A few days ago I was busy brainstorming on a creative for a film company. I was supposed to think of a script that highlighted the work and talent of Martin Scorsese. Since I have been a big Scorsese fan for ages, I thought why not written down a piece that lists my favourite Scorsese’s work.

So, here are a few with a bit of synopsis

#1 – The Departed – While some may list Taxi Driver or Raging Bull as their favourites, my favourite is the multi-starrer that gave Martin Scorsese his first Academy Award after being nominated twice and losing to first time directors (He lost to Robert Redford for Ordinary People in 1981 and to Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves in 1990). An English adaptation of a Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, The Departed focuses on a complex plot where a cop is induced in underworld and an underworld man is plotted as a cop to exchange vital information. With a stellar cast in Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and a brilliant Matt Damon, The Departed was a real feather in Scorsese’s crown. With a brilliant screenplay and unpredictable twists, The Departed is a collector’s item.

#2 – Goodfellas – Again, I am going for the less favourable one. “Do you think I am funny?” “What do you mean I am funny?” These immortal quotes from temperamental character Joe Pesci still resonate in film lover’s mind. Goodfellas, a film adaptation of the book Wiseguy is a criminal masterpiece. The film starred Scorsese’s friend Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and inimitable Joe Pesci. Centred on the wildly-ambitious character of Ray Liotta, Goodfellas looks into the dirty world of nurturing criminals and the lure of money and power that finally leads to their downfall. Widely regarded as one of the greatest crime films, Goodfellas circles the rise and fall of criminals in the 1970s. You’ll love it for more than one reason.

# 3 – Gangs of New York – Daniel Day-Lewis. Period. Watch it for the greatest actor of this generation. It’s a pity Daniel Day-Lewis won all major awards (including BAFTA and Golden Globe) for his portrayal of a native American butcher but Academy which was presented to Brody for The Pianist. But nothing can be taken away from the genius Scorsese. The film illuminates with brilliant sets that portray the Unites States of late 1800s and the poignancy of Leonardo DeCaprio, the orphan of Irish immigrant who is slaughtered by the Butcher. The film was shot in a studio in Italy and was far ahead of its times. I personally love the soundtrack “Hands that Built America” by U2.

# 4 – Raging Bull – Raging Bull gave Robert De Niro his only Academy Award and how thoroughly he deserved it. Depicting the successful and troubled life of middle weight champion Jake LaMotta, it was Robert De Niro’s finest performance after Godfather II. The film was shot in black and white to lend it an authentic feel and touch. De Niro gained and lost 30 kgs (reminding me of Christian Bale in The Machinist) to portray the insane character of a temperamental boxer. A true classic!

# 5 – Shutter Island – This was a real surprise for me. It was shunned by critics before I watched it at home, so I did not have any expectations. However, Shutter Island (another book adaptation) is a movie that grows on you as it progresses. A psychological thriller filmed inside an imaginary island prison brings out the state of a prisoner. Ok, I have given away the suspense here! Watch DeCaprio do well when handled by his master, and Ben Kingsley reminds us why he once won as Oscar. An unusually different film by Scorsese, but one of the best that I have seen in the past two years.

# 6 – The Aviator – No other Scorsese fan is going to rate The Aviator so low. The Aviator is a complete package, story of a nutcase Howard Hughes who was a compulsive businessman. A film maker and a flying enthusiast, he made and broke his empire, displaying the American capitalism of the 40s. Scorsese handled the film with great finesse. It’s good that no other director attempted to bring Hughes on screen because no body could have done such as great job. Di Caprio fit the role like fish to water. Cate Blanchett was particularly impressive as Audrey Hepburn. A psychological drama that puts across the life of an idiosyncratic entrepreneur, The Aviator is truly a collector’s item.

#7 – Casino – Oh! What a film! Casino is the most underrated work of Scorsese. A suave Robert De Niro, a notorious Joe Pesci and a sensuous Sharon Stone bed on a story plot that once again narrates the mastery of Scorsese on criminal films. Casino showcases the working of a casino, money laundering and the conflicts of Robert De Niro who runs a casino. It also has one of my all-time favourite Robert De Niro dialogues where he threatens his wife’s ex-lover: “Next time, carry a gun. You’ll have a chance!” in a typical Robert De Niro fashion. Go for Casino. It’s a typical pot-boiler.

