“It became something else”: the career-defining movie Martin Scorsese never thought would be a hit
It would be foolish for any filmmaker – at least those who aren’t carrying a city-sized ego – to go into any film expecting it to go down as one of their career’s crowning achievements. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, though, but neither of them applied to Martin Scorsese when he was taken completely by surprise.
With a filmography containing several of the greatest movies ever made and plenty more that constitute minor classics, cult favourites, and unsung gems, Scorsese has long since reached a point where he knows exactly how good he is and how influential he’s become in cinema history. It might sound self-aggrandising, but it’s impossible to argue based on his body of work.
After all, this is the guy responsible for Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and Raging Bull, never mind The King of Comedy, Cape Fear, Casino, and The Last Temptation of Christ, while Killers of the Flower Moon, Silence, Gangs of New York, and Shutter Island can’t be overlooked, either.
There was always one thing missing, however, and it was that elusive Academy Award for ‘Best Director’. Even now, Scorsese has but a solitary Oscar to his name from 17 nominations, and it was one of the cruellest jokes in cinema that one of the industry’s greatest-ever directors had never been awarded the big one.
Crime thriller The Departed marked his eight time being nominated and sixth in the ‘Best Director’ category, but even though he was the favourite heading into the ceremony, it was far from being nailed-on. However, when Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola strolled onto the stage to announce the victor, it was inevitable.
The Departed is nowhere close to being Scorsese’s best movie, but it was the one that became a career-defining moment when he finally snatched the most prestigious prize a director can have. Did he expect it would happen? As it turns out, not in the slightest.
“The word I’ve been using all year is ‘surprised,'” he admitted to the Directors Guild of America. “I had no expectation that The Departed would be received the way it was by the Academy and the members of the Guild and all the critics’ groups that gave it a nod. I thought I was making a little genre movie. I tried to make a genre movie and I found out I couldn’t, that it became something else.”
Scorsese went in with the intention of making what in his words was “a quote-unquote B-film,” only to end up with a ‘Best Director’ statue and a ‘Best Picture’-winning smash hit. It was a palate-cleanser of sorts after the lavish back-to-back period pieces of Gangs of New York and The Aviator, with the legend never imagining it would culminate in his crowning achievement.
