocking for their visual invention, unconventional editing, intense performances, and graphic violence. They made him a critical favorite, culminating in ''Film/TaxiDriver''. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | After the commercial setbacks of ''Film/NewYorkNewYork'' and ''Film/RagingBull'', he entered an uncertain and uneven period in TheEighties, but returned to public and critical favor with ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', after which he entered a new prolific period where he has averaged one film every two years since 1990. He remains active well into the 21st century and won MediaNotes/{{Academy Award}}s for [[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDirecting Best Director]] and [[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture Best Picture]] for ''Film/TheDeparted'' after being a notable case of AwardSnub for more than 30 years. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Scorsese is best known for his films about TheMafia, but he has in fact made films in a wide variety of genres: documentaries, concert films, music videos ({{Music/Michael Jackson}}'s ''Music/{{Bad}}''), literary adaptations (''The Age of Innocence''), family films (''Film/{{Hugo}}'', itself a literary adaptation), BlackComedy (''The King of Comedy, After Hours, The Wolf of Wall Street''), {{Biopic}}s and religious films. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Scorsese is also well known in the wider media since the '80s for his advocacy of film preservation and restoration, serving as [[OurFounder a founder]] and an active spokesman for The Film Foundation and the World Cinema Foundation. He raised attention to the decay of film stock and the preservation of film prints of several filmmakers, both well-known and obscure. He also champions cinema as an art form and has devoted considerable attention to restoring the reputations of forgotten filmmakers and supporting up-and-coming artists from across the world. He was also, along with Creator/SydneyPollack, one of the most fervent advocates for presenting films on home media in their original aspect ratio long before the practice became standard. In 2023, he, Creator/StevenSpielberg, and a couple of other filmmakers strongly voiced out their concerns about the staff of Creator/TurnerClassicMovies being gutted by Creator/WarnerBrosDiscovery. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | As much as he prefers having his films in cinemas, Scorsese has bowed to the market reality with the rise of video streaming. For instance, his expensive gangster film ''Film/TheIrishman'', which was rejected by all of the major studios, was picked up by Creator/{{Netflix}} for its drive for Oscar credibility. Now, Scorsese has a first-look agreement with Creator/AppleTVPlus for his future projects, starting with ''Film/KillersOfTheFlowerMoon''. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | He uses [[ProductionPosse many of the same actors]] in his movies, including Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/JoePesci, Creator/HarveyKeitel, and Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio. Publicly, he's well-known for his [[BigOlEyebrows big, bushy eyebrows]], his [[MotorMouth breakneck rate of speech]], and having a physical stature inverse to his standing as a filmmaker[[note]]He's 5'4"; in the ''Hugo'' premiere pictures, he was shorter than a still-prepubescent Creator/AsaButterfield[[/note]]. Aside from filmmaking, he occasionally acts in his own movies and others. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | He's been married five times, including to Creator/IsabellaRossellini from 1979 to 1982. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Vote for your favorite Martin Scorsese film [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/Sandbox/BestFilmMartinScorsese here!]] |
| 33 | ---- |
| 34 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[folder:Important books on Scorsese's career include:]] |
| 37 | * ''Martin Scorsese: A Journey'' by Mary Pat Kelly |
| 38 | * ''The Scorsese Picture'' by David Ehrenstein (for early Scorsese from his student films to ''The Last Temptation of Christ'') |
| 39 | * ''Conversations with Scorsese'', which consists of several long interviews from Scorsese by Richard Schickel in the style of ''Hitchcock/Truffaut'' |
| 40 | * The long-running, constantly updated ''Scorsese on Scorsese'' oral interviews by Ian Christie and David Thompson (for middle Scorsese, between ''Goodfellas'' and ''Gangs of New York'') [[note]]Not to be confused with the similarly named volume by Michael Henry Wilson, which is also recommended[[/note]] |
| 41 | * ''Scorsese by Ebert'', a compilation by critic Creator/RogerEbert of all his reviews of Scorsese's movies as well as additional essays, interviews, and analyses of his career |
| 42 | [[/folder]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Works of fiction he's directed:]] |
| 45 | [[index]] |
| 46 | * ''[[Film/WhosThatKnockingAtMyDoor Who's That Knocking At My Door]]'' (1967) |
| 47 | * ''Film/BoxcarBertha'' (1972) |
| 48 | * ''Film/MeanStreets'' (1973) |
| 49 | * ''Film/AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore'' (1974) |
| 50 | * ''Film/TaxiDriver'' (1976) |
| 51 | * ''[[Film/NewYorkNewYork New York, New York]]'' (1977) |
| 52 | * ''Film/RagingBull'' (1980) |
| 53 | * ''Film/TheKingOfComedy'' (1983) |
| 54 | * ''Film/AfterHours'' (1985) |
| 55 | * ''Series/AmazingStories'' (1985, directed "Mirror, Mirror") |
| 56 | * ''Film/TheColorOfMoney'' (1986) |
| 57 | * ''Music/{{Bad}}'' (1987, music video for Music/MichaelJackson) |
| 58 | * ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' (1988) |
| 59 | * ''Film/NewYorkStories'' (1989, Anthology Film, he directed ''Life Lessons'') |
| 60 | * ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' (1990) |
| 61 | * ''Film/CapeFear'' (1991) |
| 62 | * ''Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence'' (1993) |
| 63 | * ''Film/{{Casino}}'' (1995) |
| 64 | * ''Film/{{Kundun}}'' (1997) |
| 65 | * ''Film/BringingOutTheDead'' (1999) |
| 66 | * ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' (2002) |
| 67 | * ''Film/TheAviator'' (2004) |
| 68 | * ''Film/TheDeparted'' (2006) |
| 69 | * ''Film/ShutterIsland'' (2010) |
| 70 | * ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' (2010, Pilot) |
| 71 | * ''Film/{{Hugo}}'' (2011) |
| 72 | * ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' (2013) |
| 73 | * ''Series/{{Vinyl}}'' (2016, Co-Creator & Director of Pilot episode) |
| 74 | * ''Film/{{Silence}}'' (2016) |
| 75 | * ''Film/TheIrishman'' (2019) |
| 76 | * ''Film/KillersOfTheFlowerMoon'' (2023) |
| 77 | [[/folder]] |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[folder:Works of non-fiction he's directed:]] |