# 8 – Taxi Driver – One of Scrosese’s earliest films, Taxi Driver is a classic now with the famous scene where De Niro looks back and says “Are you talking to me?” repeatedly. The weird character of Robert De Niro is the highlight. He is an insomniac who drives taxi at night and is fascinated by a hooker. He has his views on politics. Watch it for Robert De Niro and how intelligently Scorsese handles character development.

 
These are my top 8 but there are a few more like The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundan that I haven’t watched yet. The Age of Innocence is another film that I watched some time back but there’s nothing home to write about it apart from the fact that it had the best stars of that time in Daniel-Day Lewis and Michelle Pfifer.  Another film could be Robert De Niro starrer The King of Comedy which is a black comedy, but qualifies to be once-in-a-while kind of film.

Writing movie reviews (If I dare call myself a critic) sometimes becomes a process where you absorb emotions and the review in itself becomes an outlet. When I say ‘sometimes’, I mean for some kind of movies that are heavy on emotions, which could be of a wide variety. Finding Neverland is a movie that epitomizes love for all in various forms. It celebrates the love for a woman, a man, children, profession, life, people, nature. Just when you think you have answers to most questions in the film, the little boy Peter asks his affable uncle James “Why did my mother have to die?” to which Uncle replies quiet candidly: “I don’t know”. It may be the simplest of the answers to the most complex questions, but it portrays the same state of mind of two people who are about 30 years apart. That we are not permanent here is the harshest of truths that we ever like to face.

I have never liked Johnny Depp so much as I was bowled over by his charm in Finding Neverland. For me it was finding Depp. It’s a pity that he has wasted his talent as Jack Sparrow! Moving to Finding Neverland, it’s a poignant story that begins with dismay of a playwright and perhaps ends with it; it begins with his want for theatrical success and ends with the want of a woman he seemed to love for the better part of the film. The subject of love Sylvia Davies, played by the in-form Kate Winslet, is a widow with 4 boys. Apparently, Sylvia still lives with the grief of her dead husband, and is occupied with the parenting of her 4 sons. Playwright James is the only friend the family seems to have, especially because he is great friends with the boys and enacts plays with them. Having developed great acquaintance with the family and platonic love for Sylvia, James’ own personal life suffers as his wife becomes involved another man. His social life suffers because people doubt his relationship with Sylvia and the boys.

Unflustered, James finds inspiration for his next play from the Davies’ family and starts scripting a play for the coming season. The play producer, played by impressive Dustin Hoffman, initially dislikes the idea of the play, but gives James a go-ahead on his past reputation. James continues to pen his play centred on the concept of Neverland, a place that he had imagined as a child. Sounding more like a piece of fiction and a far cry from conventional plays, the play turns out to be a major success in the early 20th century London.

As James spends more time with the Davies family, Sylvia’s health deteriorates. Eventually she crumbles to her illness, leaving the 4 boys orphaned. James and the boys’ grandmother take the co-parenting of the 4 boys upon Sylvia’s request in the will.
What stands out in the film is Depp’s subtle performance, his meditative addiction to plays, his pure and clean heart. Finding Neverland is a quiet film that may move you, but does turn into a tearjerker, thankfully! It gives an insight into the life of a playwright – his dilemmas, his state of mind, his obsessions, and his calmness amidst surrounding hustle and bustle.

Finding Neverland is good old cinema that can be a good break from wham-bam cinema that overrules us today!

It is not too often that you come across a human figure that defies every principle of humanity, is consumed in self-absorption, and barbarism is his way of life. Real life Ibi Amin may just be a more scary figure than what is depicted by Forest Whittaker in an Academy Award-winning performance in The Last King of Scotland. Whittaker, in all possibilities, has gone as close as any other actor of any age could have. The Last King of Scotland, contrary to the title has nothing to do with the empire of Scotland, but the most tyrannical ruler Uganda has ever seen, and pray never sees again. Amin was accused of killing up to 500,000 people during his regime from 1970-1979. It takes a lot to get into the skin of such a character and to feel him, his way of taking, dressing and overall thinking.

You just can’t be a supreme actor to be portraying what Whittaker does. You need to be mentally strong and well-balanced. The Last King of Scotland can be described as a pacy thriller that hangs on for a few moments. The killings in the film are not ‘in your face’; they happen in the background of the growing friendship between Scottish doctor Garrigan and Amin. Dr Garrigan (a very impressive James MaAvoy who excelled in Atonement) is a young and wild Scottish doctor who is entirely oblivious the politics of third world countries, especially Africa. He comes to Uganda on a mission and finds himself befriending the charming president-general whose wit and humor helps him bond with the ‘white guy’. Upon becoming the personal physician of Imin, he soon finds himself becoming his closest advisor, also surprisingly finding himself negotiating with Austrian foreign minister once.

