Martin+Scorsese

__**Stylistic Elements Martin Scorsese is Known For:**__

- Most of his works are character studies, and plot is often subordinated to this primary end. - A second quality is attention to period detail. Scorsese is skillful at creating the look and feel of a particular time and place. - A third quality is superior acting. He works well with actors and has a gift for eliciting fine performances. - A fourth quality is Scorsese's technical expertise. A New York University film school graduate, Scorsese is well informed about the possibilities of his medium, and he has e xperimented widely in his work. - A fifth quality is that a Scorsese film typically features an interesting selection of music. His musical choices for each film are a significant artistic feature. - A sixth quality is that a Scorsese film includes humor. Even in his most serious films, there are funny scenes. - A seventh quality is that Scorsese's films contain violence, physical and often psychological as well. - Finally, a Scorsese film is more often than not a version of a revisionist genre.

[] []

__**Raging Bull Film Analysis: **__

//Raging Bull// (1980) is a film biographical sports drama by Martin Scorsese. It portrays an Italian American middleweight boxer's, Jake LaMotta's (Robert De Niro), professional as well as personal life. The violence and the rage of Jake is not only limited to the ring, but it also takes the violence to a further level. Jake’s desire to fight slowly eats through him and it makes his personal life almost unbearable to everyone around him. Throughout the movie we see the self-disintegration of a man as he subjects himself to punishment.

The film is about “brute force, anger, and grief”1 and these qualities come together to show a collective theme of solitude, which is depicted through the use of cinematography. The opening scene presents this theme. Jake is alone on the ring, shadow boxing as a dark smoky air seeps into the scene. Scorsese uses his famous slow motion in this opening scene. The camera only depicts Jake in his ring and nothing else. The ropes limit his boundaries and although he seems to be gracefully dancing, the background music is neither happy nor angry, but melancholy. Jake is inevitably confined to his ring and makes boxing his passion. However, his ardor leaves him isolated, as he refuses to see his life beyond the limitation of the rings.

Another motif of the movie would be about men’s self-disintegration. Men’s self-disintegration is shown through colors and the montage inserted in the black and white film. From the statement, “since black-whites are something of a rarity those days”2, it’s improbable that shooting this film black and white derived from technical confinement. This indicates that this director’s choice is a vital part in understanding this film. The black and white film definitely set a dark tone and mood for this film, which continuously brings the motif of dark side of humanity and how a man slowly breaks down. Even the sudden insertion of colors during a montage of days after Jake’s marriage portrays this motif. Although the marriage life seems happy and the color seems to symbolize this gaiety, something seems off and the grainy look makes it seem almost unreal. This illusory montage almost emphasizes Jake’s current situation as the montage stops and goes back to a black and white film.

Jake’s continuing violence and his inability to control it outside the ring integrate the theme of both the solitude and his self-disintegration. As the film goes on, Jake slowly beings to harm people around him and this violence leaves him in isolation. Jake’s treatment of his wife and his brother is very brutal. Scorsese even seems to be emphasizing the violence outside the ring more than that of the violence inside through the use of long shots. Inside the ring, the violence is portrayed through short scenes and rapid cuts, however these long shots outside the ring leaves a greater impression on the audience and shows how he begins to set himself apart from the people he loves.

//Raging Bull // definitely incorporates much of Scorsese's interesting techniques, while still portraying the theme of isolation as well as violence of a man and his self-disintegration. This film was definitely "one of the finest films of all time"3.

1 Ebert, Roger. "Raging Bull :: Rogerebert.com :: Reviews." RSS. Robertebert.com, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2013. []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2 Raymond, Marc. "Martin Scorsese." Senses of Cinema RSS. Film Victoria Australia, May 2002. Web. 06 Apr. 2013. [|http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/scorsese/#web] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3 Hayes, Kevin J. "Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull." Cambridge University Press. Cambridge University Press, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2013. http://www.cambridge.org/cn/knowledge/isbn/item1150776/Martin%20Scorsese's%20Raging%20Bull/?site_locale=zh_CN

