The movie that almost ruined Martin Scorsese’s career: “The creativity was just punched out of me”
Martin Scorsese is one of those filmmakers who seems to be an endless well of creativity and perseverance. He champions the work of other artists when no one else is doing so and pushes the boundaries within his own films.
From his early efforts like Mean Streets, Italianamerican and Taxi Driver to his more recent spectacles like Killers of the Flower Moon and The Irishman, Scorsese has shown an ability to constantly hone his style and find reinvention within each story, delving deeper into the genres that he loves and pulling out a new strand to focus on. The director has a relentless love for cinema that seems unstoppable, but one project nearly quelled this love entirely.
The relationship between any filmmaker and the critics is usually fraught and complicated. As much as we love to pretend that it doesn’t matter and we can find internal validation instead, the words of those that judge the products of creativity hold a lot of weight, especially as a new filmmaker.
Scorsese received unprecedented praise for Taxi Driver and became the face of a new era in Hollywood, representing a new voice in cinema through his gritty style and partnership with Robert De Niro. After the success of his 1976 film, the pressure to follow this up with another classic was immense, with intense speculation about what the Wunderkind of Hollywood would do next. However, no one could have predicted his next move, and after the release of New York, New York in 1977, critics and audiences were unkind and began dismantling his pedestal.
New York, New York is the story of an egotistical saxophone player and a young singer who meet and fall in love, facing many obstacles as their careers begin to take off. It almost sounds like a La La Land type story, but do not be fooled – beneath the veiled romanticism of the storyline is a typically dark and grungy story from Scorsese. However, the film was obliterated by critics, with people highlighting the lengthy runtime, confused genre and miscasting of De Niro in the lead role. It was labelled as his worst film to date, something that nearly crushed Scorsese.
When asked about how he responded to this, the director said, “With the failure of New York, New York … I felt the creativity was just punched out of me. … It was an experiment, a curiosity, to try to find if I could ever care enough to get back on the set. … I didn’t care anymore. And I had to find if I can make another film. … I think you have to be totally committed to it and you have to put everything on the line, whether it’s your house, your relationships, everything, to really feel that you can make this picture, to say what you want to say. … And so I didn’t feel that anymore”.
The idea of pouring your heart and soul into a project, only for it to be ripped apart, is completely shattering, and it is understandable why Scorsese struggled to recover from the film. While it was heavily criticised at the time, it has found a new fanbase over the years, and people have grown to appreciate it in ways that it wasn’t in 1977.
Thankfully, Scorsese was able to muster his creative strength again and continue making films, showing that creating is ultimately about how you feel about the work instead of catering to public opinion, a principle that the great director has expanded on during the rest of his career.
