“That changed everything for me”: how one movie set Martin Scorsese on the path to greatness
To paraphrase one of the most famous quotes from one of his greatest movies, for as long as Martin Scorsese can remember, he has always wanted to be a filmmaker.
Even as a child, the future legend regularly attended his local cinema, plunging himself deep into the magic of celluloid from an early age. He didn’t immediately recognise exactly why he was so taken with the images on the screen, but neither did it take him very long to figure it out.
Scorsese started off as a fan of the films he was watching, before he began to develop an appreciation and understanding of how they came together behind the scenes, and from that moment on he couldn’t envision himself doing anything else with his life.
The ratio of people who want to be directors compared to those who actually do it is heavily skewed towards failure over success, though, and even at that, the percentage of people who make a living behind the camera who go on to become all-time greats and enduring icons is a tiny fraction.
Of course, Scorsese has been a part of the latter camp for a long time now, with his initial ascension in the 1970s giving rise to a storied career that continues delivering widespread acclaim and bountiful awards season recognition even with the elder statesman of auteurism well into his 80s.
While the filmmaker has crafted multiple classics covering countless genres over an incredible amount of time, one common thread that unites all of his finest work are incredible performances from the cast. Scorsese not only surrounds himself with the best actors, but he knows how to bring the best out of them, too.
Every memorable protagonist or antagonist from any of his best flicks – ranging from Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle and Jake LaMotta to Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito by way of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort and Daniel Day-Lewis William Cutting, to name a very, very small few – feels like a living, breathing person who exists in a tangible reality.
While several of those aforementioned names are indeed real people, and that’s the point of acting in a nutshell, there’s a difference between an actor taking on a biographical part and them becoming that character. Scorsese and many of his collaborators have mastered the art, and the ongoing synergy between naturalistic central figures and the director’s greatest work can be traced right back to a performance that shook the industry to its core.
When discussing his formative filmic experiences with the British Film Institute, Scorsese cited Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, Kirk Douglas’ work in Champion and The Bad and the Beautiful, and Robert Ryan’s turn in Caught as key. However, none of them ended up upending his worldview and informing the trajectory of his entire career.
“Brando, of course, in On the Waterfront. That changed everything for me,” he confessed. “It was like a documentary, seeing the kind of people who were around me. It just wasn’t much of a stretch for me.” Since the very beginning, the upper echelons of Scorsese’s filmography have always boasted an incredible central performance, and the desire to deliver one on the part of both director and actor can be traced right back to Brando.
It’s an oversimplification to say that without On the Waterfront there would be no Scorsese as everyone knows and loves him, but neither should it be ignored that he was only 11 years old and in the throes of his own cinematic awakening when Elia Kazan’s classic hit theatres everywhere.
He’s made gangster movies, biographical dramas, crime capers, remakes, sequels, spiritually-driven films, lavish fantasies, period pieces, and plenty more besides, but one common denominator in all of Scorsese’s top-drawer titles is that they’re anchored by at least one transformative performance that finds an actor giving everything of themselves to the character.
It’s been an ongoing symbiotic bond that’s brought out the best in both parties on either side of the camera since the ’70s, but that lifelong trademark was born from Brando.
