What is Martin Scorsese's cinematic bond with New York?

According to the Internet Movie Database, Martin Scorsese has directed 18 full-length feature films since his film career began in the early 70s. One thing that's been present throughout his entire career is his bond with the city of New York (his place of birth and where he grew up). Through the central themes of sin, redemption, conflict and violence, Martin Scorsese has created an exhilarating, brutal and uncomfortable depiction of life in the Big Apple from the 60s right through to the modern day. Appearing in 13 of Scorsese's 18 films, New York has always held a special place in the director's heart.

Scorsese's parents were Sicilian immigrants, who lived in Queens, New York before moving into Manhattan's Little Italy. Scorsese lived with his parents on Elizabeth Street -his 1974 short film Italian American looks directly into his parent's life there-, a community in which 'every bodily function, including casual sex and horrendous violence, was performed virtually in public'. "I will never forget that view from the window sill". Scorsese was hung up with frequent asthma attacks, which meant that for most of the time, he was confined to his family's tiny apartment. This meant that he would be awake at night, observing the streets from his window. His family was 'cocooned in a tight-knit community' in which he could observe 'Drunks fighting, knives being pulled, people yelling…'.

His life in New York as a kid is very much linked to his 1990 Henry Hill biopic GoodFellas. In 'Hotdog Magazine', he explains that he was very aware of the powerful people around him when he was growing up. "My father would say, 'Be very careful. Don't go with that person, go with that one." They could get what they wanted with the click of their fingers. As in several of his other films, the dialogue and characters in the film come from personal experience. "The speed of GoodFellas stems from the guys I knew when I was young who'd stand on street corners and were great storytellers." Part of the reason why the characters in the film are so likeable is because Scorsese 'saw a balancing act between good and evil around him.' He recognised that 'vicious hoodlums could be nice guys to their families' and that 'sin, redemption, friendship and betrayal went hand in hand'.

One of the reasons why Scorsese's cinematic bond is so strong is because: 'He connects to the madness, the idea of birth of a city, how people have been made to live here'. His films are constantly exploring the connections to his own roots. It is ironic that the daily life he was trying to escape from as a youngster has provided the themes for his films as an adult filmmaker. All his best films (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and GoodFellas) have stemmed from the 'gritty, grimy, inhumane yet all-too-recognisably human world in which he grew up'.

The end of his second film Mean Streets (1974) is based on personal experience. Just as Johnny Boy is shot in the eye in the film's climax, Scorsese and a friend were witness to a similar drive-by shooting involving a teenage kid. In fact, a guy named Joey who Scorsese used to hang out with is kind of the inspiration for the characters of Charlie and Johnny Boy. In Chapter 3 of 'Scorsese on Scorsese', the director explains that the entire film is based on his impressions of growing up in the Big Apple and the friends around him: "Mean Streets was an attempt to put myself and my old friends on the screen, to show how we lived, what life was like in Little Italy."

When he received the script for Taxi Driver (1976), Scorsese was ironically living in Los Angeles. Both Taxi Driver and his 1999 film Bringing Out The Dead deal strongly with the theme of loneliness, something that Scorsese himself experienced when living in New York- "I embraced the film because I was kind of a loner myself on the Lower East Side…And I knew the sense of rejection that Travis felt" - and as revealed by writer Paul Schrader in the making-of documentary on the Taxi Driver dvd, the taxi cab was a metaphor for loneliness. "You can only do loneliness in a crowded atmosphere" - Paul Schrader. Incidentally, Scorsese cameos as a lonely taxi passenger. Scorsese kept up his own personal bond with the city by using a real drummer (who he spotted on the street) and the fact that Jodie Foster's character in the film is based on a real New York prostitute. The idea of loneliness is also explored in Scorsese's 1983 comedy King of Comedy.

Although Scorsese's similar Bringing Out The Dead takes place in the early 90s, the streetlife hasn’t much changed from twenty years ago. The film is set entirely in New York, 'rarely moving beyond those hellish venues west of Time Square and Broadway which Travis Bickle cruised in his checker cab.' It's another example of the noirish city the director has created; another exploration of New York's nightlife, which Scorsese is notably fond of; another example of how 'Scorsese's New York movies have always ignored everything that the modern, newly-safe city is supposed to represent'.

As put by Scorsese in the January 2003 issue of 'Sight and Sound', "I was part of that old world." His latest film Gangs of New York touches on three of his familiar themes: history, gangsters and survival in New York. In the film, the characters seek identity, placement and redemption. It is a 'portrait of the Big Apple with the explosions of hopelessness and rage'. He has taken 30 years to get the film made but has finally done it through persistence. He loves his city and he will do anything to bring the city to other people.

According to ex- New York paramedic Joseph Connelly (who wrote the book Scorsese's film Bringing Out The Dead is based on) much of Scorsese's work had inspired him when writing his novel. It seems that Scorsese's cinematic bond with New York is so strong that- "Your impressions of New York come from Scorsese. You begin to lose track of how much is yours and how much is Scorsese's".

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