__** The Aviator Film Analysis: **__

Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a millionaire from the start of the movie. It seems that there are almost no obstacle for this man that goes spending his money everywhere and anywhere in order to accomplish his “ambition” of making a war movie. However, the audience sees that, as the movie progresses, the conflict comes less from the outside than from the inside. Hughes’ mental illness, OCD, makes him almost delusional to the point that he can’t function in society. Hughes was born a man with wealth and this privilege allowed him to reject “contamination”, which worsened his flaw. He wanted to, as stated in the last scene, “Fly the fastest planes, make the biggest movies, and be the richest man in the world.”1 However, what he really seems to needs be comfort and to move away from the society that had made him a lunatic, but he isn't able to obtain that. This movie is about “the decline, not the ascent, of man”2 and it depicts a motif of the tragedy of being wealthy. One of the most alarming scenes in the movie was during the first time the audience see Hughes on the verge of lunacy. After his success as an Aviator as well as a successful movie producer, signs of his OCD begin to show up. When his girlfriend, Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) declares that she can’t take it anymore and leaves, Hughes is almost “engulfed” in madness. He declares blatantly that Hepburn shouldn’t be announcing things such as “breaking” up to him, because she is a mere movie star and he is a man of power, wealth, and fortune.

Mise-En-Scene: As Hughes burns all the clothes that could have been “contaminated” by Hepburn, the audience sees the fiery red color of the fire glimmering on the screen. This shows the outrageousness of Hughes action as he even takes off his own clothes. The constant flickering gives the audience almost an overwhelming feeling that foreshadows Hughes’ decent. Also, the audience sees that it’s at “his” home that he burns all “his” possession and so the audience can realize that it’s his life that he will be endanger. Hughes himself will eventually come to destroy himself. His wealth and possession are all burnt, because he himself discards them.

Editing: When Hughes burns all his clothes, he has no more clothes to wear and asks his assistant, Noah, to buy him a pair of clothes in the middle of the night. Scorsese uses a split screen, but the fire is almost flowing onto the other side of the screen. Contrasted with the calm black scene of the assistant to that of Hughes, we can not only see the difference between a common person but also that he would invade the lives of people that are close to him and make them suffer too. His wealth had inevitably made him a very solitary man, without anyone companion. His descent is clearly shown through this technique.

Cinematography: The shot that Scorsese uses in this scene is a worm’s eyes view. The audience is looking up at Hughes as he burns all his clothes as well as what he is wearing. The worm’s eyes view gives the audience an overwhelming sense of insanity, because we see the irrational behavior Hughes seems to conduct. The power of the man seemed to lead him into a path of tragic regression.

Lighting: The lighting was incredible for this film, as the biggest light source was the fire that was burning all Hughes’ clothes. This light source helped define the bright side and the dark side of the face and allowed the audience to see a huge contrast in the shadows of the face. This seemed to portray the duality of Howard Hughes as a successful wealthy man and as a man on the verge of lunacy.

Sound:

The audience hears a jazzy, almost comical sound that contrasts the seriousness of the scene. The comical jazzy music in the background seems to stand for the bitter comedy of life as a man that seemed to have everything: women, money, and look, slowly becomes someone shunned by society.

__**Taxi Driver Film Analysis:**__
Martin Scorsese's Director Style:

1. <range type="comment" id="425308014_1">Martin Scorsese frequently uses slow motion and it is shown severals times in the //Taxi Driver//. This approach gives the city a mood that seems to distance the real world from the world presented through the slow motion. Martin Scorsese intentionally tries to bring in the audience as we see the streets of New York city in the perspective of a man that considers the streets to be filled with "scums of the earth". The color becomes more vivid and contrasts with the night and gives the city a saturated look; this brings out a harsh sentiment to the scene and portrays the uneasy life of the protagonist. </range id="425308014_1">

2. Martin Scorsese also uses long trac<range type="comment" id="425308014_2">king shots during </range id="425308014_2">this film. It illustrates how the world views of the taxi driver that had "beat gangsters" and returned a lost girl back to her home. The long tracking shot gives this scene a subtle sense of peace again after the crazy shooting scenes the audience had just encountered. It almost seem to question the fact that the shootout had happened, but the audience knows that it happened through the newspaper articles hung upon the wall.

3. The female protagonist is portrayed in an angelic form. In order to portray this Martin Scorsese makes the female protagonist appear in slow motion wearing a white dress. <range type="comment" id="425308014_3">Also, there is a lot of frontal lighting on the female protagonist</range id="425308014_3">. This is also shown in //Taxi Driver//. The female protagonist is showed in slow motion with a lot of frontal lighting, which seems to depict how the protagonist view the female protagonist. The angelic form of the female protagonist seems to portray that the protagonist has fallen in love.

