The movie Martin Scorsese loved so much that he only watched it once: “It hit me like a lightning bolt”
The brilliant thing about Martin Scorsese is that not only is he one of the sure-fire best movie directors of all time, but he has also served as something of an encyclopaedia on the history of film, and as such, he’s always been a good source of direction when cinema fans want to find a new avenue of the medium to wander down.
Of course, Scorsese is, and ought to be, celebrated for his phenomenal contributions to the world of film, with the likes of Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas forever being immortalised into the pantheon of the all-time greats. Still, Scorsese’s sheer knowledge of the movies means that he’s far more than just a talented director.
Thankfully, Marty has gone on record several times throughout his career to name his favourite movies and directors and has even analysed several of them at great length. Some of Scorsese’s favourites really seem to have stuck out for him, most notably the 1959 John Cassavetes’ movie Shadows, which many consider something of a milestone in American independent cinema.
Scorsese admires Shadows so much that he hasn’t watched in since the first time, once explaining, “I’ve gone back and reseen many pictures I love over the years, but Shadows I needed to see only once. Sometimes it’s like that. It hit me like a lightning bolt, and I don’t want to touch that flash of recognition I had 50 years ago.”
Cassavetes film stars Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni and Hugh Hurd as three black siblings, although only one’s skin is dark enough to be considered African-American, while the other two can “pass” for being white. The film was shot twice, once in 1957 and again in 1959, after the first version was poorly received.
It’s the reality of Shadows that grabs Scorsese’s admiration, though, the way it was made and the way it presents New York City. He said, “It was shot in 16mm, with lightweight cameras and sound equipment, but it wasn’t a documentary or a semi-documentary. It was a story set in the city where I lived, filled with people who looked like the people I saw on the subway or walking through Times Square.”
Ultimately, the film was a deep source of inspiration in that it showed Scorsese that he, too, could make movies. He noted, “Shadows was, and is a great film, but at the time, it was something else, too: an example to us all and an endless source of inspiration and energy. We saw that we could make a movie too, in our own way and on our own terms, and that the only thing that could hold us back was ourselves.”