| 80 | * ''Film/{{Woodstock}}'' (1970) -- editor, assistant director |
| 81 | * ''Italianamerican'' (1975, documentary where Scorsese interviews his parents) |
| 82 | * ''Film/TheLastWaltz'' (1978, Music/TheBand rockumentary) |
| 83 | [[/index]] |
| 84 | * ''A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies'' (1995) |
| 85 | * ''Il mio Viaggio in Italia'' (1999) |
| 86 | * ''No Direction Home'' (2005, Music/BobDylan documentary) |
| 87 | * ''Shine a Light'' (2008, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} rockumentary) |
| 88 | * ''[[Creator/EliaKazan A Letter to Elia]]'' (2010) |
| 89 | * ''Public Speaking'' (2010) |
| 90 | * ''Music/GeorgeHarrison: Living in the Material World'' (2011) |
| 91 | * ''The 50 Year Argument'' (2014) |
| 92 | * ''Rolling Thunder Revue: A Music/BobDylan Story'' (2019 release, produced by Creator/{{Netflix}}). |
| 93 | [[/folder]] |
| 94 | ---- |
| 95 | !!Tropes common to Scorsese's works include: |
| 96 | |
| 97 | * TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: ''Film/MeanStreets'' released in 1973 is actually intended, by Scorsese, to be set in the mid-60s. ''Bringing out the Dead'' was released in 1999 but intended by him to be set in the early 90s before New York became entirely gentrified and is described as such in the opening title card disclaimer. |
| 98 | * AdamWesting: Appeared in a highly amusing [[https://youtu.be/F0VQ4NwjW1E American Express]] commercial in which he nitpicks one-hour photos of his nephew's birthday party as if they were a poorly executed movie shoot. As the man would later claim, this is exactly how his actual movie shoots go. |
| 99 | * AntiHero: The NominalHero and the {{Villain|Protagonist}}ous show up a lot. Scorsese himself doesn't believe in conventional ideas of heroism with characters who want to be heroes like Travis Bickle proving themselves to be KnightTemplar in their belief that they can pass judgment on the "scum". |
| 100 | ** Heck, even the protagonist of ''Film/{{Hugo}}'' ([[LighterAndSofter his most cheerful film ever directed]]) is an AntiHero. |
| 101 | * AuthorAppeal: Religion is a major recurring theme throughout his films and his films are often examinations of morality and sin. |
| 102 | * AxCrazy: |
| 103 | ** His more pervasively violent movies will no doubt have at least one character that qualifies. |
| 104 | ** He played as one in ''Film/TaxiDriver''. |
| 105 | * AllThereInTheManual: A lot of Scorsese's ideas and influences and observations of his films can be discerned in books like ''Scorsese On Scorsese, Scorsese: A Journey, The Scorsese Picture'' as well as DVD Commentaries and interviews available on Website/YouTube. |
| 106 | * BannedInChina: For making ''Film/{{Kundun}}'' his film about the Dalai Lama. This is especially sad given that Scorsese has long championed Chinese cinema and films by Tian Zhuangzhuang, Jia Zhangke and several Chinese film-makers have testified to his influence on their works. Thankfully, Scorsese’s ban was lifted in 2012. |
| 107 | * BeingGoodSucks: Among the basic themes in his movies is that it's very hard and oftentimes punishing to be good. And those who try to be good or do good in Scorsese's movies, whether it's Frank in ''Bringing out the Dead'', the Dalai Lama in ''Kundun'', Newland Archer in ''The Age of Innocence'', Fr. Rodrigues in ''Silence'', or the FBI Agent Denham in ''The Wolf of Wall Street'', often end up with very little reward, often lose, and at best can hope to survive to continue the struggle. His movie about Jesus, ''The Last Temptation of Christ'', was controversial because it deglamorized Christ's story and merely brought out how painful and almost incomprehensibly heroic (and so divine) Jesus had to have been to make his sacrifice. |
| 108 | * BeingEvilSucks: Scorsese often portrays the bad guys as being brought down by the same flaws and environment that allowed them to thrive and those with [[NobleDemon some kind of moral code]] often fall victim to [[TheUnfettered those with none]]. In fact, the villainous characters of his films end up much, '''much worse''' than the good ones, whether brutally murdered, betrayed, arrested or losing everything, especially in his mafia films. |
| 109 | * {{Biopic}}: ''Film/RagingBull, Film/{{Kundun}}, Film/TheAviator, Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' and even ''Film/{{Hugo}}'' (albeit a SidelongGlanceBiopic). |
| 110 | * BigApplesauce: New York is a common setting for his works. |
| 111 | * BittersweetEnding: ''Film/{{Hugo}}'' and ''Film/AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore'' are the only two Scorsese films with happy endings. Indeed he [[DeconstructedTrope mocked]] the concept in ''New York, New York'' in the famous ''Happy Endings'' number. Scorsese's movies are unusual in also ending on a note of irresolution (''Film/MeanStreets''), the GainaxEnding (''Film/TaxiDriver, Film/TheKingOfComedy, Film/AfterHours'') and the full-fledged DownerEnding. ''Film/RagingBull'' is worth mentioning, given that it [[spoiler:ends on a note of hope, even if the hero has lost everything, he [[EarnYourHappyEnding has become]] OlderAndWiser and presumably will be more peaceful now.]] |
| 112 | ** It's telling how dark Scorsese's movies are that the only truly positive and triumphant ending is [[spoiler: ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'', where Jesus rejects Satan's [[TheFinalTemptation final temptation]] and dies on the cross yelling his last words (as per the Gospel of John): [[DyingMomentOfAwesome It is Accomplished]]."]] |
| 113 | * BlackComedy: Whatever comedy is in his films, it's gonna be this, and it's ''black''. |
| 114 | * CareerResurrection: Several: |
| 115 | ** ''Film/RagingBull'' was not a wide commercial success but on a personal and professional level was important in making Scorsese continue to commit himself to narrative film-making and also to make himself more disciplined in both his personal and professional life (such as kicking his drug habit). ''Film/TheColorOfMoney'' made in the middle of TheEighties likewise became his first major commercial success since ''Film/TaxiDriver'' and was important for his career which until had stalled with the first version of Last Temptation being canceled and his other movies getting mixed critical views (even if ''Film/TheKingOfComedy'' is now considered a classic). |
| 116 | ** ''Film/CapeFear'' and ''Film/GoodFellas'' more or less gave him AuteurLicense again and restored his commercial cache and critical reputation, allowing him to make films with bigger budgets and take on uncommercial subject matter like ''Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence'' and ''Film/{{Kundun}}'' and still continue to thrive. |
