Bloody Awful

Rating: 4/10 (25 January 2003)

What is it with film directors that they cannot produce consistently good work once fame and reverence goes to their head? Scorsese is considered the greatest US filmmaker still active (by all those who don't think so of Spielberg). Much like his endlessly-feuding, barbaric, mid-19th century New Yorkers, the man seems to have worn his welcome in history, and what a sad, sad realization that is.
His masterpieces ("Mean Streets", "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull", "Goodfellas"), will always remain such, and hopefully endure in the annals of cinema. But why, why such travesty?
Abandoning his unique style in favor of a concoction between "Moulin Rouge" and "Braveheart" (with a bit of "The Postman" thrown in for good measure), Scorsese, in his apparent eagerness to catch up to the 21st century, seems to have adopted the worst traits of modern moviemaking. The next step in this witches' brew of a film is assembling the most familliar and tired screenwriting cliches, grinding them, stirring them to a boil, and then pouring them out onto the screen. Add to that a haphazard, sluggish editing, which may or may not be the result of Scorsese's battle with Miramax. Then some generic actors who clearly look uncomfortable and not even very significant before such a gigantic ego. Construct a post-apocalyptic looking set, and include a CGI(!) elephant stampede during the climax. Shall I even continue?
GONY's underlying themes are even more dubious and incomprehensible - what are we supposed to make of the primitive stab at Civil-War America's social/ethnic urban politics? Vengeance, religion, parenthood, and yes, democracy - are distilled to a comic-book level.
What has happened to the master who in his heyday created such dynamic, urgent, intoxicating (and subtle, in their own inimitable fashion) character studies? After seeing this grandiose folly, one wishes that Scorsese would have taken a graceful exit, and retired or stuck to film preservation. Bergman, for example, has not made a feature film in almost 20 years, and that makes him no less great...