Post Two

“It is the writer’s screenplay, but the director’s film – get used to it,” William Goldman, screenwriter/author.

One director whose work in whatever genre he may delve into, whether the work is an adaptation or original, has consistently retained his mark as an auteur is Martin Scorsese. Primarily known for crime and gangster films in his early years, he has been able to branch out into tales of sporting redemption (Raging Bull, 1980) and music documentaries (Shine A Light, 2008) while maintaining his own Scorsese-isms regardless.

Film-makers starting out in the business are encourage to write or draw upon things that they are familiar with for inspiration, and certainly Scorsese has carried this maxim with him throughout his career as the recurring themes of violence, redemption, Christian imagery and identity all make regular appearances in his work.

All 4 of these themes appear in Taxi Driver (1976) as De Niro’s Travis Bickle tries to do something with his life upon returning from Vietnam. His frustration at himself and his detachment from people regularly emerges, as there are several voice-over monologues airing his insecurity; (contains swearing from the start)

  

Despite his anger, there is also a hope in some sense of salvation when he says,

“Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets,” which reflects the cleansing power of water due to the connotations with baptism.

From an anti-hero searching for identity, to an anti-hero losing his identity, it can only be Goodfellas (1990), in which Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, a man who grew up with the mob as his family (another recurring theme) and pays for the consequences of his violent actions by having to betray the mob which leads to him becoming,“...an average nobody, I get to live the rest of my life like a shnook.”

A film marked with truly violent scenes, Scorsese manages to give meaning to the violence so it is never just violence for the sake of it, but often to set-up either an atonement or as punishment, a strong reminder of his Catholic faith. As James Senft notes,

“Though the imagery is usually not obvious, religion and Catholicism do play important roles in many of Scorsese's films.”

http://www.millersville.edu/~wstudent/old/RESTORE_FILM/classes/samples/scorsese_sample_paper.php

As already noted, identity is a consistent theme in Scorsese’s work, and he was able to further push himself in exploring this theme in 2010’s Shutter Island, in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character tries to locate a missing prisoner, only for it to be revealed that he in fact is the subject of a huge role-playing exercise to make him come to terms with the fact he killed his wife in a fit of rage. The notion that he has gone through this several times before can be seen to represent a stay in limbo as he refuses to atone for his past sin, tying in again to the religious theme.

However often these themes appear in Scorsese’s work, his skill as a film-maker ensures that they can be presented in a myriad of different ways.