The Philosophy of Martin ScorseseMark Conard Academy AwardÐwinning director Martin Scorsese is one of the most significant American filmmakers in the history of cinema. Although best known for his movies about gangsters and violence, such as Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, and Taxi Driver, Scorsese has addressed a much wider range of themes and topics in the four decades of his career. In The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese, an impressive cast of contributors explores the complex themes and philosophical underpinnings of Martin ScorseseÕs films. The essays concerning ScorseseÕs films about crime and violence investigate the nature of friendship, the ethics of vigilantism, and the nature of unhappiness. The authors delve deeply into the minds of ScorseseÕs tortured characters and explore how the men and women he depicts grapple with moral codes and their emotions. Several of the essays explore specific themes in individual films. The authors describe how Scorsese addresses the nuances of social mores and values in The Age of Innocence, the nature of temptation and self-sacrifice in The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out the Dead, and the complexities of innovation and ambition in The Aviator. Other chapters in the collection examine larger philosophical questions. In a world where everything can be interpreted as meaningful, Scorsese at times uses his films to teach audiences about the meaning in life beyond the everyday world depicted in the cinema. For example, his films touching on religious subjects, such as Kundun and The Last Temptation of Christ, allow the director to explore spiritualism and peaceful ways of responding to the chaos in the world.Filled with penetrating insights on ScorseseÕs body of work, The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese shows the director engaging with many of the most basic questions about our humanity and how we relate to one another in a complex world. |
From inside the book
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Page 2
... begins with " No Safe Haven : Casino , Friendship , and Egoism , " in which Steven M. Sanders uses Scorsese's film to explore the uneasy relation between egoist ethics , which claims that the only duty one has is to oneself , and ...
... begins with " No Safe Haven : Casino , Friendship , and Egoism , " in which Steven M. Sanders uses Scorsese's film to explore the uneasy relation between egoist ethics , which claims that the only duty one has is to oneself , and ...
Page 9
... begins to accumulate a substantial stash of his own , without the Midwest mob's knowledge , of course , because they think that he is there to keep an eye on Ace . In Nicky's moral universe : “ You gotta know that a guy who helps you ...
... begins to accumulate a substantial stash of his own , without the Midwest mob's knowledge , of course , because they think that he is there to keep an eye on Ace . In Nicky's moral universe : “ You gotta know that a guy who helps you ...
Page 12
... begins to create burdens that outweigh the (perceived) benefits to him, Nicky starts to alter things so that the relationship does not have this result. We see this, for example, in the way in which Nicky starts to skirt the edges of ...
... begins to create burdens that outweigh the (perceived) benefits to him, Nicky starts to alter things so that the relationship does not have this result. We see this, for example, in the way in which Nicky starts to skirt the edges of ...
Page 35
... begins espousing the majority view by questioning whether people really want to become morally good. Rather, it ... begin to rot and fall out. Therefore, even Goodfellas, Gyges, and the Good Life 35.
... begins espousing the majority view by questioning whether people really want to become morally good. Rather, it ... begin to rot and fall out. Therefore, even Goodfellas, Gyges, and the Good Life 35.
Page 36
Mark Conard. your teeth begin to rot and fall out. Therefore, even if it means periodically having your teeth mercilessly grated on with an iron hook, you are much better off putting up with the inconvenience of regularly listening to ...
Mark Conard. your teeth begin to rot and fall out. Therefore, even if it means periodically having your teeth mercilessly grated on with an iron hook, you are much better off putting up with the inconvenience of regularly listening to ...
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
23 | |
31 | |
53 | |
The Cinema of Madness | 75 |
The Age of Innocence | 93 |
After Hours | 109 |
The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out the Dead | 141 |
Flying Solo | 165 |
Art Sex and Time in Scorseses After Hours | 189 |
The Ethical Underpinnings of Kundun | 211 |
Scorsese and the Transcendental | 231 |
Contributors | 247 |
Index | 251 |
The Pupkin Gambit | 129 |
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Common terms and phrases
absurdity actions Age of Innocence argue Aviator bagel and cream become believes Camus Casino characters Charlie comedy compassion cream cheese Dalai Lama Dead desire DiCaprio divine egoism Ellen encounter entrepreneur essay ethics eudaimonia existential experience fact feel fiction Film Noir film’s Frank friends friendship gangster Glaucon Goodfellas Gyges happiness Henry Henry’s horror fiction Howard Hughes Hughes’s human Ibid interest Jesus kind Kundun Last Temptation libertarian lives madman madness Marcy Martin Scorsese Mary means moral movie nature Nausea Neo-Noir Newland Nicky Nietzsche noir one’s papier-mâché paris bagel Paul Paul Schrader Paul’s person Philosophy Plato pleasure protagonist Pupkin Pupkin gambit rational reason Robert De Niro Roquentin Sartre says scene Schrader Scorsese’s film seems sense sexual social society spirited element suffering Taxi Driver Temptation of Christ things Tibetan tion Tommy trans transcendence Travis Bickle ultimately unhappiness viewers vigilantism virtue York
Popular passages
Page 58 - But there is no known Epicurean theory of life which does not assign to the pleasures of the intellect, of the feelings and imagination, and of the moral sentiments, a much higher value as pleasures than to those of mere sensation.
Page 60 - We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men.
Page 77 - Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly, 'I seek God! I seek God!
Page 60 - There is no possibility at all of its being carried through; all the regulations of the universe run counter to it. One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be 'happy' is not included in the plan of 'Creation'.
Page 226 - Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
Page 58 - The comparison of the Epicurean life to that of beasts is felt as degrading, precisely because a beast's pleasures do not satisfy a human being's conceptions of happiness. Human beings have faculties more elevated than the animal appetites, and when once made conscious of them, do not regard anything as happiness which does not include their gratification.
Page 69 - His aggressiveness is introjected, internalized; it is, in point of fact, sent back to where it came from - that is, it is directed towards his own ego. There it is taken over by a portion of the ego, which sets itself over against the rest of the ego as super-ego, and which now, in the form of 'conscience...
Page 208 - Y can be visual, tactile, olfactory, etc., or purely imaginary; in the present example we shall concentrate on vision.) So Romeo senses Juliet, rather than merely noticing her. At this stage he is aroused by an unaroused object, so he is more in the sexual grip of his body than she of hers. Let us suppose, however, that Juliet now senses Romeo in another mirror on the opposite wall, though neither of them yet knows that he is seen by the other (the mirror angles provide three-quarter views). Romeo...
Page 114 - Objects should not touch because they are not alive. You use them, put them back in place, you live among them : they are useful, nothing more. But they touch me, it is unbearable. I am afraid of being in contact with them as though they were living beasts.