Free A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Essay Sample
Which genre of film (Western, Gangster Film, and Musical) did you find most interesting?
Support your choice by citing details from the documentary that strengthened your interest in that genre.
1.Western movies are movies that are filled with deep emotions and are very thrilling. ‘The futures’ is one search example of a movie with emotions running high. A young woman’s lover is about to be executed and her father who has the authority to stop the execution will not do so unless his daughter begs for his forgiveness. The musicals offer the viewers with an opportunity to view musicals from one eye: the camera. The directors therefore had to invest heavily in cameras in order to capture every movement. Howard hocks one of the greatest names in behind the camera scene once said there is no thrill without danger and this was a notion that was heavily adopted in American gangster films. This was my favorite of the three choices between a western movie, a musical and the gangster films. The movies did not hesitate to depict “gangsterism” for what it is: a crime. These movies brought the Al-capone character to life, a character that still find himself in today’s modern movies. At the time of the release of these movies, America experienced an upsurge in the viewership of violent movies perhaps this can be attributed to the tension that was present due to the First World War and the reckless abandon that characterized these movies which was attractive and funny. These same attributes made the movie so appealing. The climax of the gangster film and the al time favorite was the movie “The roaring twenties” which was a chronicle of a war hero who became a bootlegger after the stock market crashed and ended with his tragic death as a nobody. The most interesting aspect of the gangster films is the ability to redefine the role of a gangster from the gun- trotting youth to the handsome man who seemed indestructible and eventually after world war two, to the business mogul who ran corporations.
2. Which role of the director (Illusionist, Smuggler, and Iconoclast) did you find most interesting or compelling? Support your choice by citing significant details from the documentary.
In the illusionist, there was a great use of color in different perspective to bring out different aspects of the film. The images that the directors wished to portray were intentionally distorted by the use of color. In a rather unusual decision outcast were represented in bright colors sometimes even pure white. The most striking genre of the three was the iconoclast because of his adaptation of the real life events at the time. Some of the movies were so compelling that they led to changes in the real world. It was interesting how the directors crated movies where the characters represented the feelings of the entire country; for example, in hells highway a convicted bank robber was once a war hero. ‘Wild boys of the road’ is another film that was not just a film for entertainment purposes but also a reflection of the current situation of the country.
It was a story of boys in the road whose parents had lost their jobs; this same situation reverberated throughout the country as this film was in the period of depression. In the 1960’s the production code was almost obsolete. The production code was so stringent that the scene of a person getting hit by a car could not be put in the same frame as that of a person getting shot; however, this was about to change as the pictures got bloodier and bloodier. The production code had been implemented so as not to instill violent behavior among the youth. The directors argued that the pictures shown on Television news was more graphic than those shown by the motion pictures since this was the period of the Vietnamese war. “Bonnie and Clyde” was one of the first films to take advantage of the now obsolete production code. “Barry Lindon” is a movie set in 18th century London about an officer who left the army and was in search of love. The directors had special lenses made to to capture the glow of the candles in the countess’ aristocratic home. The movies uses slow movements coupled with slow but rhythmic movements in the background to give the viewer the total effect of the emotions of the characters.
3. Which movie that Scorsese discusses would you most like to watch? Support your choice by citing Scorsese’s comments, film clips, and other details from the documentary.
Scorsese admits that the movies made prior to the 1960’s were a very different from those that he
and his colleagues make in the contemporary world. ‘America America’ is a movie about immigrants from a foreign land to America that Scorsesse greatly identifies with as he sees himself as having made a journey from his neighborhood into movie making; however, a letter from an unknown woman is the movie that appealed to me most, it is adapted from a novella.
The story line as captivating but not as captivating as the illusions. The story is about a journey that does not actually take place, as the train is not moving in the real sense just the changing backgrounds. The classic romance story appeals to and the almost perfect movements of the camera allows the viewer to feel every emotion that the character experiences. The illusive nature of Stephan as a lover makes him unattainable even to the young girl who is deeply on love with him.