Amidst this awkward growing friendship, Garrigan finds himself being pampered (he receives a convertible Mercedes and wears well-tailored suits), being consultant to a hospital with a little whiff of the atrocities of Imin. He is warned by a British diplomat and even asked to assassinate Imin when Garrigan wishes to leave Uganda but his passport is seized.

The Last King of Scotland is marked with cynical and moronic behaviour of Imin who practices polygamy, declares one of his wives as a bad omen, parties wildly into the night, kills mercilessly (in one scene the mutilated corpse make a doctor puke), negotiates with the Israeli government when a hijacked Air France flight lands in Kampala, and ends up trusting no one including his own instincts.

You cannot watch The Last King of Scotland and just walk away. You will be compelled to know more about the man who brutally crushed a country for nine continuous years, and turned national economy his own pocket money. And we thought the world just had Hitler!

There are few films that are truly addictive and there are some that grow upon you every time you watch them. The Bourne Trilogy (comprising The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum) for me is one of those rare trilogies that is wholesome, un-melodramatic (which the LOTR trilogy, another favourite of mine, fails to be), and stars a surprise package in Matt Damon, who impresses himself as an imposing action star (with brains) in an age of hulk-like action stars.

It was last weekend that I entertained the thought of watching The Bourne Supremacy once again, and ended up watching all the three parts all over again. For me, the three films remain the best thrillers ever made. I have not read the books, but if they are even half as good then I am sure it is going to be a reader’s delight. The Bourne Series is a traveller’s delight as well. The movie begins in Switzerland, then moves to Paris, to Goa in the second Part and then taking you on a tour to Naples to Berlin to Moscow. The Bourne Supremacy is set in London, Spain, Morocco and finally the US where amnesic Jason Bourne discovers his haunted past.

I won’t be delving into the storyline of the film here, rather discussing the key elements of each part that makes the whole series so compelling yet each film a wonder in its own way. Identity primarily is a precursor to Supremacy and Ultimatum, introducing us to the amazing skills of Jason Bourne – a CIA assassin who can accurately state the weight of a man by merely looking at him, remembers the numbers of the last six cars that he has sighted in the street, uncannily knows where to find a gun around him, and knows at what speed will he run in a certain temperature till his body gives in to the weather. To top that, he can decapitate armed men in a matter of seconds, climb high-rises as comfortable as he can descend them, and deceive them with as much comfort as we poo. Above all, he is on a trail to discover himself, until he learns he is a CIA agent who is now in the firing line of the merciless CIA.

Supremacy is an adrenalin-pumping successor to the first instalment where we see Bourne leading a happy life with his partner in Goa until she is killed by a KGB assassin. With no purpose left in India, Bourne embarks on a journey to Europe to find the killer and further discover himself. From one surprise to another, Bourne arrives in Berlin where he has to encounter CIA supremo Pamela Landy. Surviving one attack after another in a profoundly unbelievable manner, Bourne furthers comes to know of himself and the curse that is Operation Treadstone. A victim of CIA bureaucracy, Bourne escapes to Moscow to apologize to the daughter of a Russian minister and his wife who he had killed in a pre-amnesic CIA operation. One of the highlights of the films is a car chase that happens in Moscow when the KGB assassin again gets after him and crashes into a divider in a bid to kill the invincible Bourne. Supremacy also reflects the intelligence of Bourne, and how CIA creates a Frankenstein for itself.

Ultimatum, with brilliantly written screen-played, finally reveals the complete identity of Jason Bourne or David Webb. Cleverly crafted and enviably executed, it brings forth the corrupt and ruthless underbelly of CIA, and source-media relationship. Again action-packed with high drama and edge-of-the-seat plots, Supremacy re-stamps the authority of Jason Bourne and the scars of his antics that haunt the CIA and how desperately they try to eliminate its amnesic insider. In the last instalment, Bourne does get a few sympathisers in Landy and Nikki who also indicates that she earlier had a relationship with Bourne.

After a rollicking trilogy, all I wait for is The Bourne Legacy, due in June 2012 (these guyz are agonizingly slow in making films; imagine they started in 2002). All I can say is that this trilogy is worth watching thrice!