Essays on Martin Scorsese

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The Gangster Movie: Questions and Answers

1. VIDEO CLIP 1: Identify two classical conventions of gangster genre (e.g. theme, plot device, character type, and/or stylistic device) present in this image and briefly explain the significance of each one. (2 points) The two classical conventions of Gangster Genre present in the first video are theme and character type. The theme that is being explored in the video clip is the immigrant criminal, who has been left to die in humiliation and as a comic, as required by the Production Code Administration (PCA). The character type is the gangster, who has dark, ethnic ...

Introduction

The cinematic depiction of the cultural criminalization (intersection of crime and society) has been adequately expressed in some renowned films and mostly these films are categorized as ‘Mafia films’. Further, in terms of a significant illustration of the Italian mafia in the American society, two of the most remarkable cinematic works are those of Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’ (1972) and Martin Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’(1990). Both these films have rendered their level best effort in romanticizing the private lives of the Italian mob in America and tries to explain the life of a Mafia with utmost clarity (Sims, " ...

Mean Streets (1973) Martin Scorsese

Introduction

A film is a story or an event that is a set of moving images or motion pictures and is shown in theater or on television. Films always portray different messages in them depending on the subject topic. The message they portray or carry mainly depend on the plot, setting of the movie and the role the different characters take up in the film or movie. The intent of the film is always in the main theme and this is always the beneficial part of the film to the viewers or the consumers (Merritt ...

After the first viewing, the film may look too harsh and cruel .It is interesting that the recognized American playwright Tennessee Williams, who headed the jury in 1976 at the Cannes Film Festival, that awarded "Taxi Driver" with the main prize, lamented the rise violence in society and in the movies. After all, the taxi driver named Travis from New York, a former member of the Vietnam War, who can hardly adapt to a normal life, originally wanted to assassinate a man during political elections, and as a result enjoyed a true "massacre" in a brothel. Screenwriter Paul Schrader ...

Analysis of Vertigo’s opening sequence

The opening sequence of Vertigo is perhaps one of the finest ever seen in all of cinema. It brings about the main character’s fascination with vertigo and here one can observe James Stewart’s phobias and brilliance in portraying the main character which is Scottie who is a private investigator who suffers from agrophobia which is the fear of heights. The title clip was recorded in 1958 with Panavision cameras. The shot chosen focuses on Scottie who is seemingly dreaming and is reflecting on his fear of heights. The shot lasts no longer than 30 seconds and is ...