4. There are frequent uses of extreme close ups of protagonists that takes place in Martin Scorsese's film. These close shots give intimacy with the protagonist and seems to highlight the psychology of the protagonist.

5<range type="comment" id="425308014_4">. Also, there are a lot of extreme close ups of objects in Scorsese's film, and this is shown in several instances in this film. This severe close up of the objects seems to increase tension in Taxi Driver and highlights the psychological trance the protagonist falls into. </range id="425308014_4">

6. The color is usually very dark and gloomy, because Martin Scorsese's movie isn't about romance or comedy, and in //Taxi Driver// this feature is especially prominent. The protagonist's work as a night shift //Taxi Driver// plays a huge part in the overall "dark"ness of the film.

7. Like most of Martin Scorsese's films, this film consists of a lot of fades/ dissolve editing techniques. This technique conveys the similar effect as the slow motion does, because it seems to convey a world that seems set apart and the time seems to emphasize the violence that's being shown on screen.

8. The camera height is usually very "leveled" and it doesn't have a lot of bird's eyes view or worm's eye view. The height is usually in the perspective of the protagonist. This sets the audience into the perspective of the protagonist and helps the audience understand the mind set of the protagonist.

9. There are a lot of wide shots/establishing shots that establish the setting of the film. Most of Martin Scorsese's film is filmed in New York and this establishing shot sets the scene for the films as it does in the //Taxi Driver//.

10. There aren't a lot of extremely dramatic music used in most of Martin Scorsese's films and in this film, the notable music was a background music that calmly played throughout the first and last scene of the movie. This music seems to emphasize the violence on screen.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">that your director would be known for || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Example || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Film || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How can you emulate this in your film? ||
 * || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Techniques & Iconic Examples
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cinematography || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Long tracking Shots || When Henry goes into the club through the back door. ||  || I will use a long tracking that portrays the protagonist going through the convenient store aisle to aisle. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Editing || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Slow Motion || In Raging Bull during the boxing scenes and in Taxi Driver during the first scene. ||  || I am thinking of using slow motion on a wide shot when the protagonist walks towards the store. Also I will be using slow motion during the act of violence. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lighting || Backlighting || In The Aviator when Leonardo Di Caprio is sitting inside the reeling room (?) by himself. ||  || I'm not sure about this, but I'm thinking of making the final scene with interesting lighting. Especially because it's going to be shot inside the elevator. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sound || Songs that he incorporates in his scenes are usually during violent scenes and contrasts the mood || During Goodfellas or any other movie for that matter. ||  || I w<range type="comment" id="431141322_1">ant to use the same musics he used in his film to incorpor</range id="431141322_1">ate into my film. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mise-en-scene || City || In most of his films, he takes the liberty to make the scenes like New york city or actually shoots the scene in New yrok city. ||  || I will use the shanghai city life that will be portrayed at the first part of the movie. Also, the setting will be at a sketchy convenient store that reflects the rough and gritty look portrayed in Scorsese's films. ||
 * Editing || Jump Cuts || Jump Cuts are also frequently used to show violence in his films and a great example would be of the jump cuts used during the boxing scenes in Raging Bull. ||  || The jump cuts will be used when the protagonist beats the thief. This will portray the violent more effectively when it is used together with slow motion. ||
 * Cinematography || Close Ups || In most of his films, he uses close ups to show the psychology of the protagonist. For example, in The Aviator there is an extreme close up during the end of the film of Leonardo Di Caprio. ||  || A lot of close ups are going to used during my film and one of the close ups that is going to be used is at the final scene when the protagonist mentally breaks down. ||
 * Performance ||  ||   ||   || I am planning to use my younger sister (although she doesn't really look like me), because it is a film about "my memory". ||
 * Theme || Disintegration of a man through violence || Martin Scorsese tries to tell that young people tend to go overboard, because of the "adrenaline". He tries to show that people can go overboard, and the consequences that follows the abrupt act. ||  || Through the process of making a mistake and realizing the mistakes, the protagonist will have a mental breakdown at the end of the film. It will portray that being abrupt and impulsive might not be the best way to look at a problem. ||
 * Performance || Dialogue || Martin Scorsese often uses terse dialogue that defines his films. ||  || I will use terse and succinct dialogue that reflects the style of Martin Scorsese. ||

__**Goodfellas Analysis:**__

Plot: Henry wants to be a insider and be "somebody". He admires the gangsters and becomes one. Theme: Henry needs to realize what violence and crime will afford him.

