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Example research essay topic: Age Of Innocence Martin Scorsese - 1,739 words

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... theme by Martin Scorsese. According to () has done more to demythologize organized crime than any other major contemporary film, while cementing its makers reputation as, arguably, Americas greatest director still living and working at the end of the twentieth century. GoodFellas was based on Nicholas Pileggis 1985 bestseller, Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, which recounted the true story of Henry Hill. A low-level mobster who rose up through the ranks, Hill was involved in the biggest cash robbery in Americas history, was caught dealing cocaine, turned States evidence, and entered the Federal Witness Protection Program.

Behind its glossy and absorbing gangster-thriller surface, the film offered an unvarnished account of Mafia brutality that came to set a standard - seldom achieved since - for the moral focus of serious crime films, and illuminated public understanding of the culture in which organized crime flourishes. Set in Scorsese's home ground of New York City, whose underbelly he had so successfully exploited in many of his films, including the early Mean Streets and the Taxi Driver, GoodFellas marked the climactic contribution to the directors cycle of underworld subjects, and the one to which he successfully brought an epic approach. His by now practiced craft and brilliantly individual brand of expressionistic realism imbued GoodFellas with black comedy, often memorably ironic, sharp social observation, and scenes of deeply shocking but never gratuitous violence (). The film is very long, but absolutely enthralls in its unfolding of a tale in which audiences watch the young lad Hill grow to manhood in the Mafia, and was lent further power by a large cast that, as British critic Max Loppert wrote, was a galaxy of New York character acting at its athletic, up-front best (). During all the film, main heroes were portraying, articulating a world of men whose daily business embraces every known felony from arson and extortion through dealing in drugs and firearms to cold-blooded killing in the pursuit of money and power. Hill was an insider who remained outside; although he was involved in the mobs scams, thefts, and murders, he was half-Irish and half-Sicilian, and only thoroughbred Sicilians could become made men within the Mafia.

While the book, which was the primary source for the movie, dealt with the facts of the case, Scorsese puts flesh on the bones by making choices as to what he includes and how he treats it (). The book, for example, detailed the 1978 theft of six million dollars from a Lufthansa cargo at Kennedy Airport, but where a lesser director would show the theft in all its detail, Scorsese shrewdly omits it entirely; his concern is with the lives of the perpetrators and how they are affected in the aftermath of the operation. The haul is so huge that a number of them, though warned to lie low, start living extravagantly, thus worrying Jimmy Conway that their behavior will tip off the cops. He deals with their indiscretion by having each of them - some ten in all - killed, fully aware that their elimination will bring the added advantage of increasing his own percentage of the take. This expert and imaginative ability of director to transpose and select creates dramatic juxtapositions from the start (). Pileggis's book began with Hill describing his childhood, lived across the street from a cab stand controlled by the mob.

He reveals how he was attracted by the apparent glamour of the mobsters lives, admiring them for their power and wealth so that, from the age of 12, his dream was to be one of them (). By contrast, GoodFellas opens midway through the story, with the adult Henry driving along a deserted road at night, accompanied by Jimmy and Tommy. He hears a strange thumping sound, speculates on its cause (a flat? Did he hit something? ), and they pull over to investigate. The three men climb out, circle to the back of the car, and Henry opens the trunk to reveal a beaten and bloody cohort who, to their collective astonishment, is still breathing.

Tommy lunges forward with a huge knife and brutally stabs him, after which Jimmy pumps four bullets into him. As the stunned Henry moves to close the trunk, he says in voice over, As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster (). The story then flashes back to Henry's formative years across from that cab stand, his first youthful errands for the mob, and his meeting of Jimmy and Tommy. In a now classic scene, Tommy is first spotted telling an anecdote that has his fellow mobsters in stitches and Henry saying, Youre funny. Tommy suddenly becomes threateningly confrontational.

Funny how? ... I mean funny like Im a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? The tension builds until Henry finally realizes that Tommy is putting him on, and everyone laughs. From then on, whenever Tommy starts down the same confrontational road with someone else, audiences are lulled into thinking hes kidding again, so that his eventual explosion into uncompromisingly bloody violence is all the more shocking.

