No more Scorsese

With 3 more films recommended (which, even if not recommended, I would probably have watched it anyway) which were directed by Scorsese, I can conclude it once and for all: No more Scorsese films for me. His style just does not appeal to me and the funny thing is I can't really begin to explain why. It's kind of like how many of my friends detest Tarantino's films (and Tarantino, as a person) but can't provide any convincing reason why. (I never accepted 'I was confused, it's not clear to me, etc' as an acceptable reason, which infuriates them).

 

I caught 'Mean Streets,' 'Taxi Driver' and 'Raging Bull.' over the last 3 days, and if I'm being considerate, then I'll say I kind of liked 'Taxi Driver,' it kind of reminded me of 'Leaving Las Vegas' with the subtle music time to time. Even then, Scorsese films makes me feel like 2 hours is really 4 hours, and I just see no flow (I don't know if that's intended). I seriously do not know how 'The Aviator' is like, but I'm pretty convinced that is the last Scorsese film I'll catch, and that's mainly because it did well in the Oscars and I want to see why, not because it is Scorsese's.

 

Maybe its the lack of flow and the slow pace that puts me off. I regard him well, but I just can't point a concrete reason. I see the pattern in his films as an analogy of a talented artist spending years trying to paint a masterpiece, only to destroy it by slashing with a knife in a matter of minutes. I guess that more or less explains the general trend in his films that I've seen. (And somewhat similar with most of John Grisham's novels)

 

I admit, that I'm not a completely artistically inclined film reviewer (though I wish I could be anywhere close to being so, instead of trying to sound or talk like one) and maybe I'm approaching it from a wrong direction to appreciate his style. Watching those 3 movies was some kind of a drag for me, and I usually never approach a movie that I'm going to watch and keep looking at the time to see how many minutes has passed. That's how it was. Often, I do not care whether the movie's 90 minutes or 150 minutes long, if its good, I've enjoyed it, even if it wasn't good, it never made me feel like time was slowing down on me. For some strange reason, I had this unwillingness to watch the movie, because it would feel like ages before I completed watching it (but I still wanted to see it, how bizarre).

 

If anything made the weekend better, then it was that I also caught 'Amadeus' and 'Apocalypse Now.' On the contrary, I thought these two films were brilliant. 'Amadeus' brought the central character and grew him, and then showcased his downfall (the hero never lives, an approach I fancy) which was done very well. While watching 'Apocalypse Now' I was conducting a loose critic of America's foreign affairs in the past, and thought it was weird, yet coincidental that that very idea was the central message of the movie of how someone powerful can make others do something however he or she liked it and the oppressed do not have a say in this decision. I read up on the text that the movie was based on, 'Heart of Darkness' which was written in protest of the British Imperialism, and the loose hint of the same theme in the movie rang some bells. It was more of a movie that made me think about things in general, which I liked.

 

In any case, all movies were considered class acts, and it was good that I got to catch them. I have 'Braveheart' and 'The Corporation' left in my laptop. I've seen bits and pieces of 'Braveheart' before but never the entire thing from start to finish, and I've read only good things about 'The Corporation' so I'm kind of looking forward to it.

 

I was pretty pissed off that they stopped screening 'Mysterious Skin.' I hope that one of the theaters will screen it some time soon, and maybe I'll get to catch 'Me, You and Everyone We Know' this weekend. I really want 'The Aristocrats' to be screened in Atlanta, though AMC cancelled the screeenings here as well as Chicago. But I'm hopeful about the wide release that starts on August 12.