This theme correlates with most of Martin Scorsese's other films, because it depicts a life story of a man and how he "loses it" during the progression of the story. The theme of violence and crime that will lead to "results" and the self-disintegration of a man is prevalent in all his films.


 * 1) The first scene of the film is really interesting, because later on the audience gets to know that there was a time leap. This scene starts as a closeup on Henry, Tommy, and Jimmy in a car that holds a dead person. It sets the stage for the film, because the audience can see the violence and crime that the three men had committed. And, we can expect that there would be consequences that will follow upon the act.
 * 2) The inciting incident is when young Henry starts working for the cabstand across the street from his house. This inciting incident leads Henry to the mafia world and officially begins to indicate Henry's interest and knack in becoming a "gangster".
 * 3) Henry begins to illegally sell cigarettes and he becomes pretty good at it. However, the balance is upset when Henry gets picked up by the cops. He goes in trial and when he is on trial in the courtroom, he remains silent and does not rat anyone out.
 * 4) When Henry gets realsed he is praised by the mafia members and is officially taken in as "one of them". This takes Henry into a new world of being a gangster and he enjoys the life of cutting lines.
 * 5) <range type="comment" id="425308014_6">A new character that rises to, in the end, indict restrictions upon Henry's so called gangster life is Karen. Henry at first doesn't get along with her well, but in the end falls in love with her. Henry wants to be lead a gangster life and wishes to continue his lifestyle, but after he gets married, he can't live the life he used to live as a gangster, which sparks a conflict between him and Karen. </range id="425308014_6">
 * 6) There are several conflicts that raises the stake and once Henry even goes to the "jail" for his crimes. Henry is cheating on Karen and there is a huge emotional scene between Henry and Karen as Karen tries to shoot Henry, but Henry knows she can't/
 * 7) The midpoint of the movie would be when Tommy kills a "made man". This begins Jimmy, Henry, and Tommy's assisted murder that eventually leads to "consequences".
 * 8) The conflict rises from Tommy's assassination of the "made man" and when everything seems to go "right", Tommy gets killed by the people that had a grudge against him for killing the "made man".
 * 9) Henry and Karen (along with the help of several others) tries to pull off an enormous drug deal. They began to make the drugs and action starts rolling.
 * 10) Henry gets caught and this time he doesn't have a "way out". The gang is falling apart and everything is going haywire. Henry gets turned his back on.
 * 11) This part is the climax when Henry realizes that he wants to til be the gangster he is, but then he would have to go to jail for that and become arrested. Henry needs to turn everyone in and go to a refugee, but he wants to be the mobster he was.
 * 12) Henry rats out all the other members of the mafia who had been involved in the drug deal and asks for protection. He runs away with Karen and his family to live a normal life.
 * 13) In the end, Henry becomes the "normal" person he didn't every wanted to be. He became a member of the mafia, because he didn't want to be that person who waited in line. But in the end he became exactly that.



__**Mean Streets Analysis:**__

The film, // Mean Streets // by Martin Scorsese, reflects several thematic and stylistic motifs that fit in with Martin Scorsese’s body of work. The film is about a young Italian-American man, Charlie (Harvey Keitel) that tries to climb up the ladders to become a mafia, but is pulled down by his feeling of responsibility towards his friend, Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro). Like most of his other movies, this movie is constitutes violence that shows the gritty, roughed up and ugly aspect of the city life as a mafia. <range type="comment" id="427369750_1">The audience is once again engaged in his film through the slow motion and long shots that he uses to depict the nitty-gritty life of the men and their disintegration. Also, similar to most of his other films, he uses a narrative that takes the audience into the mind of the protagonist.</range id="427369750_1"> Throughout the film Martin Scorsese constantly tries to connect the protagonist with the audience. These elements all illustrate Martin Scorsese’s theme/motif throughout his body of work of <range type="comment" id="427369750_2">a sense of violence and it’s affect on the lives of the protagonists.</range id="427369750_2"> However, he doesn’t depict it as if the protagonists live in different world; he tries to depict as close to reality as possible.