| 117 | ** Following the underperformance of films like ''Film/BringingOutTheDead'' and his decades-long passion project ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'', Scorsese took on ''Film/TheAviator'' as something of a [[MoneyDearBoy work-for-hire gig]] and even considered retiring after its completion. However, the success of ''Aviator'' and [[Film/TheDeparted his]] [[Film/ShutterIsland following]] [[Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet films]] ended up finally making him a commercially bankable director instead of one known for [[AcclaimedFlop acclaimed films with mixed financial results.]] |
| 118 | * ChristianityIsCatholic: Somewhat justified, in that most characters in his best-known films (i.e., the ones involving organized crime) tend to be Italian or Irish, two strongly Catholic ethnicities. Scorsese himself was raised Catholic and initially planned to become a priest. |
| 119 | ** Averted for two of Scorsese's religious films. ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' is an adaptation of a work by a Greek Orthodox writer, and its screenplay was written by Paul Schrader, who was a Dutch Calvinist. His film ''Kundun'' likewise is a biopic of the 14th Dalai Lama (the one we know today), exploring Buddhist concepts and culture with an eye for detail far beyond more simplistic portraits. |
| 120 | ** Played straight, however, with ''Silence'', his 2016 adaptation of [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseChristian Japanese Catholic]] author Shusaku Endo, which deals with Portuguese Jesuits trying to preach in Japan. |
| 121 | * ClusterFBomb: ''Film/RagingBull'', ''Film/{{Casino}}'', ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', ''Film/TheDeparted'' and ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''. ''Casino'' once held the record for most dropped F-bombs for a mainstream film until beaten out by his own film ''The Wolf of Wall Street''. |
| 122 | * CostumePorn: Scorsese was the son of parents who worked in New York's garment district, as such his movies are filled with detailed recreations and attention to suits, shirts and fittings. His movies have even inspired fashion designers such as Giorgio Armani, who was quite taken with the period costumes for ''New York, New York''. For ''Goodfellas'', his parents actually pressed the suits on-set ''solely'' to make it accurate to period stylings. |
| 123 | * CreatorBreakdown: He reportedly came very close to killing himself in the late '70s, having a cocaine addiction and depressed over the state of his career and the failure to get his dream project ''Gangs of New York'' off the ground (it ultimately wouldn't be made until 2002). He credits a phone call from Robert De Niro asking him to direct ''Raging Bull'' as stopping him from going through with it. |
| 124 | * CreatorCameo: Scorsese did this quite a bit, especially early in his career. In ''Mean Streets'' he's the mobster that shoots up Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel's car. In ''Taxi Driver'' he's a passenger in Travis's cab that murders his wife. In ''The Last Waltz'' he interviews Music/TheBand. In ''Raging Bull'' he's the stagehand telling Jake La Motta that it's time for him to go on. |
| 125 | * CreatorProvincialism: He's born and raised in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity and has lived there almost his entire life and many of his most famous films are considered to be among the definitive portraits of the city. Likewise two of his historical films (''Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence, Film/GangsOfNewYork'') are period films of Old New York from two totally different social classes. |
| 126 | ** Interestingly, ''Mean Streets'' which was seen, at the time, [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative as the quintessential movie about tenement New York]] was largely shot in Los Angeles (since producer Roger Corman would only produce it if it was shot in LA). While ''Film/NewYorkNewYork'' was done entirely on studio sets. |
| 127 | ** ''Film/TaxiDriver, Film/TheKingOfComedy, Film/AfterHours'' and ''Life Lessons'' are considered by some to be time capsules of New York, and regarded to be unusually accurate in general topography and city layout as opposed to the scattered touristy manner most films use New York locations. |
| 128 | * DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: When discussing films like the original ''Scarface'' (by Howard Hawks, not Brian De Palma's remake) and a Western like ''Film/TheWildBunch'', Scorsese admits that audiences tend to root for the bad guys and overt DoNotDoThisCoolThing admonitions never work. In his movies, he shows gangsters more or less as they are, showing them as a kind of counter-culture with its own rules and what happens to people who step out of line and by and large leaves it to the audience to sort out their moral alignment. |
| 129 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: |
| 130 | ** His debut film ''Who's That Knocking At My Door?'' is a RomanticComedy. But it features a surprising number of what would become his trademarks (New York setting, a focus on the Italian-American community, Catholic guilt, awesome use of old rock songs on the soundtrack, Creator/HarveyKeitel). |
| 131 | ** ''Film/BoxcarBertha'' and ''Film/AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore'' are his only movies with female protagonists. |
| 132 | * EpicMovie: ''Film/{{Kundun}}'', ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'', ''Film/{{Casino}}'', ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'', ''Film/TheAviator'', ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'', ''Film/TheIrishman'', and ''Film/KillersOfTheFlowerMoon'', and to an extent ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', ''Film/TheDeparted'', and ''Film/ShutterIsland'', are all shining examples, with their sprawling scope, huge casts, and considerable runtimes. When Marty wants to do a project at scale, he doesn't half-ass it. |
| 133 | * EveryoneLovesBlondes: From very early in his career onwards, Scorsese heroines tend to be blondes, starting from Zina Bethune in ''Who's that Knocking on My Door'' to Cybill Shephard in ''Taxi Driver'', Cathy Moriarty in ''Raging Bull'', Roseanna Arquette (''Film/AfterHours, Life Lessons'')[[note]]Amusingly enough, her sister Patricia Arquette, appeared in ''Bringing out the Dead'' only there she was brunette despite being blonde in real life. Similar situation happened with Creator/CameronDiaz in ''Film/GangsOfNewYork''[[/note]], Creator/MichellePfeiffer in ''The Age of Innocence'', Creator/SharonStone in ''Film/{{Casino}}'', Creator/VeraFarmiga in ''The Departed'', Creator/MichelleWilliams in ''Film/ShutterIsland'', and of course, Creator/MargotRobbie in ''The Wolf of Wall Street''. In fact there are more blonde actresses in Scorsese's [[BrieferThanTheyThink movies than in]] Creator/AlfredHitchcock. |
