Bill Hader names the greatest movie ever made: “Best directed and acted film of all time”
When you hear Martin Scorsese speak about his craft, you are immediately reminded of why he is considered the greatest of all time, with an incisive and expansive knowledge of the medium that is forever infused with his timeless passion. After hearing him talk about movies for just a few minutes, you feel somewhat reassured in the fate of cinema and grateful to even be alive while he is still making films, witnessing each additional work in his filmography unfold on the big screen, the way he always intended. The streaming giants might be coming for us all, but while Scorsese is around, cinema will remain alive and well.
Many aspiring filmmakers look up at Scorsese when describing the kind of work they want to make and mimic in their own creative practices, something that Bill Hader reflected on when sharing his formative cinematic memories and the influence that Scorsese had on him as a young cinephile.
For many of us, core film-watching memories are formed at sleepovers as children, with groups of friends convening late at night to watch some illicit horror movie that has been forbidden by their parents or a romantic drama that is apparently much too inappropriate. But as we grew older and our taste expanded, many of us ventured into the world of true cinema for the first time, watching classic films that we’d later rewatch as adults and reflect fondly on how it made us feel that first time round, even if we didn’t truly understand its power at the time.
It could be a midnight viewing of The Seventh Seal as a teenager or a traumatising screening of Whiplash, but for Bill Hader, it was the experience of watching Taxi Driver for the first time, and being suddenly mesmerised by the power of cinema and realising that it was the greatest thing he had ever seen.
Despite being known for his comedic work on shows like SNL, Hader later expanded his work into the directorial realm after helming the HBO show Barry, which follows a hitman who discovers the joys of acting while looking for his next target. The show has been showered with awards, with many of them going to Hader himself for his genius direction and simultaneous performance as the lead character.
It perhaps isn’t surprising that he was inspired by Scorsese when venturing into this new part of his career, saying, “I first saw this, when I was in fifth grade at a sleepover and it completely changed my life. For me it’s the best directed and acted film of all time. If you want to learn how to act on film, all you have to do is watch Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver.”
All you have to do is hear Scorsese’s explanation of the phone call scene to understood the depth of his genius, with the director describing how the camera slowly pans away from Travis as we hear his phone call in the background, purely because the sight of him is too painful to see in this vulnerable moment. This was enough to give Hader the directing bug, and he has been doing so ever since.
