Why Martin Scorsese won’t rewatch his old movies
During the late 1960s, inspired by movements like the French New Wave and Japanese cinema, young American filmmakers decided to rejuvenate Hollywood, which was overrun by spectacle. Bringing an arthouse sensibility to their movies, the new generation of filmmakers worked against the studio system, seeking to create pieces of cinema that were complex and personal.
One of the essential films from this transitional period was 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, which was overtly violent and pessimistic. It was a critical moment in American cinematic history, welcoming a new era of films far from old Hollywood’s shininess and censorship. These movies, like Easy Rider and The Graduate, signalled the industry’s move towards younger audiences, tapping into counterculture and graphically depicting sex, nudity, violence and drug use.
Many of America’s most successful filmmakers emerged from this period, from Francis Ford Coppola to Brain De Palma. Yet none has had such a consistent impact as Martin Scorsese, who made his feature debut in 1967 with Who’s That Knocking at My Door. A few years later, he completed his first successful movie, Mean Streets, which was heralded for its studied exploration of themes like religion, family and guilt, becoming one of the most influential films of the 1970s.
However, Scorsese truly entered mainstream consciousness with Taxi Driver, winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival and earning four Oscar nominations, including ‘Best Picture’. Scorsese’s movie was a triumph, following Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle, a Vietnam War veteran who cruised the streets of New York to deal with his PTSD and insomnia. Disillusioned with the world, Travis finds his mental state falling apart as he witnesses the horrors of the city at night.
Since then, Scorsese has released countless critically and commercially successful movies like Goodfellas and Raging Bull, as well as recent hits like The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman. The filmmaker has won many accolades, including a ‘Best Director’ prize at the Academy Awards for The Departed, multiple BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and even a Grammy.
However, despite his acclaimed status, Scorsese finds it challenging to return to his films, claiming they’re “too personal”. Talking to Conan O’Brien in 1996, the director stated that he doesn’t watch his movies once they’ve been made: “No that’s it, I’ve had enough [of them],” he exclaimed. When asked if he can look back at his films that are decades old, he said, “I can’t take it; it’s too much, it’s too personal and too embarrassing”.
His view contrasts Quentin Tarantino, who claims to love watching his films back. The Pulp Fiction director once said, “Whenever I hear directors say they don’t watch their movies or they can’t watch their movies because all they see are the flaws and it’s just too painful, I feel so sorry for those people.”
Perhaps Scorsese will come around to the idea of watching his films one day, but for now, he seems perfectly happy to keep creating new work, such as 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
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