The 1973 movie masterpiece Martin Scorsese never wants to see again: “I certainly couldn’t watch it”
There are few, if any, people in Hollywood who love cinema as much as Martin Scorsese. He eats, sleeps, lives, and breathes the motion picture business, but there are still some movies he’ll never watch again.
Not many, in fairness, because it takes a special case for any picture to make it onto Scorsese’s no-watch list. After all, he’s Martin fucking Scorsese, and he’s seen pretty much everything, and if there’s something he hasn’t seen, then he’ll make a point of seeing it eventually, unless it’s a comic book adaptation.
His closest competitor in the cinephile stakes is arguably Quentin Tarantino, but the major difference between them is that the Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed mastermind’s adoration and devotion to the medium has never seen him come close to disappearing up his own arse, something you can’t say about the brains behind Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.
However, even the maestro has to draw a line somewhere. He can’t stand The Jazz Singer, but because he’s very much aware of its importance and influence on the industry that he’s called home for the last half-century, he can appreciate that it was a game-changer and a trailblazer, which doesn’t mean he has to like it, which he definitely does not.
Having gone public with his distaste for the modern moviegoing experience, which he’s entitled to do, because a man in his 80s is obviously going to have a terrible time going to the theatre and having to contend with excessively loud chewing, phones on full brightness, and patrons who won’t shut the fuck up, unless it’s one of his own premieres, Scorsese will be watching his movies at home from now on.
He might even be tempted to fire up one of his own, which he’d be entitled to do, seeing as he’s responsible for several of the greatest features ever made. That said, there’s one that he vowed he’d never watch again, even though he did oxymoronically call it one that he deeply cherishes immediately beforehand.
“Mean Streets is always a favourite of mine, because of the music and because it was the story of myself and my friends,” the veteran ruminated. “It was the movie that people originally took notice of. It’s kind of a favourite, but I certainly couldn’t watch it. It’s too personal.”
Scorsese’s breakthrough film was the one that put him firmly on the map and the first to truly reflect his artistic and creative sensibilities. After John Cassavetes told him that Boxcar Bertha was a piece of shit, he was inspired to make something more true to life, leading him to a seminal crime drama that was informed by his own experiences growing up as an Italian-American in New York City.
It set the template for everything to come, and it went down in history as Scorsese’s first masterpiece. He’s well aware of how important Mean Streets was to him on a personal and professional level, which is a large part of the reason why he never wants to see it again.