| 134 | * FamilyVersusCareer: As a big fan of ''[[Film/TheRedShoes1948 The Red Shoes]]'', a running theme of some of his films is the sacrifices you need to make to follow your passion. His film ''New York, New York'' famously explored this and averted AlwaysFemale by showing this an equal conflict between the man and woman, showing a relationship between creative people who are both TheDeterminator in their field. His film is notable for [[spoiler: its reality check showing that the relationship would never work, even if they were still very much in love.]] |
| 135 | * TheFilmOfTheBook: Quite a number of his films are based on novels or non-fiction works: ''Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, Casino, Bringing out the Dead, Gangs of New York, Shutter Island, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street'', ''Silence'' and ''The Irishman''. |
| 136 | * GenreRoulette: Showed his versatility by making biopics (''Film/RagingBull'', ''Film/TheAviator'', ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'', ''Film/{{Hugo}}''), historical dramas (''Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence'', ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'', ''Film/{{Silence}}''), comedy (''Film/TheKingOfComedy'', ''Film/AfterHours''), neo-noir films (''Film/TaxiDriver'', the remake ''Film/TheDeparted''), musical (''Film/NewYorkNewYork''), mafia films (''Film/MeanStreets'', ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', ''Film/{{Casino}}'', ''Film/TheIrishman''), bible movies (''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist''), thrillers (''Film/CapeFear''), concert films (''The Last Waltz'', ''Shine A Light''), documentaries (''Italianamerican'', ''A Personal Journey Through American Films'', ''A Personal Journey Through Italian Films'', ''Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues'',...), psychological thriller (''Literature/ShutterIsland''). |
| 137 | * GloryDays: In the commentary on ''Casino'', Scorsese discusses his identification with the nostalgia for the Vegas in the 70s (which he doesn't share) to his own lament for the end of the New Hollywood generation, the last time directors like him were given access to decent budgets. |
| 138 | * HairTriggerTemper: Several of his characters display this and suffer as a consequence. |
| 139 | * HiddenDepths: All his characters show this, even someone who is otherwise TheBrute like Jake La Motta in Film/RagingBull. |
| 140 | * HumansAreBastards: He infuses his characters with realistic flaws. However, in his more cynical films (i.e., ''Goodfellas'', ''The King of Comedy'', ''The Wolf of Wall Street'', etc.), good luck finding a character who isn’t an absolute HateSink. |
| 141 | * TheHyena: Given the type of work he makes, it’s a bit contrasting to see him laughing a lot in his interviews. |
| 142 | * HistoricalFiction: It's often forgotten that very few of his movies are actually contemporary to the year they are released in (''Who's that Knocking on My Door, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, The Color of Money, Life Lessons, The Departed''). The vast majority of his movies are period films set either in the 40s-through-70s and some of them are straight up historical films (''Silence, The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York, Kundun''). |
| 143 | * {{Jerkass}}: A lot of his protagonists are like this, and Scorsese admits that he chooses them as a deliberate provocation against conventional good guys. |
| 144 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Then again, the main characters in his more dramatic works tend to be well-intentioned or have scruples underneath. |
| 145 | * LaserGuidedKarma: His gangster films usually end badly for the VillainProtagonist. |
| 146 | * LighterAndSofter: ''Film/{{Hugo}}'' is easily the lightest, most cheerful film ever directed by Scorsese, which is quite rare considering the usual content of his films. While it still has its fair share of dark moments, it's PG and never goes beyond the PG range of content. |
| 147 | * TheMafia: He's created perhaps the most iconic Mafia films outside of ''Film/TheGodfather''. Growing up in Little Italy, he knew that culture and mentality very well, while ''The Godfather'' was not a realistic film by any means (as admitted by Coppola). His films show the Italian-American mob as merely a part of the larger immigration story and failure of assimilation into American society and UsefulNotes/{{the American Dream}}. |
| 148 | * MagnumOpusDissonance: Despite the acclaimed status of ''Taxi Driver'', ''Raging Bull'' and ''Goodfellas'', Scorsese himself treasures ''Italianamerican'', a documentary where he literally just spends an hour talking with his [[GoodParents parents]] in their apartment. In ''Scorsese on Scorsese'' he has cited ''The Age of Innocence'' and ''Kundun'' as two films which he feels are productions where he had a free reign and achieved exactly what he had visioned and cites them as his favorites. |
| 149 | * MemeAcknowledgement: |
| 150 | ** When his daughter brought up the existence of the PlayAlongMeme of the imaginary mafia movie ''WebOriginal/{{Goncharov}}'' to him, he played along and confirmed that he made it years ago. Website/{{Tumblr}} promptly lost its mind. |
| 151 | ** His [[https://letterboxd.com/mscorsese/ Letterboxd profile]] description says "This is cinema," which itself is a [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/043/589/FTjzOCUWUAEqROW.jpg meme]] he's often associated with. |
| 152 | * {{Mockumentary}}: ''Rolling Thunder Revue: A Music/BobDylan Story'' caught a ''lot'' of people off-guard. Expecting a standard {{Rockumentary}} about Dylan's legendary 1975-76 concert tour, what they got instead was extensive concert footage framed by a story about a fictional filmmaker who allegedly filmed the original footage, along with interviews of Creator/SharonStone (who fictitiously claims to have joined the tour and become Dylan's mistress--she was actually still in high school at the time) and former congressman Jack Tanner (Michael Murphy reprising his role from Creator/RobertAltman's ''Tanner '88'' and ''Tanner on Tanner'' television series productions, which similarly blended fiction and RealLife). |
| 153 | * MoneyDearBoy: Some of his movies were commercial assignments intended to provide a platform for his more personal films. Nevertheless, he puts in good work on these projects and takes them as experiments. |
