The one movie genre Martin Scorsese has always been afraid of: “I can’t add anything to it”
The best directors are capable of almost anything, and since he’s one of the greatest directors of all time, it’s reasonable to assume there’s no genre Martin Scorsese couldn’t master if he set his mind to it.
Obviously, nobody should expect him to take the reins on a blockbuster comic book adaptation, a mindless action flick, or a far-flung sci-fi, but there remains one form of filmmaking that you’d imagine he’d excel at, which he’s been intentionally keeping at arm’s length for his entire career.
The gangster film will always be the first thing that comes to mind when anyone thinks of cinema’s pre-eminent bushy-browed maestro, which is par for the course when he’s directed several of the best crime stories ever told on the big screen, with Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, The Irishman, and The Departed earning acclaim, awards, and bumper box office.
Beyond that, Scorsese has tackled literary adaptations, period pieces, a solitary sequel, a remake, a biblical epic, biopics, romance, thrillers, fables, comedic capers, and many more. And yet, there remains one glaring omission from his filmography, especially when he’s a known fan of its most famous movies and directors.
The Academy Award-winning legend has been obsessed with John Ford and John Wayne’s The Searchers since he saw it for the first time as a youngster, while he’s name-checked Marlon Brando’s One-Eyed Jacks, Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, and King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun as pictures that had a huge impact on him, both personally and professionally.
The prospect of Scorsese decamping to the Old West to tell a tale set against the backdrop of the dusty plains, swinging saloon doors, six-shooters, and white-hatted heroes doing battle against their black-hatted enemies would be a sight to see, apart from the fact that he’s always been trepidatious of the western.
“I never thought I could find a story or find my way through this monument of the American western genre made by such great filmmakers over the years,” he admitted to NME. “And so I was always somewhat intimidated by it, and said, ‘I can’t add anything to it, I can’t give anything to it.'”
There isn’t much Scorsese can’t do, but as it turns out, he isn’t confident enough in his abilities to truly believe that, were he ever to make a western, it would be worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the greats he grew up watching. Strangely, he’s not the only veteran who feels that way.
Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott have spent their entire careers dreaming of making a western, and neither of them has crossed it off their to-do list as of yet, even with a combined age just shy of 170. Scorsese is in the same boat, robbing audiences of the chance to see what he could do if he wasn’t so afraid.
