Formal Film Study Martin Scorsese

 

I watched a few films that belong to Martin Scorsese, and the movies were called Goodfellas, The Departed, and Gangs of New York. Each of the films have similarities in the style that Scorsese was going for. All of his films were of a historical setting, and the cities used for filming were Boston and New York so the history really shows throughout these films. The genre that Scorsese is really into is Gangster/Crime films, especially in these 3 films, gangsters are portrayed as the main characters in each of the movies. Each of the films have camera shots that give good observations on knowing who each character represents in relation to the gang he belongs to. These films fit into Hollywood because of some of the gory killings that involves blood and features on people's faces and bodies that shows a lot of violence throughout the film. What makes Scorsese different from other directors is what his choice in genre usually is such as gangster films. His films are also usually big time budget films. A lot of the sound effects come in to play when there are fights or battles going on between gangs especially in Gangs of New York in the beginning and at the end of the movie. The cinematography really shows the time in history of when these films take place and based on the design of some of the transportation used and the way everything looks in comparison to the present. The films did not have much in the ways of politics. It basically went for showing what a group of people in society who were loyal to each other and that you see what life is like through another person  living in a different time period and a different city too. The gangs in each film have a historical connection to the time period when and where the film was taken place.

The shots that Scorsese goes for definitely involves a lot of people shown at one time. When the standoff between the Nativists and the Dead rabbits in Gangs of New York really showed how powerful the scene was showing through the intensity between the two sides and  they organize the battles just like the Civil War, which happened 10 years after these gangs were around. There were a lot of scenes where it showed characters from a far view in the camera and it gave you a look into what the setting is when an important scene is taken place. The editing in each of the films showed how people acted in certain areas of the country. Like in The Departed, it was filmed in Boston, so the Irish Mafia had everyone with an East Coast accent and so was everyone that was a part of the Police Department. The Goodfellas went for the accents as well, since they were Italian and in the Mafia they talked like they were a part of it, and in Gangs of New York, it seemed like they were all talking in some type of old English style and it was taking place around 150 years ago.

My main discovery that I had on Scorsese was his use of violence. Throughout each film Scorsese did a nice job showing what the reputation of gangsters usually are and that violence always will be around if there are gangs. A lot of scenes taken place during the films, involved showing people being beaten for not doing their deeds that they have to do for the gangs, and it ends up being ugly in the end for those people. Martin Scorsese is an Italian director, so he would go for the style that he knows best and through movies like Goodfellas, the mafia really shows a lot of power and violence and it shows to viewers what full blood Italians were like even back in the 50s. These films show a lot on gangs and what the message is about being a gangster and this is shown through conversations between them and usually seeing one put a hit on someone was very common throughout these films.

I also felt that in two of the films the main character, is also the narrator of the story as well. It may not be a noticeable component that Scorsese uses but, it gives a perspective from a viewer believing that the narrators are used as storytellers on history that they were a part of.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/goodfellas/Film?oid=1065908

This was a post made by a critic on rotten tomatoes saying based on the narrative fluidity of Goodfellas that was  probably the best film Scorsese has ever directed. Just as I said about the component on narration in two of the films, the organization on the story of the mafia in New York really showed when a kid such as Henry Hill went from being an innocent young kid to becoming an inside man of the mafia. He tells the story himself and doing that really gave people a lot to learn on the mafia's history. Plus Scorsese used Italian actors for these roles, such as Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, and Ray Liotta, and so of course the film was a success because of the storyline and the actors relations to that story worked perfectly.

Lastly, the reason why Scorsese was such a big success in Hollywood, was for some of the films and giving historical perspectives on people and what was big during these periods. I would call Scorsese an auteur director since the films messages are brought up through the ideas and imagination of Scorsese. For these three films, you could tell they had similarities in each of the films, and Scorsese is known for making violent films but also other genres such as Hugo an animated film, which is not similar to these 3 films. He does not go for one genre, he is capable of making many films that are very different in meaning, which makes him one of the best directors of all time.



 

1935 Movie Project

Our film The Beautiful Disaster, has the cast consisting of some very famous actors/actress who were known for being in screwball comedy, and Jean Arthur and the Three Stooges were the perfect lead and supporting roles for the film. Its starts off with Jean Arthur who is this young and very attractive supermodel who is getting all the attention and popularity that any person would want. The only problem is even though she is relatively successful, she does not like the outcomes of being a model and having people crowd up and take pictures of her all the time, which freaks her out a bit. She is a bachelorette and all she wants for her at this point is a lover who can help with her issues of having so much popularity. She lives in a penthouse in the middle of Manhattan and she has so much room but no one to share it with. That is when the Stooges come in as three brothers who are all known to be a bunch of knuckleheads that do construction work for the apartment building that Arthur lives in and they own property on the bottom floor. The part where the three meet Jean is when they are window washing near the top by the penthouse and they find out who this women is that they see all alone, and then they fight over who gets to meet her first. Throughout the whole movie the 3 stooges fall in love with her and so they do what they do best, and that is knocking each other around until one wins the love of Jean Arthur. The message I am trying to get across is that this is an escapist entertainment that is meant to entertain those that need something to get their mind off what is happening with the struggle from the depression. This film tries to get people to laugh out loud and also to bring more attention to screwball comedy.

The reason we chose screwball comedy is because of the depression that the country is going through. No genre is better to use during this time then comedy itself. Especially with the cast we used for this film, it makes sense to use these people because of their skills as comedians and bringing into the movie, these four are known best for making people laugh, so no one else seemed like better candidates. When you have three guys known for knocking each other around and you put that in a movie where they fight over a girl, then it makes the perfect screwball comedy.

Columbia was the best studio for this since it had Frank Capra involved in a lot of their films, plus we chose him for the director. Columbia says that their trademark is screwball comedy, so there is with no doubt that they work best for this type of genre. The movie itself will be one of the big time budget films even though they are a smaller studio, they have these four playing in this movie, so it should be relatively popular. Comedy is big around this time and making this a big budget movie should get the attention of a lot of people too.

The cast and crew is perfect for this film and Frank Capra our director, had a movie the year before called It Happened One Night and the genre was screwball comedy and also the first movie to win the five major Oscar awards( best director, best picture, screenplay, best leading role, supporting role). Jean Arthur and the Stooges were up and coming in comedy films. The Three Stooges who are playing the supporting roles came out with their show a year ago and became big time stars right away. Jean Arthur playing the lead role is said to be the face of women in comedy, without her screwball comedy is not the same. The focus of the film is on the editing, to make the characters lines as funny as possible and no one does it better than Gene Havlick who worked along with Capra in the screwball comedy that one the five major awards for the Oscars. So it made perfect sense to make him the editor.

The Hays code only affected a few of the scenes in the movie. The kissing scenes are only supposed to be going on for a few seconds, and not too much violence especially between the Stooges. The technology involved in this film is the black and white color and we chose this to be a sound film and not a silent, since the silent film era was at the end of its time and the sound era was starting to become very popular.

I disagreed with some of the actors that the other group members wanted to use since the story I was creating did not have a good connection with the people they brought up. If I was to work alone, I would have came up with a different title of the movie and also add a little more color to the poster.