Plot: What’s it about?
It was not too long ago when this viewer had a night channeling television up all the channels with nothing on and it was not until I got to Public Broadcasting that something happened. A director seated spoke of a love of everything in his youth but most particularly movies and it was hard to change the channel when at every minute there was an intriguing three-part look at a past that doesn’t exist today and a feeling of inspiration of celluloid seen through the eyes of a director and how far that inspiration led him to the choices he made as a filmmaker. It was travelling into an artists mind as this viewer was taking A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies.
In the first part, Scorsese spoke about The Director’s Dilemma. This was a time when the studio system was running and every decision was made by the money men. Analyzing The Director as Storyteller there are many unique ways to tell a story and in some cases the same one can be put in a genre whether it’s a gangster picture, a western picture or a musical.
Part II explores The Director as Illusionist which shows how the talents of a director comes with something to say and a vision that is all their own. With that vision leads to Part III where certain directors were smugglers that were ones that got away with their personal messages in film within the studio system and projected The Director as Iconoclast showing what it takes to make a movie a good movie and what can stand the test of time no matter whether the movie is popular or obscure.
This journey is a little more than four hours, but the time goes by and by the time it’s done the viewer is put through one of the best film history classes ever. Scorsese guides the audience through his points through clips and brief interviews along with showing some films not everyone knows about but should.
If there’s one thing about this journey, it’s a little more than narration with the narrator on-screen with a great array of clips and interviews. It is a trip through a passionate filmmaker that not only loves to make movies, he’s a movie lover himself and in that passion he shows an understanding to some classics and hidden gems that show many phases of the director. It is hard to not like a journey that starts with The Bad and The Beautiful and ends off with Two Weeks In Another Town, demonstrating two Kirk Douglas movies about that very medium of making movies that are classics themselves today to bookend a classic journey.
Video: How does it look?
A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies is a special for television done for television and in it’s full frame ratio (switching off on some films), the 9 year old picture holds up well during both the discussion with Scorsese with the many film clips, some of which are available on DVD, in their original aspect ratio, and in better transfers. Another great thing is the quality of the many prints, particularly what DVD collectors could be in for is the clips for East of Eden, which looks great and is a nice foreshadowing into the DVD future. The picture stays consistant all the way through making for a nice transfer.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Stereo 2.0 track is great varying within the many clips both to the clear narration of Scorsese seated and to the older films that have the majority of the track on the center channels with a spread apart now and then and the beautiful title music by Elmer Bernstein spreading out very nicely, even for a stereo track making for good clarity and a good track.
Supplements: What are the extras?
There are no extras on this disc, but the discussion and the learning experience this viewer had watching this journey spread upon two disc (first part on side A-Disc One, second on Side B and third parton Disc Two) is more than any extra can provide along with giving one of the last title works of Saul Bass which includes the caricature drawing of Scorsese.
Overall. in honor of the release of the superb Scorsese Collection, A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies is a must requirement for any film class and a must own for any DVD collection which should be included at the soonest possible time as it comes highly recommended.
