A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies

Martin Scorsese

“I can only talk about what has moved me or intrigued me,” says filmmaker Martin Scorsese at the beginning of this four-hour documentary about his passion for U.S. cinema. “I can’t really be objective here.” Hallelujah! A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies is the perfect antidote to the forced and artificial doctrine of the American Film Institute’s so-called 100 best films. The AFI’s English cousin, the British Film Institute, did a brilliant thing in enlisting Scorsese–probably the most famous student of cinema in the U.S.–to open up and speak at length for this project about the history of artistic survival among Hollywood directors. Scorsese takes a highly intuitive and heartfelt approach in describing how a number of filmmakers–some famous and some forgotten–carefully layered their visions into their work, often against the great resistance or eccentric whims of powerful producers. Film clips are plentiful, but they are also more than window dressing for nostalgia buffs.”