| 154 | ** ''The Color of Money'' and the remake of ''Cape Fear'' was by his own admission made to fund films like ''The Last Temptation of Christ, Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence'' and even ''Goodfellas''[[note]]Initially a tough sell until De Niro signed on[[/note]]. ''Casino'' was also partly a commercial project since the studios were keen for the Goodfellas team to return and that paved the way for ''Kundun'' and later ''Gangs of New York''. ''The Departed'' was intended as a commercial venture for Scorsese to eventually make his long-gestating adaptation of ''Silence'', and Scorsese was surprised that what he considered a genre movie ended up winning a long-delayed Oscar. |
| 155 | ** It has also backfired occasionally. From his perspective, he expected ''New York New York'' to be a more commercial venture while ''Taxi Driver'' would be the art film made for the micro-budget that he expected no one would see. Then ''Taxi Driver'' was a hit and the other film was a flop. Likewise he thought ''Hugo'' would be a hit and a family friendly film, instead it barely recouped its loss and became an AcclaimedFlop, while ''The Wolf of Wall Street'' became the biggest hit of his career. |
| 156 | * MotorMouth: Noted for talking very fast, an aspect that shows up in many Scorsese spoofs and informed Creator/RobertDeNiro's performance in Film/AngelHeart. Scorsese's own cameos in his films and his performances in other films (like ''Round Midnight'' by Bertrand Tavernier and in ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'') also has him play characters like this. |
| 157 | * TheNarrator: Makes frequent use of it in most of his films. In interviews, Scorsese has even argued against conventional wisdom about narrators by the screenwriting gurus who argue that reliance on this leads to an avoidance of ShowDontTell. In his movies, narrators never directly discuss or explain the plot or motivation, but merely add another layer of interaction and observation in his films. |
| 158 | --> '''[[https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1119-haunting-powerful-passionate-martin-scorseses-_the-age-of-innocence Scorsese]]''': "I know that often when a film isn’t working, people say, ‘use a narrator’ and it can be a cheat, but that’s a simplistic interpretation of what narration does. I grew up watching movies like Kind Hearts and Coronets and Film/JulesAndJim and I thought that narration was the voice of the storyteller. Does that tell rather than show? I don’t think so. For me, the storyteller’s voice is the entryway into the story." |
| 159 | * NothingButHits: An example of the trope at its finest; Scorsese's movies possess some of the best soundtracks ever. Scorsese averts the extreme uses of this because of his extraordinary knowledge of music (nearly as extensive as his knowledge about cinema) and his music uses varies from the popular, to the unexpected and the GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere such as the use of Georges Delerue's theme from Jean-Luc Godard's ''Contempt'' in ''Casino.'' |
| 160 | * OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: For much of his career, he's followed this rule. (He's also the [[TropeNamer source of the quote]] at the top of the relevant Trivia page on the subject. |
| 161 | * TheOneThatGotAway: Following his breakup with Isabella Rossellini, Scorsese couldn't bring himself to watch her films again, or even visit places where they had spent time together. In fact, he could no longer bear to watch anything made by ''studios'' that had employed his ex, even if she wasn't in the film in question. |
| 162 | -->"I'd see the United Artists logo, and it would ruin the movie for me!" *nervous chuckle* |
| 163 | ** Of course many of his own characters are haunted by doomed romance. Newland Archer in Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence especially. |
| 164 | * TheOneWhoMadeItOut: |
| 165 | ** A favored theme for Scorsese, especially his early films, is the desire for his characters to be this, of getting out of the ghetto, but lacking the ruthlessness, commitment and drive to go ahead. This even extends to Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence, a story about a man in a superficial society with a banal marriage who longed for a more intellectually fulfilling life. Scorsese's films generally show the tragedy of this experience and to what extent this is possible. |
| 166 | ** Scorsese is himself this in RealLife. Many of his friends were street hoodlums in Little Italy, but he became a rich, successful, famous artist. His commentaries and interviews often talks of the poignancy of this experience. |
| 167 | * {{Overcrank}}: He was famous for popularizing this in his films, especially ''Raging Bull''. Scorsese did this in-camera during production, moving the frame rate fast and slow in the middle of action, going from over-to-under crank (most prominently in the boxing scenes) and all his films since then use this in various ways, sometimes obvious (the close-up on Creator/RobertDeNiro as "Sunshine of your Love" plays in ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}''), other-times quite subtle (such as in ''Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence'' when Creator/WinonaRyder gives the climactic WhamLine, and the WhamShot of the tracking shot where Newland realizes his crush on Ellen Olenska was an OpenSecret). |
| 168 | * PigeonholedDirector: He's known for his gangster films but he only made five films about the Mob: ''Mean Streets'', ''Goodfellas'', ''Casino,'' ''The Departed,'' and ''The Irishman''. His other films vary in genre and style, from period epics to musical to biopic of the 14th Dalai Lama. This is lampshaded by Billy Crystal during the 84th Academy Awards in regards to ''Film/{{Hugo}}''. "Are you sure this is a Scorsese movie? No one's gotten whacked yet." |
| 169 | * PlayingAgainstType: Or, directing against type. While not all of his films are dark or violent, ''Hugo'' is, thus far, the only pure family film he has made. |
| 170 | * PlayingWithATrope: Because of his wide knowledge of film history, Scorsese's movies frequently engage with genre conventions with and a wider historical and intellectual context. |
| 171 | * {{Pride}}: A stated theme in a lot of his films, is identifying and arguing against all kinds of pride, which fits in with his Catholic background. Whether it's unsavory characters over-reaching on excess like in ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' or supposed good guys who think their moral crisis justifies a need to punish people like in ''Film/MeanStreets'', ''Film/TaxiDriver'', and ''Bringing out the dead''. |
