Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro posted a widely shared tweet in October 2022 that resurfaced online as Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) rolled out in theaters. Martin Scorsese was the subject of the tweet, and in it, Del Toro said that he would happily shed off years of his own life if it meant increasing the time Scorsese has left in his.
Scorsese’s mortality has been widely discussed throughout the press tour for his latest masterwork, and he acknowledges the topic outright. Now, at age 80, Scorsese has said that he feels like he is running out of time to tell the stories he wants to tell. Throughout his life as a director, he has gifted cinema with over 25 films, and with Killers of the Flower Moon, it is clear that the stories he has left may be the most important and personal films of his career.
As one of the infamous “movie brats” alongside other world-class filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and more, Scorsese played a significant role in shaping what modern American cinema became in the 1970s and 1980s. He made a name for himself by directing some of the most iconic crime films ever made, including Mean Streets (1973), Goodfellas (1990), and Casino (1995). With these films and many others, Scorsese established himself as a filmmaker who understands the importance of presenting stories through the perspective of morally complex — and often despicable —characters.
Often, he takes a bombastic and high-octane approach to telling stories of horrible people doing awful things. Through this stylized approach, audiences often get the wrong idea about the characters in his films. In Goodfellas, people may view Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) as cool and likable because of how exciting and fun their actions are presented. Both characters frequently follow up gruesome murders with some of the wittiest one-liners in cinema history. Although he displays the depraved nature of his characters in an entertaining and comedic way, Scorsese has never tried to portray them as heroes. In fact, he tries to do the complete opposite.
Take, for example, Scorsese’s highest-grossing movie of all time, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), which made $406.9 million in theaters. The character of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) in this film is practically worshipped by many male fans who view the misogynistic and self-destructive debauchery that Belfort and other characters take part in as a fantasy that should be pursued rather than avoided. Scorsese’s true intention with this film — and every single one of his other films that follow smug gangsters or sociopathic taxi drivers — is for people to carry the same amount of contempt for these people that he does.
Accomplishing this effect has always been easier said than done. As a director who understands the significance of showing the atrocious acts that his characters commit, Scorsese also understands the importance of entertaining his viewers in the process. It’s a difficult tightrope to walk, and people would often walk out of his films feeling overwhelmingly entertained but miss the point of Scorsese’s perspective on the characters.
With some of his most recent films like The Irishman (2019) and Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese has taken a drastically different approach to telling his classic crime stories. Both of these films share a common theme of introspection on behalf of the director. In both movies, Scorsese evaluates and deconstructs his legacy as a filmmaker and, in a way, provides a powerful criticism of his storytelling tactics.
The Irishman is about an aged hitman who reflects on his past commitment to murder and a life of crime. These mistakes cast a shadow on him, leaving him with nothing as he approaches death’s door in fear. The film ends with Frank (Robert De Niro) quietly awaiting the end of his life. In his younger years, Frank might have viewed himself as immortal. Towards the end of his life, he has come to terms with his mortality and feels regret.
In Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese tells the story of a vast American crime conspiracy involving the murders of countless Osage Native Americans, mainly through the perspective of the white men who committed the ferocious crimes. When taking into account Scorsese’s past as a filmmaker, this choice makes sense. Here, he portrays these men as the vile beasts that they are, never once presenting them as anything but monsters. In doing so, he demonstrates the greatest possible introspection that any filmmaker can achieve, especially at this stage in his career.
Furthermore, the film concludes with a scene in which the characters get their stories wrapped up through a true-crime radio show recorded live in front of an audience. The people attending the radio show view the story as pure amusement. They see the story of the Osage murders as nothing more than a thrilling form of entertainment, never acknowledging the heartbreak and brutality of the events.
Through this radio show, Scorsese holds a mirror up to not only himself but also to his audience. The way the audience members in the film react to this radio show is exactly how viewers would react to the horrific portrayals of crime and murder in any previous Scorsese film. In Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese pleads with a movie-going audience whose hunger for cinema offers more mindless thrills over substance to wake up and see that they are losing their humanity through their obsession with violence and criminality.
As the film industry continues to change at an unimaginably rapid rate, filmmakers like Scorsese are fighting to preserve the art of moviemaking. Getting original and intimate films made at the studio level becomes more difficult every day. Even as independent distributors like A24 begin to realize that they can’t sustain themselves by solely producing independent dramas, the fight will never end to ensure that future filmmakers will be able to have the same opportunities that Scorsese and the rest of the movie brats were afforded.
In Scorsese’s later years, significant attention has been taken away from his efforts to make sure there is a place in Hollywood for epic dramas like Killers of the Flower Moon once he’s no longer here. Instead, many mainstream media outlets prefer to disrespect his efforts and ambition by drilling him for his opinions about the comic-book movie genre to mine clicks on social media.
In the modern world, film fans take a lot for granted. The amount of time we have left with some of the greatest visionaries ever to pick up a camera is as uncertain as the art form’s future. Especially when taking into consideration the battles that have been raging over the last several months regarding the use of artificial intelligence, it is perhaps more important now than ever to listen to what filmmakers like Scorsese have to say about what they’ve learned over the years and how they envision the future of the industry.
There is nothing I wouldn’t give for journalists to ask Scorsese these questions instead of trying to fuel dissent while disrespecting his legacy. If his latest work is any indication, Scorsese pleads with viewers to listen to what he has to say and grow with him as admirers of cinema.
Article Courtesy of Evan Miller
Feature Image Credit to Apple via CNN
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