Book Review:
Scorsese by Jim Sangster
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VIRGIN BOOKS 2002
296 pages with 8 pages of photographs |
by Fara Kearnes for scorsesefilms.com
In this comprehensive study of arguably the most controversial and widely respected film directors, author Jim Sangster has written an essential guide to Martin Scorsese. whose master vision and technique is unmatched by any other contemporary filmmaker.
Scorsese covers the work of the legendary director, writer and producer whose films address the nature of violence, identity and cultural influences. This is the director who introduced relentless and unflinching vigilantes (as Taxi Driver became an inspiration for John Hinkley attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan), created the controversy that put Jesus Christ on the cover of Time magazine (the campaigning of religious organizations against The Last Temptation of Christ), offered his ability to create tension beyond an uncomfortable level (Raging Bull, The King of Comedy and After Hours) and showed graphic violence and racism in marginalized society (Mean Streets, Goodfellas, and Casino). His style of editing and incorporation of music and historic movie references are studied and copied by each new generation of directors.
The author gets to the heart of each of the director's films in a methodical and revealing format. The chapters can be read in no particular order yet the book offers more than a standard filmography. The book covers Scorsese's entire film making career, from his student films, It's Not Just You Murray! (1964) and The Big Shave (1967), to his examination of the Italian-American lifestyle in Mean Streets (1973), Italianamerican (1974) and GoodFellas (1990); to the violence in Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), to celebrity obsession in The King of Comedy (1983); to the religious themes of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Kundun (1997), and ends with Scorsese's latest historical epic, Gangs of New York (2002).
Films are presented chronologically and are dealt with indepth, with each individual film analyzed into a number of subcategories such as: 'Trivia'; 'Summary'; 'Deleted Scenes'; 'Production'; 'Who's Who'; 'Quote/Unquote'; 'Themes and Motifs'; 'Controversy'; 'What the Critics Said' and 'Final Anaysis.' Don't be fooled by an initial appearance of formulaic writing: not every subcategory is in every chapter, which means each film can be discovered again by fans who have researched Scorsese's work in fine detail before. Each film chapter is loaded with information which makes this book a sure bet with film students.
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Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver |
Like a good movie reviewer, Sangster absorbs a great deal of the visual image and deconstructs it to a literary translation. In his Final Analysis of Taxi Driver, Sangster writes: "With the grimy streets, seedy nightlife and the menagerie of different characters, some beautiful, some hideous and some just plain weird, it's almost no surprise at all that Travis finds it hard to cope. From the start, a sense of menace pervades every shot. In the opening sequence, the dark, steam-filled streets is suddenly divided by the relentless cheery yellow of a taxi-cab. With an entrance like this, the cab takes on the form of a predator – a huge, squat tiger with one chequer-colored stripe running along its flank, unblinking and deadly."
You may have read of of Sangster's earlier works, the critically acclaimed The Complete Hitchcock. In Scorsese, Jim Sangster again offers a thorough step-by-step companion to the work of a great filmmaker which compiles new insights and not the often repeated quotes and life stories. This is a wonderful reference book from Virgin Books, a company that has made a reputation for producing some of the better film guides available on the market.