The actor Martin Scorsese credits with saving his life
Although he’s long since taken his place as one of cinema’s most revered elder statesmen, like many of his peers both in front of and behind the camera who emerged at the same time, Martin Scorsese dealt with substance abuse issues during the 1970s, with a borderline intervention from one of his regular collaborators dragging him back from the brink.
Towards the end of the decade, the filmmaker’s drug addiction had taken hold to the extent that he ended up hospitalised, as he shared with The Hollywood Reporter: “After finishing New York, New York, I took chances,” he said. “I was out of time and out of place and also in turmoil in my own life and embracing the other world, so to speak, with a kind of attraction to the dangerous side of existence. Then on Labor Day weekend, I found myself in a hospital, surprised that I was near death.”
That being said, Scorsese explained that his predicament wasn’t entirely drug-induced: “I was down to about 109 pounds. It wasn’t only drug-induced – asthma had a lot to do with it,” he continued. “I was kept in a hospital for ten days and nights, and they took care of me, these doctors, and I became aware of not wanting to die and not wasting my life.”
As fate would have it, a visit from friend and regular collaborator Robert De Niro wouldn’t just be credited with saving Scorsese’s life, but it would also spur him on to make one of the greatest movies of all time, with The New Yorker relaying the pivotal impact of the exchange between the two as the latter was laid up in a hospital bed.
When De Niro came to see him, the actor “asked in so many words, whether he wanted to live or die”. Turning his ultimatum into a plea for Scorsese to overcome his personal issues and return to his true calling, the star proposed that they re-team to bring the story of boxer Jake LaMotta to the screen, which, of course, came to fruition as the masterpiece Raging Bull.
Further pushing Scorsese to get back on the right track, the book Raging Bull: The Making Of notes that De Niro laid out the terms in no uncertain fashion: “What is it you want to do? Do you want to die, is that it? Don’t you want to live to see your daughter grow up and get married? Are you gonna be one of those directors who makes a couple of good movies and then it’s over for them?”
Although De Niro disputed claims that the conversation went down in exactly that manner, he told author John Glennie that the sentiment was accurate: “The thought was unthinkable to me to move on without Marty. But I had to give him that out and ask him if he wanted to do it,” the actor said. “I do recall telling him he could really make this picture special and we would have something that would be remembered for all the right reasons. To me, there was nobody else who could do it better – period.”
Producer Irwin Winkler admitted that the conversation was pivotal, with Scorsese’s undying love for cinema being held up against his will to live proving to be an eye-opening moment in more ways than one: “I’m not sure what would have affected Marty more? Bob saying you are going to die or you are never going to make another movie again. Marty’s so passionate about movies it could well have been that.”
Given that Scorsese has made 20 features – including Raging Bull – since that fateful day De Niro came to visit him at his lowest ebb, it’s entirely understandable why the legendary actor would be credited with quite literally stepping in to save his long-time associate’s life.
