I consider Mean Streets and The Age of Innocence under-acknowledged gems. The Age of Innocence has no violence and bloodletting, but it is quietly powerful. The last scene in the film is film-making at its finest.
I think I have seen all of the non-dcoumentaries, except Silence. I didn't much care for Gangs of New York, The aviator , Bringing out the dead or Shutter Island, and love most of the rest, or at least like them a lot. You left out a huge favorite of mine: the King of Comedy (and thanks for reminding me of After Hours, which I haven't seen for a long time).
I think Raging Bull is....a masterpiece. As close to a perfect movie (whatever that means) as I've ever seen.
Pretty amazing that he could make Taxi Driver AND Hugo (utterly delightful).
I remember when Taxi driver opened in boston...I'd taken a year off from school, and was driving a cab. So of course I HAD to see Taxi Driver (which I thought was going to be a comedy). I had a Blind date for that movie. I managed to lose my ticket in the lobby before going in (at the old Cheri cinema, I'd forgotten about that one!). I liked the movie a lot, but it really upset my date. Over 40 years ago, I still remember that disastrous night. But: I saw a movie that I saw many times again over the years (I think I finally burned it out, though). Fantastic score too, by Bernard Herman.
A possibly interesting anecdote about working on "Raging Bull" in the spring of 1979. The first day of shooting took place at the Olympic Auditorium in downtown LA. There were hundreds of extras dressed in period 1940s clothing, special effects men filling the boxing arena with simulated cigarette smoke and a huge Chapman crane squeezed in to shoot some dynamic, swooping camera shots. On a film of this size and profile, they often wanted to start off with a bang. The first day consisted of staging a half dozen elaborate shots of Robert DeNiro (as Jake LaMotta) pummeling a real-life boxer, Floyd Anderson (as Jimmy Reeves). Each shot had been story boarded by Scorsese himself and, unlike the "Rocky" films from the same producers, were designed to be shot with a single camera. Every move was carefully and elaborately choreographed. But then something went drastically wrong. Technicolor had been contracted to develop the negative and strike a dailies print. But someone at the lab, even though they had been fully alerted, took the exposed BLACK & WHITE negative and mistakenly processed it in a COLOR developing bath. Thus, the entire days' work, involving tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of people, was lost. After one day of shooting, we were already one complete day behind schedule. They never did restage most of what we shot that first day, probably because it was too expensive, so those swooping camera moves only exist in the memories of those who happened to be there. I was one of them, the assistant cameraman who took the film (in a darkroom) out of the Eastmancolor cans and loaded it into Arriflex BL magazines and later put the exposed film back into the cans for delivery to Technicolor. So, I had a front row seat to the entire debacle!
During my initial fall into the glorious swoop of becoming an obsessive cinephile, I fell under the magical and sharp spell of 70’s American cinema, and Marty was, and remains, my absolute favorite auteur, despite the surrounding cast of those times (Peckinpah, Altman, Cassavettes, and so many more, never mind the Europeans and Japanese), and I’ve been hooked ever since.
As much as I truly dig the cinematic greatness of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, and yup, The Irishman, it will always be Mean Streets for me. When asked the usual question, “What’s your fave movie”, I usually keep it short—Classic movie, Citizen Kane, Contempo movie, Mean Streets. Been answering with that same answer for some 30 plus years.
Underrated or under praised? I would nominate Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, King of Comedy, New York, New York, After Hours, Last Temptation and Silence. And that’s clipping a few other worthy ones. The mostly first class Docs are a whole other story…
It would be hard to pick one. It's not my favourite but I saw Mean Streets when as a teenager I was interested in gangster movies. I didn't know who Marty was but 30+ years later I remember how it rocked me. I have been following his movies ever since.
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is one of my favorites. What a cast!
I consider Mean Streets and The Age of Innocence under-acknowledged gems. The Age of Innocence has no violence and bloodletting, but it is quietly powerful. The last scene in the film is film-making at its finest.
He is a gem! I'm going on a Marty hunt, looking up the films I haven't seen.
I think I have seen all of the non-dcoumentaries, except Silence. I didn't much care for Gangs of New York, The aviator , Bringing out the dead or Shutter Island, and love most of the rest, or at least like them a lot. You left out a huge favorite of mine: the King of Comedy (and thanks for reminding me of After Hours, which I haven't seen for a long time).
I think Raging Bull is....a masterpiece. As close to a perfect movie (whatever that means) as I've ever seen.
Pretty amazing that he could make Taxi Driver AND Hugo (utterly delightful).
I remember when Taxi driver opened in boston...I'd taken a year off from school, and was driving a cab. So of course I HAD to see Taxi Driver (which I thought was going to be a comedy). I had a Blind date for that movie. I managed to lose my ticket in the lobby before going in (at the old Cheri cinema, I'd forgotten about that one!). I liked the movie a lot, but it really upset my date. Over 40 years ago, I still remember that disastrous night. But: I saw a movie that I saw many times again over the years (I think I finally burned it out, though). Fantastic score too, by Bernard Herman.
A possibly interesting anecdote about working on "Raging Bull" in the spring of 1979. The first day of shooting took place at the Olympic Auditorium in downtown LA. There were hundreds of extras dressed in period 1940s clothing, special effects men filling the boxing arena with simulated cigarette smoke and a huge Chapman crane squeezed in to shoot some dynamic, swooping camera shots. On a film of this size and profile, they often wanted to start off with a bang. The first day consisted of staging a half dozen elaborate shots of Robert DeNiro (as Jake LaMotta) pummeling a real-life boxer, Floyd Anderson (as Jimmy Reeves). Each shot had been story boarded by Scorsese himself and, unlike the "Rocky" films from the same producers, were designed to be shot with a single camera. Every move was carefully and elaborately choreographed. But then something went drastically wrong. Technicolor had been contracted to develop the negative and strike a dailies print. But someone at the lab, even though they had been fully alerted, took the exposed BLACK & WHITE negative and mistakenly processed it in a COLOR developing bath. Thus, the entire days' work, involving tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of people, was lost. After one day of shooting, we were already one complete day behind schedule. They never did restage most of what we shot that first day, probably because it was too expensive, so those swooping camera moves only exist in the memories of those who happened to be there. I was one of them, the assistant cameraman who took the film (in a darkroom) out of the Eastmancolor cans and loaded it into Arriflex BL magazines and later put the exposed film back into the cans for delivery to Technicolor. So, I had a front row seat to the entire debacle!
Without doubt, Taxi Driver was the most riveting movie of his excellent filmography.
During my initial fall into the glorious swoop of becoming an obsessive cinephile, I fell under the magical and sharp spell of 70’s American cinema, and Marty was, and remains, my absolute favorite auteur, despite the surrounding cast of those times (Peckinpah, Altman, Cassavettes, and so many more, never mind the Europeans and Japanese), and I’ve been hooked ever since.
As much as I truly dig the cinematic greatness of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, and yup, The Irishman, it will always be Mean Streets for me. When asked the usual question, “What’s your fave movie”, I usually keep it short—Classic movie, Citizen Kane, Contempo movie, Mean Streets. Been answering with that same answer for some 30 plus years.
Underrated or under praised? I would nominate Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, King of Comedy, New York, New York, After Hours, Last Temptation and Silence. And that’s clipping a few other worthy ones. The mostly first class Docs are a whole other story…
It would be hard to pick one. It's not my favourite but I saw Mean Streets when as a teenager I was interested in gangster movies. I didn't know who Marty was but 30+ years later I remember how it rocked me. I have been following his movies ever since.