Music is an essential part of cinema. Like beautiful scenery or a talented actor, it sets the mood, paces the story, and keeps the audience fully immersed in the story. Some movie soundtracks become so renowned, everyone knows them, irregardless if they’ve seen the movie. The main title theme from Jaws, the screeching violins, violas, and cellos from the shower scene in Psycho, and the main title theme from Star Wars are examples that prove a film’s soundtrack is as essential as its cast. Music is such an indelible part of cinema that many top directors get their start directing music videos, and some direct music videos long after they become acclaimed filmmakers. One such director is Martin Scorsese.
The Oscar-winning director, whose work spans decades and many timeless films, has been at the helm of several rock documentaries and other rock ‘n’ roll projects. Not only did he direct the acclaimed 1978 concert film The Last Waltz about The Band, he directed the music video for Michael Jackson’s single “Bad”, the 2005 Bob Dylan documentary No Way Home, the 2008 Rolling Stone concert film Shine a Light, the 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World, and the 2019 documentary Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. On top of this, Scorsese was one of the minds behind the 2016 period drama Vinyl about the 1970s rock ‘n’ roll scene. It’s one thing to direct one or two music videos, even after you become an Oscar-nominated and award-winning director, but rock ‘n’ roll is clearly one of his passions.
Scorsese is the quintessential rock ‘n’ roll director, as his films are full of what is the timeless rock ‘n’ roll story; the rise and fall that eventually comes from walking on the wild side and the excess that comes with it. Robert De Niro’s lament in Casino that they had a good thing going in Vegas until they screwed it all up could be uttered in many rock ‘n’ roll documentaries, as could Ray Liotta’s quote in Goodfellas, “if we wanted something, we just took it,” or his ending monologue, “we had it all just for the asking,” before lamenting that it’s all over and he now has to act just like any other person. From the scenes of Henry Hill cutting drugs and snorting cocaine to the iconic scene of Henry and Karen going into the Copacabana through the back, avoiding the line, and getting a plum seat right in front of the stage all the while he’s generously tipping everyone in sight, Goodfellas is full of moments that capture what life as a rock star might look like.
If Goodfellas captures the quintessential rock star attitude of the thrill reveling in the thrill of being able to do things not everyone gets to do, The Wolf of Wall Street captures all the uninhibited wealth and excess that being a rock star can entail. Giant mega-yachts, mansions, luxury cars, and a trophy wife are some of the things that Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) gets only to disregard and destroy while at the top. Usually while indulging in copious amounts of drugs. In this regard, the film feels like watching a documentary of wretched excess by a rock star at the height of their fame before it all came crashing down.
Rock music is uninhibited, gleefully itself, full of life, not afraid to push the envelope, and searing. These are all terms that could describe any number of Scorsese’s masterpieces. Classical music can be inherently soothing, but rock music is inherently energetic, captivating, and challenging. Be it on an album, on stage, or on screen, it is a spectacle that demands people pay attention. With that inherent sense of spectacle comes a natural curiosity. People like to watch gangster movies for the same reason they watch documentaries about musicians. They pull back the curtain people a lifestyle they’ve heard of, but never actually seen or taken part in, is really like. At times, it isn’t pretty.. In fact, it can be downright shocking, but it’s always fascinating, intriguing, and thought-provoking.
Career criminals, much like rock stars, may be widely known by the public, without knowing much about their personal lives, where they come from, what they do, or what they’re like. Mob movies changed all that for organized crime. While gangster movies have always been a part of the American film canon, they have changed quite a bit since the days of film noir, or generic cops and robbers stories. The Godfather was revolutionary because it took the viewer into the world of organized crime and made that the focus of the story. It was very different from a Scorsese film in that it not only felt like a European film at times, but the gangsters in it were also all family or part of a family unit. You could feel their connections, which was essential to the story. Goodfellas is a radically different film in many ways. One is that it’s about the antithesis of family closeness. Henry Hill’s closest relationships, the people he spends the most time with, is his crew. Much like a band that goes everywhere together, especially while on tour, Karen Hill points out that there were never any outsiders around and it was normal. Like with many great rock groups, there comes the fall in the form of its close-knit members becoming paranoid until they turn on each other. It’s no coincidence that the opening to Goodfellas is where things really began to go wrong for Henry Hill and his crew.