The film moves at a dazzlingly fast but perfectly controlled pace, its imagery enhanced by freeze-frames, jump-cuts, continuous takes, voice-overs, and on-screen date-and-place information that emphasizes its biographical origins. The style of Scorsese is everywhere in the film. He is sometimes the main hero (). Unlike the book, which ends with Henry purporting to be happily ensconced in the Witness Protection Program, the movie ends with a distraught Henry trapped in suburbia. As he picks up the morning paper from the front porch of a row of identical houses, he says in voice over, Im an average nobody.

I get to live the rest of my life as a schnook. In the year of 1993 Scorsese undertook another different step in his style. There is still no explanation both from critics and director why Scorsese decided to make Age of Innocence, a completely different one from other his movies. There is even weird sounding between, for instance, Raging Bull and Age of Innocence. The difference in directing styles is also very significant. This is another Scorsese: more sensitive, slow, and even a little nostalgic.

It is difficult to say what impacted Scorsese choice. It can be a quest for inspiration, or his recent divorce with Barbara De Fina. Nobody can claim it for sure. However, the film was created. The Age of Innocence is a sumptuous motion picture, a feast for the senses. The colors are vivid, from the red and yellow of roses to the flashes of crimson and white that transition scenes.

The powerful score moves along with the story, in perfect counterpoint to the visuals - never intrusive, but always effective. The scenes of artfully-prepared, meals are enough to make mouths water, and its almost possible to smell the pungent aroma of cigars (). And then followed Casino. Real, traditional Scorsese returned.

In every way - from the fantastic sets, rich dialogue, and unapologetic violence to the well-portrayed characters and themes of loyalty and betrayal - Casino was pure Scorsese. While this film, adapted from the same Nicholas Pileggis nonfiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, does not offer much in the way of startling revelations, it presents a fascinating insiders perspective of what goes on behind-the-scenes in the countrys gambling mecca. As is stated several times, Vegas is not about fun, glitz, or glamour. Those things are just the surface gloss. Instead, Scorsese revealed truth: it is all about greed and money -- bringing customers in, keeping them playing, and sucking them dry (). During all the movie long, Martin Scorsese makes heavy use of voiceover's, employing disembodied monologues.

The sheer volume of words sporadically detracts from character development, but it is integrated successfully enough not to seem overly intrusive. While the intelligence and wit of the voiceover's makes them palatable, such nonstop talking is not always the best way to convey a story - the temptation to tell something, rather than show it, is too great for Scorsese. All in all, this was Scorsese, a great experimenter and rounder (). Many critics considered Casino to be not Scorsese's top work. Nevertheless, it is still a compelling film making. Scorsese has never pulled punches in breathing life into his ideas, and he does not start here.

If there is an obvious weakness in Casino, it is that it occasionally seems to be a derivative of GoodFellas (). For many critics it looked like Scorsese moved away from his favorite and the most successful theme streets of New York. However, the symbol of native city is not so easy to forgot. Therefore, Scorsese takes another important step in his creative career of director. Gangs of New York, these words became popular much earlier then the actual film was released. Without any doubts, this move became the most impressive and colorful among the bunch of Scorsese's masterpieces.

The idea behind Gangs of New York bounced around Scorsese's head for a quarter-century, but the acclaimed filmmaker said Hollywood's infatuation with blockbuster films kept him from making the movie until recently - Scorsese said he first thought about his film while he was growing up in New York City, when his Sicilian father told him about factions fighting in 19 th century New York. However, Gangs of New York became a blockbuster anyway. The complexity of its secondary story and world displays the conviction to the film as do the technical components that bring it to life. A massive set in Rome substitutes for New York, but with production design, it is an incredible actualization of the world at hand. The cinematography is drab and sweeping. The first shot of New York sets the tone.

Someone kicks open the door to the Dead Rabbits hideout, and the camera moves into it, showing the snowy landscape of Old Time New York. The shot is held long enough for spectators to soak it in, and then, there is an even longer delay before the Natives arrive, giving even more time to observe the whole picture. Then the first battle commences. At first, it is romanticized. There is no blood, no grotesque images; people simply fall when they die. Then, as the battle becomes more brutal and blood begins to soak into the snow, camera gets closer, and the look becomes grittier this is Scorsese in his complete glamour.


Free research essays on topics related to: age of innocence, organized crime, scorsese, york city, martin scorsese

Research essay sample on Age Of Innocence Martin Scorsese

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