//Raging Bull//
 * The Opening Credits: This scene is one of the most beautiful scene that incorporates Martin Scorsese's stylistic elements. La Motta dances around the ring in slow motion as the powerful intermezzo from the opera 'Cavaleria rusticana' plays in the background, conveying a beautiful yet melancholy mood. The scene foreshadows La Motta's, standing by himself constraint to the limitation of the ring, pain and self-destruction. [[image:RB OPENING SCENE.jpg width="511" height="383"]]
 * The Boxing Scenes: The boxing scene is constantly brought up throughout the film. Most of the time, the scene incorporates slow motion that emphasizes the violence that takes place inside the ring. Moreover, the boxing scenes are juxtaposed with the life of La Motta to make a more effective scene, which highlights the violence that slowly seeps through the ring into his personal life. It's interesting to see a fight scene that isn't portrayed as violent as most other violent movies, but seems nonetheless violent and harmful to the protagonist. The slow music and the slow motion seems to l<range type="comment" id="427369750_3">essen the violence</range id="427369750_3">, but also make it intimidating and menacing. [[image:RB BOXING SCENES.jpg width="509" height="262"]]

The Aviator
 * The Hermit Scene: This scene uses many thematic techniques that highlight the disintegration of Howard Hughes. The unsettling lighting (portrayed through the projector in the film) depicts Howard's unsettling psychology and it is used as a backlight that highlights the figures of Howard Hughes. His nakedness illustrates Howard's insanity and his obsession with being clean. This scene seems almost vital to the portrayal of Howard Hughes and his most vulnerable point in the film. The scene is shot from a worm's eyes view that depicts a false sense of power and it indicates the world that Howard pretends to live in. These elements make up one of The Aviator's best scenes.
 * The Final Scene: The final scene is when Howard Hughes is left alone in a room that indicates the worsening of Howard's mental illness. The totally dark background highlights Howard Hughes as a close up of his face is shown to see his psychological disorder. Even though this scene seems much like the other close up of Howard, the scene indicates more than that. The scene foreshadows the worsening of Howard's illness and it predicts his future as an aviator.

Taxi Driver
 * The Mirror Scene: This scene is a iconic scene in Taxi Driver, where Robert De Niro stares into a mirror, as he rehearses several quotes with a hidden gun. The audience gets to see Robert De Niro's darker-self as he imitate "shooting" people. It's ironic how Travis Bickle was always against people that were the "scum of the city" and thought that they should be cleaned off,<range type="comment" id="427369750_4"> but he instead becomes one during this scene.</range id="427369750_4">
 * The Final Scene: The long tracking shot in the final scene is one of the most famous scenes in the history of Martin Scorsese's films. After Travis Bickle take it upon himself to save a teen prostitute, the camera on the ceiling pans the aftermath of the violence that had taken place. The slow tracking shot depicts the violence in order to give the audience a time to think over again about the violence. Was is justifiable that Travis attempted murder in order to save the teen prostitute or was the violence more than about saving the teen prostitute, because the violence was so overwhelming.

Goodfellas
 * The Club Scene: This famous tracking shot is the legendary one-take stroll through The Copacabana Kitchen to skip the line outside, and impress his date, glorifies the lifestyle of being a mafia. It shows the glamourous life of being a mafia, but by the end of the film one realizes that Martin Scorsese tried to glamorize this shot inorder to indicate the fall of Henry and why it was so hard for Henry to give up this life.
 * The Burying Scene: This scene is full of red and black. By that I mean the color scheme of the film is definite and it depicts the lunacy of the act that is depicted in the film. The gangsters that are burying the body is portrayed through an outline of black in order to illustrate the gruesome act on its own. It's a spectacular use of lighting that made up this beautiful scene that depicts a violent act of a mafia.

Mean Streets
 * The Bar Scene: This scene is one of the first scenes to start the film and Martin Scorsese uses one of his most profoundly used technique: slow motion. Through this scene, Scorsese introduces us Johnny Boy from the perspective of the protagonist. The slow motion and the voice over are all Scorsese's technique that he uses in order to depict the life of being a mafia and living in the city as a "scum". It emphasizes whatever is on screen and highlights the characteristics of it, as this scene highlights Johnny Boy (because he becomes an important part in the outcome of the film).
 * The Fight Scene: The fight scene is iconic, because it illustrates the unsettling mind (or a "fucked up mind", as stated in the movie) of Johnny Boy and his potentiality of violence. This scene uses jump cuts (that are not usual Martin Scorsese-Style) that effectively illustrate the violence going on in the film and it's very interesting because although it looks like any other fight scene in any other movies, it holds a value in that it goes against Martin Scorsese's style of choice. This jump cut seems to lessen the violence shown on screen, unlike the rest of his violent scene, and can be depicted as an interesting moment.


 * Director Script**