Its all relative...Finally the wait is over. Martin Scorsese is now the best director officially, with Oscar at his side for the film - 'The Departed'...Yeah u've hrd me right. Its not that Departed is bad or anything but giving Scorsese the Oscar, his first, for a film which is not even remotely close to his best work is ironic in itself. The departed by the standards of anyone is a good movie, infact a gr8 movie. Nice script, good with light control over camera and nice characters but to be honest the film is not by any stretch his best work.
This blog is educative as someone early today tried to pull my leg for downplaying 'the departed' way back. ok ok it is rich with oscars but that doesn't raise its standard for a scorsese fan like me. Coz his true fans dont believe in oscars anymore (pun absolutely intended :D ). The departed won coz it was just the best of this years harvest. As i said its all relative....
Hope (that) someone is getting my point. If you are still in doubt here's my take. I'll start with 'Mean Streets' (1973) .. ok the edges were loose but still De Niro and Keitel had their characters stretched to captivate the audience with the sense of confusion at the end. A remarkable entry for Scorsese...Nobody culd have predicted that this will pave the way for Quentin Tarantino and Boyle...They simply play it like this movie....
Now here's one of my fav - Taxi Driver (1976)...The plot based on unstable war veteran, controlling his emotions throughout for a final lash out against society, the ugly side of it. How can you deny this film an OSCAR...is there any kind of accountability left in the world. Near perfect script, bound characters and poetic realization methods are introduced to hollywood.
Wait here's another one better than departed - Raging Bull (1980). Now imagine someone physically toughest of all but emotionally self-destructing...yeah the movie is around this character played by Robert De Niro and he won an oscar for the best actor for this...but scorsese's directing efforts went unrewarded. This movie brings with it a tilt towards the human nature and sheer brilliance of a director who gave the world a polarized character with his own wings.
Goodfellas(1990) - "as far as i remember i always wanted to be a gangster".....this is how the film starts and then it never looks back. The mafia melodrama is taken to new heights. The movie focuses on criminal ties of a city and the nexus of the web it plants. Now for GOD SAKE not giving an oscar to this and giving it to departed is like stating that i can sing and win a grammy :( ... He introduced the venal characters but with wide variety of flavours. He spiced up the shots especially the long staring commutative ones as in Casiono or Gangs of New York.
I m happy that finally he won the Oscar but i m angry that he did it for 'the departed'. Well all in all its payback for one of the greatest directors. As Richard Walter said - "Its payback to a person who richly deserved it for his other work. Now I think more of his other works going unawarded". So now dear (that) someone, hope u understand my agony :x
P.S. - I haven't mentioned Gangs of New York, Casino, The Aviator and some other movies coz i didnt want to sound mere rhetoric. I hope u get the point :)
Richard Walter is the head of UCLA, Film School's screen writing programme. In short he is a big name in field of Cinema.