| 172 | * ProductionPosse: For actors, the leads will most likely go to Creator/RobertDeNiro or Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio, with Creator/JoePesci, Creator/HarveyKeitel, Victor Argo and Harry Northup in other types of roles. His parents (Charles and Catherine) usually got cameo appearances in his movies until their respective deaths in 1993 and 1995, and with Creator/DanielDayLewis, Creator/LiamNeeson, Creator/JohnCReilly, Creator/BenKingsley, Creator/AlecBaldwin, Creator/RayWinstone, Creator/NickNolte, Dick Miller, and many others on multiple occasions. For crew, he's worked with: |
| 173 | ** Thelma Schoonmaker as editor[[note]]She edited his first student films, then waited for a decade to get registered in the union before working on Film/RagingBull and has edited all his films since then[[/note]]. |
| 174 | ** Michael Ballhaus, Robert Richardson, Michael Chapman, and Rodrigo Prieto as cinematographers. |
| 175 | ** Paul Schrader, Nicholas Pileggi, Jay Cocks, Creator/JohnLogan, Mardik Martin, and Terence Winter as screenwriters. |
| 176 | ** Irwin Winkler, Emma Tilling Koskoff, Barbara De Fina, and Rick Yorn as producers. |
| 177 | ** Dante Ferretti and Bob Shaw as production designers. |
| 178 | ** Sandy Powell as costume designer. |
| 179 | ** Howard Shore and Elmer Bernstein as composers. |
| 180 | ** Robbie Robertson as music producer. |
| 181 | ** Robert Legato as visual effects supervisor. |
| 182 | ** Joseph P. Reidy as assistant director and co-producer. |
| 183 | ** George A. Aguilar as stunt co-coordinator |
| 184 | ** Legato, Aguilar, Reidy, Vic Armstrong, Ellen Karus, and Phil Marco as second unit directors (Legato also served as second unit cinematographer). |
| 185 | ** and Saul Bass as title designer for Film/{{Goodfellas}}, Film/CapeFear, Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence, and Film/{{Casino}} (the last of which would also serve as his final project before his death in 1996). |
| 186 | * PromotedFanboy: As a young boy, Scorsese grew up seeing classic films on TV in the hope of becoming a great film-maker. He succeeded. Scorsese's understanding of this trope is what makes ''The King of Comedy'' so poignant, as he says in interviews, he identified with both the hungry crazy fan, who he was growing up, and the established comedian who was a ConsummateProfessional, which he had become when he made the film. This is also true for a lot of the actors in his later films, who were a generation or two younger when he made his mark in the '70s. Creator/DanielDayLewis cited ''Film/TaxiDriver'' as an inspiration for becoming an actor, and he later worked with Scorsese twice, Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio and Creator/JonahHill were likewise fans of his growing up. |
| 187 | * PyrrhicVillainy: Scorsese will often give his antagonists what seem like victories but with some ''very'' heavy caveats, be it losing their life of glamour and privilege, losing the few they genuinely cared about or just ending up old and forgotten, their achievements not amounting to anything in the long run. |
| 188 | * RealitySubtext: Scorsese doesn't share ''Film/{{Casino}}'''s nostalgia for [[EndofanAge the decline of Las Vegas in the early 1980s]]. But, parallels can be drawn between this and the decline of the MediaNotes/NewHollywood era of filmmaking, after which [[ExecutiveMeddling studios held directors on a much tighter leash]]. Scorsese, like many New Hollywood directors, views that era as the last time directors like him had access to [[MediaNotes/TheAuteurTheory decent budgets and creative freedom]]. |
| 189 | --> '''Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro''': It should have been so sweet, too. But it turned out to be the last time that street guys like us were ever given anything that fuckin' valuable again. |
| 190 | * RedemptionQuest: Some of his characters yearn for this, but Scorsese shows that it's hard to achieve in life and in fact his more religious films explore constantly what the idea of redemption actually means in everyday life. |
| 191 | --> "You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is [[PrecisionFStrike bullshit]] and you know it." |
| 192 | * RiseAndFallGangsterArc: ''Film/{{Casino}}'', ''Film/GoodFellas'' and ''Film/TheIrishman'' are all straight examples of this trope in the context of TheMafia. ''Film/TheDeparted'' uses it for TheIrishMob, and ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' applies it to WhiteCollarCrime. |
| 193 | * {{Rockumentary}}: |
| 194 | ** ''The Last Waltz'' (1978) is about Music/TheBand's farewell concert in 1976, while ''Shine A Light'' (2008) captures Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} in concert in 2006. |
| 195 | ** Early in his career, Scorsese was assistant director and editor for the ''Film/{{Woodstock}}'' film. |
| 196 | * RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: He's on the Enlightenment side on the whole, both in content (realistic and critical deconstructive approach to character and narrative) and style (documentary and detail-rich period recreations). Even Scorsese's religious films, largely grapple with how one can deal with spiritual questions in a meaningful way in the real world, subversive of conventional ideas of RedemptionQuest. |
| 197 | * RuderAndCruder: While his films don't necessarily constitute an ongoing series, Scorsese's films deserve a mention under this trope. Scorsese is the only director to have ''three'' of the top 20 films with the highest usage of the F-bomb ''in film history'': ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' is the third highest with a whopping 569 uses, ''Film/{{Casino}}'' is sixth with 422 uses, and the profanity-peppered classic ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' is ranked 16th at 300 uses. |
| 198 | * SavedFromDevelopmentHell: When Scorsese is [[TheDeterminator determined]] to make a film he follows through, and he is known for his persistence in following on his passion projects: |
| 199 | ** ''The Last Temptation of Christ'' was first recommended by actress Barbara Hershey (who eventually played Mary Magdaelene ''19 years later'') to Scorsese during the making of ''Boxcar Bertha''. Scorsese had always planned on making a film about Jesus, and initially he even considered adapting Robert Graves' ''King Jesus'' before settling on Nikos Kazantzakis' unusual take. ''The Last Temptation'' actually entered pre-production in TheEighties with Aiden Quinn as Jesus and Sting in key roles but Paramount pulled of and cancelled the film. Scorsese then made ''After Hours'' and followed with ''The Color of Money'' whose box-office success he parlayed, successfully, into getting ''The Last Temptation of Christ'' off the ground by the end of the decade. |
