A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)
**** (out of 4)
If you're a film buff then there's no question that you'll want to watch this documentary, which clocks in just under four hours and features filmmaker Martin Scorsese talking about his journey through the American movies that helped shape him as a filmmaker.
It's important to note that this really isn't a documentary on the history of American cinema but instead a look to Scorsese who discusses what films and genres were important to him. With that said, Scorsese is one of the most knowledgeable people that you'll ever hear from so we really get some great discussions here that cover a very wide range of movies.
You get discussions on D.W. Griffith, Elia Kazan, Stanley Kubrick, Vincent Minelli and countless other filmmakers. You get discussions on horror movies, film noir, comedies, musicals as well as silent and sound films. Pretty much every genre and format is discussed here and it really gives one a great bit of information on Scorsese and you can see where some of these movies would eventually leak into his own films.
Not only do we have Scorsese talking throughout the running time but there are also interviews with Gregory Peck, Billy Wilder, Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Arthur Penn, Andre De Toth and various others. What this film does so well is give new viewers a wide range of films for them to discover. After all, all film buffs have to start somewhere so watching a film like this will give them a great list of titles to check out and it also shows how cinema changed over the years and how the mood of cinema changed as well.
This truly is a terrific picture and it certainly never feels like it's four hours. I've watched this a few times. Sometimes I watch it broken down into its three parts but I've also watched the complete thing from start to finish. It's certainly a marvelous achievement.
**** (out of 4)
If you're a film buff then there's no question that you'll want to watch this documentary, which clocks in just under four hours and features filmmaker Martin Scorsese talking about his journey through the American movies that helped shape him as a filmmaker.
It's important to note that this really isn't a documentary on the history of American cinema but instead a look to Scorsese who discusses what films and genres were important to him. With that said, Scorsese is one of the most knowledgeable people that you'll ever hear from so we really get some great discussions here that cover a very wide range of movies.
You get discussions on D.W. Griffith, Elia Kazan, Stanley Kubrick, Vincent Minelli and countless other filmmakers. You get discussions on horror movies, film noir, comedies, musicals as well as silent and sound films. Pretty much every genre and format is discussed here and it really gives one a great bit of information on Scorsese and you can see where some of these movies would eventually leak into his own films.
Not only do we have Scorsese talking throughout the running time but there are also interviews with Gregory Peck, Billy Wilder, Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Arthur Penn, Andre De Toth and various others. What this film does so well is give new viewers a wide range of films for them to discover. After all, all film buffs have to start somewhere so watching a film like this will give them a great list of titles to check out and it also shows how cinema changed over the years and how the mood of cinema changed as well.
This truly is a terrific picture and it certainly never feels like it's four hours. I've watched this a few times. Sometimes I watch it broken down into its three parts but I've also watched the complete thing from start to finish. It's certainly a marvelous achievement.