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How Did Martin Scorsese Influence American Films

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With hits such as Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, and The Departed, Martin Scorsese has become one of the most influential American film directors and screenwriters of our generation. Born in New York City in 1942, Scorsese has always wanted to work in film. His love of films helped him to create brilliant works of art all throughout his career. His films have won many academy awards and BAFTA awards Through filming and editing techniques to the neorealism aspect of the films and Scorsese's personal influence into his storytelling are what makes him incredibly unique compared to the rest of the world's directors. He got an early start into film because he had asthma as a kid and couldn't do much so his father would take him to the theaters often. That is when he began to fall in love with the cinema. He Graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He started out with short films, then worked his way up to his first feature film, Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967). It was called “a marvelous evocation of American city life, announcing the arrival of an important new director” by film critic Roger Ebert. It went on to be the winner of the 1968 Chicago Film Festival (6). …show more content…

He paired up with Robert De Niro for a lot of them. Their crime genre films have been widely successful over the years. De Niro’s line, “You talkin’ to me?” in Taxi Driver, became one of the most famous lines in film history. Steven Speilberg had said that he feels like De Niro is Scorsese's alter ego in his films (8). It allows De Niro's characters to act out and lose control so that Scorsese doesn't have to. Scorsese has also collaborated with Leonardo DiCaprio on a number of films, including The Departed, Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street. Like actors, Scorsese also has a long professional relationship with Thelma Schoonmaker, his editor for nearly all of his films

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