| 200 | ** ''Gangs of New York'' was planned since the 70s before finally entering production in the late 90s, and released in 2002. Scorsese's initial plans for ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' were considerably radical and ambitious. In the 70s, he planned to make it a collaboration with Music/TheClash, making it a punk musical starring Creator/RobertDeNiro. In the 90s, he considered making it a trilogy. He also stated that it was his hope that the film launch a new genre, a 19th Century Urban Western, with many films set in nascent conurbations. |
| 201 | ** ''Film/{{Silence}}'' his adaptation of Creator/ShusakuEndo's novel was planned since TheNineties (after Film/CapeFear) and entered production in 2015 and set for a 2016 release. The film was always regarded as "uncommercial" and Scorsese has hinted in interviews that several films made in TheNoughties were essentially MoneyDearBoy projects to finally give him the cache to make ''Silence''. It was planned to be produced after ''The Departed'' with Creator/BenicioDelToro and Creator/DanielDayLewis but finally had Creator/AndrewGarfield and Creator/LiamNeeson take over. |
| 202 | ** Scorsese and Music/MickJagger had talked about making ''The Long Play'' in TheNineties, a movie about the music business, its ups and downs. Eventually, the ideas behind it got repurposed for Creator/{{HBO}} and it became ''Series/{{Vinyl}}'', which has been cancelled after one season. |
| 203 | * SelfParody: He once parodied his fondness for dark, serious dramas in [[https://youtu.be/5DKx7MhcHHo?si=dIVjKn0kBp6lCYlu a commercial for AT&T]]. |
| 204 | * ShoutOut: Martin Scorsese's movies are filled with numerous film and music references, only very subtle that careful viewers and cinephiles can recognize. It's not so much in dialogue as in compositions, gestures by characters, editing and cutting. The range of references in his movies in terms of variety as well as the subtlety with which it is done is a lesson in itself, in that they are there for a reason, suggesting like Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' a deeper layer and connection. Any Scorsese movie will have references to American films, famous and obscure, Italian films, Japanese films or experimental works. ''Taxi Driver'' refers to Hitchcock's obscure film ''The Wrong Man'', Michael Snow's experimental ''Film/{{Wavelength}}'' and Jean-Luc Godard's ''2 or 3 Things I Know About Her''. They are that dense. |
| 205 | ** A good example comes through [[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Famous.html this page]] detailing his homages to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's movies. And these are the ones Scorsese has acknowledged. |
| 206 | * ShownTheirWork : Scorsese's films are almost anthropological for the level of details and visual information that is placed in the frame and the background without having a direct impact on the plot. In fact, a good portion of his films are period films and set in different historical periods, and thus needing that level of research. He averts HollywoodHistory by a great margin, while still finding much visual invention and creativity in storytelling. |
| 207 | * SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: His movies lean to the cynical side at least as conventionally understood. BeingGoodSucks but BeingEvilSucks too, and even those characters who seem all powerful and secure have their problems and insecurities and vulnerabilities: |
| 208 | ** All of his love stories tend to be either DestructiveRomance (''Casino, Shutter Island''), or UnrequitedLoveLastsForever (''The Age of Innocence''), and almost always the hero DidNotGetTheGirl. Even when he's making movies about artists, he keeps highlighting how painful, difficult, and challenging it is, and how many sacrifices you have to make (as in ''New York New York, Life Lessons, The King of Comedy, Hugo''). |
| 209 | ** His crime movies keep insisting that most of the time crime does pay, and that while some gangsters and criminals do get caught, it often has less to do with justice, and more because society changes and a new kind of crime has arrived (such as ''Casino'' showing organized crime being modernized and updated by a more corporate and bureaucratic crime). Most of the time, SocietyIsToBlame, and it's an achievement for Scorsese's characters not so much when they redeem themselves but feel they have something to redeem and feel remorse for, because most of them [[IgnoredEpiphany learn to stifle their conscience]]. |
| 210 | ** And of course no matter how good your intentions are, and how noble you want to be, whether you are the Dalai Lama and the head of Tibet, or a simple priest on a mission in ''Silence'', or a romantic aristocratic in New York (''The Age of Innocence''), if you are weak, the strong will abuse their power and screw you over, morality and good sense be damned. As Ted Levine notes in ''Film/ShutterIsland'', "There's no order as pure as the storm we have just seen. There is no moral order at all" and if people want morality, they have to make it happen. |
| 211 | * SoundtrackDissonance: Lots of oldies and classic rock. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Mean Streets''. |
| 212 | ** Scorsese ''excels'' at mixing songs to the appropriate scene. ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' is the perfect example. |
| 213 | ** Usage of Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}' ''Gimme Shelter'', usually as a subtle [[AStormIsComing premonitory sign]]. Ironically, it does not appear in ''Shine a Light'', his Rolling Stones concert film, because it wasn't on the set list, as noted by Mick Jagger. |
| 214 | * TheCameo: Has plenty of film directors appear as characters in his movies. |
| 215 | ** ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' has Creator/JonFavreau appear as a lawyer for Jordan Belfort. Scorsese had previously appeared in Favreau's show ''Dinner for Five'' |
| 216 | ** ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' has director Irvin Kershner of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' fame cameo as Zebedee. |
| 217 | * SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: What makes his films so controversial is his willingness to strip his narrative of genre conventions and let things [[{{deconstruction}} follow on as they do in real life]]. With select exceptions, his movies tend to be biopics or historical films or BasedOnATrueStory. Unlike HollywoodHistory, he generally stays true to the facts and only makes changes for dramatic effect rather than audience considerations. |
| 218 | * ThematicSeries: ''Goodfellas'', ''Casino'' and ''The Irishman'' are all historical dramas based around the modern mafia. |
