A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (TV 1995)

Despite its nearly four-hour running time, this is a uniquely personal look at movies from one of the late 20th century's great directors and film historians. The film consists of head & ... See full summary »

Directors:

Martin Scorsese, Michael Henry Wilson

Writers:

Martin Scorsese, Michael Henry Wilson

Stars:

Martin Scorsese, Kathryn Bigelow, Frank Capra

Cast

Credited cast:
Martin Scorsese	...	Himself (Narrator / Host)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kathryn Bigelow	...	Herself
Frank Capra	...	Himself (archive footage)
John Cassavetes	...	Himself (archive footage)
Philippe Collin	...	Récitant / Narrator (French version) (voice)
Francis Ford Coppola	...	Himself
Brian De Palma	...	Himself
André De Toth	...	Himself
Clint Eastwood	...	Himself
John Ford	...	Himself (segment "Directed by John Ford") (archive footage)
Samuel Fuller	...	Himself
Howard Hawks	...	Himself (archive footage)
Elia Kazan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Fritz Lang	...	Himself (archive footage)
George Lucas	...	Himself

Storyline

Despite its nearly four-hour running time, this is a uniquely personal look at movies from one of the late 20th century's great directors and film historians. The film consists of head & shoulder shots of Scorsese speaking into the camera for a minute or two, followed by 10-15 minutes of film clips with Scorsese voice-over. Scorsese approaches the films in terms of how they affected him as a director foremost and as a storyteller/film fan second. Segments include "The Director as Smuggler," "The Director as Iconoclast", and so on. The Journey begins with silent masters like D.W. Griffith and ends in 1969 - when Scorsese began to make films; as he says in closing, "I wouldn't feel right commenting on myself or my contemporaries."

---

Plot Keywords:

director | film clip | name in title | nine word title | film discussion | 

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 May 1995 (UK)

Also Known As:

Historia kina amerykanskiego wedlug Martina Scorsese

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Film Institute (BFI), Miramax Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

225 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Black and White Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Features Hell's Highway (1932)

User Reviews

Should be called "A Personal Journey through Martin Scorsese..."

....so intense and intimate is this rundown on the films that shaped

the greatest filmmaker this country has ever produced. Centered

around the idea of "The Director's Dilemma"--how to reconcile art

and commerce--Scorsese treats this century-long war as one

largely fought through subversion (by the auteur heroes whose B

movies he champions), then triumphing through the birth pangs of

the Personal Movie...represented here by Cassavetes, Kubrick,

and (though he modestly declines to say it) himself. PERSONAL

JOURNEY rivets not just because of its exquisitely chosen scenes

(nobody on this planet has better taste in or a more encyclopedic

knoeldge of movies), nor because of its idiosyncrasy (Scorsese

finds every imaginable scene of hideous violence in the section on

musicals), but because of its acute, delirious subjectivity. This is

the closest to spot-on Scorsese autobiography we will probably

ever get.