The ending to a Scorsese film is often the same as the cautionary tale of a rock star: you can party, live life in the fast lane, and do whatever you want, but it all has a cost, and it all comes to an end sooner or later. It’s simply a question of how, when, and how bad the crash will be. Scorsese doesn’t show just the tough, cool, or glamorous in his films, he shows the truth behind it, how long it lasts, and what the cost is. Rather than simply depicting the crime or the gangsters, his films show the hubris, excess, and downfall, all in unflinching detail. That’s the other way his films are unique.
There have been countless movies about criminals and other people living on the edge, but one made by Scorsese pulses with energy. It’s vivid, fully rendered, in bright, shimmering color, without inhibition, demanding our attention, no matter how brutal it looks or how difficult to swallow a truth may be. There are many people the audience may sympathize with, but it’s hard to label many characters heroes because of one thing or another. His characters are painfully human at best and downright shocking at worst, but they’re never dull, and they’re always fully rendered characters we want to watch despite what they do or how they end up … How they end up is downright painful to watch at times. The ending to The Irishman is particularly poignant because it shows a bleak picture of loneliness for someone who survives the mob life, only to have nothing and no one at the end.
Rock music is as much a part of a Scorsese picture as the themes or actors. When one thinks of a Spielberg film, one may think of the countless scores by John Williams that capture a sense of wonder and awe, but when one thinks of a Scorsese film, one thinks of rock music and its edgy, tough, and uninhibited depth. The history of the genre, from its inception through the various decades, is eternally present in his work. The Fleetwood Mac song that plays during Pesci and De Niro’s meeting in Casino is “Go Your Own Way,” which not only suits the mood between the two characters, it’s an apt description for what countless Scorsese characters do or attempt to do.“Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd plays during a significant love scene in The Departed, while “In the Still of the Night” by The Five Satin is a key song in The Irishman. It not only evokes the mood of the 50s when much of The Irishman takes place, it’s an accurate analogy for the title character’s job: doing terrible things under the radar at night for people in power. But it has another meaning, as it’s also what plays at the end when it’s clear the main character is all alone, waiting for death to come. These are just a few examples of why rock music is the backbone of Martin Scorsese’s body of work
What makes Scorsese unique as a filmmaker isn’t that he uses rock music to show darkness and hubris, it’s that he uses rock music in films that depict the American experience as having a unique dark side. A violent, corrupt, pain filled, raucous side. He shows how crime and violence is a unique American experience that has grown and changed along with the country itself, not unlike how rock music has evolved, but how those dark themes are shown and explored is nothing short of brilliant. A typical film may be grim, brutal, and unflinching, but it’s a thrilling experience that leaves one captivated.
Rock has the same effect. The basis for countless songs may be terrible experiences wrapped up with pain, loss, addiction, violence, and everything that entails, but how those themes are depicted is beautiful. A gorgeous depiction of the darker side of human nature would be an apt description for both the rock music canon and Scorsese’s filmography.
What do the films of Scorsese tell us about who we are and where we’re going? Like rock music, his films have evolved and changed over time. As a child of the 1940s, Scorsese is very much a child of the rock ‘n’ roll era, having experienced its evolution firsthand. The New York native would’ve grown up near jazz clubs that helped give birth to a new form of music. Music that was uniquely American and told stories of pain, power, corruption, violence, redemption, love, loss, and guilt, much like his films tells the story of uniquely American power, corruption, violence, and loss. These themes are as interwoven into American culture as rock music, and gangland figures like Henry Hill or the countless figures associated with gangland culture are as part of the American experience as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, or any other American music legend. To Scorsese and many others, rock music isn’t just timeless or part of the American canon, it’s also a window into the dark side of America. The part that may frighten, but also entice and allure, serving as a cautionary tale of what can happen when dealing with the dark side of humanity.