| 219 | * ThreeActStructure: Scorsese not only eschews this in his movies, but he has also said repeatedly that he loathes the very idea and concept of it. He feels that using terms like this conditions people to think of cinema as an extension of theater and not its own medium: |
| 220 | --> "I like theater, but theater is theater and movies are movies. They should be separate. We should talk about sequences -- and there are usually at least five or six sequences rather than three acts -- which are broken up into sections and scenes" |
| 221 | * UnabashedBMovieFan: Scorsese is just as vocal about his love of low-budget genre films as he is classic studio pictures and has cited them as being just as formative to his learning as well as speaking about how working under Creator/RogerCorman helped him learn crucial skills for his later career. |
| 222 | * ViewersAreGeniuses: The content of his films is generally not incomprehensible, but by and large, they challenge narrative conventions and genre expectations that audiences are otherwise comfortable with. As a film historian, Scorsese has an eclectic taste and wide knowledge of cinema from around the world and fully believes that audiences can enjoy all kinds of films, even the ones that require some effort. |
| 223 | * VillainProtagonist: The main characters in several of his films aren't nice people, to say the least. Martin Scorsese is unapologetic about this and notes his belief that HumansAreFlawed and that people who society deems as ''villains'' are not so different from more respectable people. |
| 224 | * VillainousGentrification: A repeated theme in his movies, is consistently portraying gentrification as more or less a conservative attitude to deny the ugliness of reality and human frailty, and simply pretend that physical cleansing is the same as cleansing in a moral, political, and historical sense: |
| 225 | ** Travis Bickle in ''Film/TaxiDriver'' is a Mid-westerner who arrives to TheBigRottenApple and develops a perverse love-hate attitude to the city whose scum he wants to wash clean of. |
| 226 | ** The end of ''Film/{{Casino}}'' has Ace Rothstein criticize the "family friendly" Disney-fied UsefulNotes/LasVegas that came in after the Mafia went bust. The Mafia were pretty bad but they didn't try to sell gambling to kids, nor did they operate in the legalized gambling of "junk bonds" that was used to rebuilt the pyramids. |
| 227 | ** In ''Film/{{Kundun}}'', the Chinese are imperialists who want to take over Tibet and get rid of its feudal and theocratic society, which the film doesn't deny is part of the fabric of Pre-Conquest Tibet. The Dalai Lama himself is an InternalReformist, but ultimately the Chinese want to to be the ones who modernize Tibet because they are strong and Tibet is weak. |
| 228 | ** The coda of ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' has Amsterdam Vallon lamenting in voiceover the result of this: |
| 229 | --> '''Amsterdam Vallon''': "We never knew how many New Yorkers died that week before the city was finally delivered. My father told me we was all born of blood and tribulation, and so then too was our great city. But for those of us what lived and died in them furious days, it was like everything we knew was mightily swept away. And no matter what they did to build this city up again... for the rest of time... it would be like no one ever knew we was even here." |
| 230 | ** Scorsese in general has lamented the gentrification of New York in the Giuliani-Bloomberg era. His documentary ''Public Speaking'' has him interviewing Fran Liebowitz a noted critic of the phenomenon. He noted that he generally didn't like making films in contemporary New York because he barely recognizes the city. His most recent New York films ''Bringing out the Dead'' and ''The Wolf of Wall Street'' are period films about TheNineties. ''Bringing out the Dead'' had a title card announcing it was set TwentyMinutesIntoThePast precisely because the film chronicles an ambulance driver in the tail-end of TheBigRottenApple era. |
| 231 | * WhatCouldHaveBeen: |
| 232 | ** ''Who's that Knocking At My Door'' was supposed to be the second installment of a trilogy of films based around the idea of crime and Catholic guilt. ''Mean Streets'' was the third part. The first part, ''Jerusalem, Jerusalem'', would have involved the Harvey Keitel character going to a seminary retreat and would have been based around symbolism from the stages of the cross. No studio would fund it due to its overtly religious nature. |
| 233 | ** ''Dino'' a film about Creator/DeanMartin and his friendship with Creator/JerryLewis during their years as a stand-up act and eventual breakup. He planned the film with Creator/TomHanks in mind but the project fell apart because the studio wanted a more clear take on the rivalry. Scorsese wanted a GrayAndGreyMorality situation where both Dean and Jerry (who was after all his friend since ''Film/TheKingOfComedy'') were in the right and compared the studio's simplistic focus to a film version of Music/TheBeatles where film-makers chooses sides between Lennon and [=McCartney=]. |
| 234 | ** ''Gershwin'' a biopic of the famous composer. A script was written by playwright John Guare and Scorsese discussed the film with Music/DavidBowie, who was going to play Creator/FredAstaire, [[http://entertainment.inquirer.net/188458/a-chat-with-martin-scorsese-about-music-for-a-change with Astaire's blessing no-less]]. |
| 235 | ** A planned biopic of Creator/FrankSinatra [[http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/martin-scorsese-scraps-frank-sinatra-biopic-w459461 also fell apart]] despite being a project Scorsese expressed repeated intention in doing. He planned an experimental approach where multiple actors play Sinatra at different ages and the movie flashes back and forth in time. The reason it fell apart is similar to Dino, Scorsese wanted a WartsAndAll approach but Sinatra's estate didn't want a movie that avoided the {{Biopic}} formula. |
| 236 | ** Scorsese considered adapting a few of Creator/FyodorDostoevsky's novels. He planned to do Literature/NotesFromUnderground before coming across Creator/PaulSchrader's screenplay for ''Film/TaxiDriver'' (which he noted was inspired by Dostoevsky's book and in his mind counts as a Spiritual Adaptation). He also wanted to adapt Literature/TheIdiot and discussed the project with John Guare. The only Dostoevsky story he ever adapted was ''The Gambler'' for his short film ''Life Lessons'' for ''New York Stories''. |
| 237 | ** Believe it or not, Scorsese was even considered to direct, no joke, ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors''. It would even have Creator/StevenSpielberg attached as producer. This didn't fall through though and the film would instead be directed by Franchise/TheMuppets legend Creator/FrankOz. |
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