DON’T STOP WITH THE BULL: ANOTHER SCORSESE BOX SET ARRIVES FOR VIEWING

Last August I got very excited due to the release of “The Martin Scorsese Collection” on DVD from Warner Video. Well today, MGM releases another box set they’re calling “The Martin Scorsese Film Collection” with four different Scorsese pictures including the new 25th Anniversary 2-disc DVD release of his masterpiece Raging Bull.

Collectively, the Warner’s set has better movies with the inclusion of Who’s That Knocking at My Door?, Mean Streets, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, After Hours and GoodFellas, but this MGM collection is actually fascinating for a very different reason – it’s far more eclectic, including four films (Boxcar Bertha, New York, New York, The Last Waltz and Raging Bull) that are basically nothing like each other but if watched in close proximity still exhibit Scorsese’s characteristic traits as a filmmaker.

Obviously, Raging Bull is the hook for this set, and if you have no interest in the other films, you can buy Raging Bull on its own, separate from this set. I already owned the previous DVD release, but the extras on this 2-disc version are incredible. They include a commentary track by Scorsese and his longtime editing partner Thelma Schoonmaker; a second commentary track featuring a slew of other participants including DP Michael Chapman who simply created one of the most beautiful looking films in the history of cinema; and a third commentary track featuring screenwriter Paul Schrader and the real Jake LaMotta. There are also (count ’em) five making-of documentaries, newsreel footage of the real LaMotta as well as a shot-by-shot comparison of DeNiro and LaMotta in the ring. I haven’t seen it yet, but the description of these extras should be incredibly enticing for any cinephile.

(On a related note, I just learned today that the real Vicki LaMotta, portrayed magnificently by Cathy Moriarty in the movie, passed away two weeks ago in Boca Raton at the age of 75.)

But don’t spend $20 on just Raging Bull when for approximately $35 you can get this whole set. Boxcar Bertha is a phenomenal example of a young Scorsese developing the themes and techniques he would continue to use throughout his career. This film was Scorsese’s first work-for-hire, and like so many recent film-school grads of his generation, it was for legendary mega-B-movie producer Roger Corman. What makes it so interesting is that while Who’s That Knocking at My Door? and Mean Streets both represent what Scorsese is most famous for – the Italian, New York city life with thugs and violence — Boxcar Bertha is a period piece set in the 30s among dusty railroads and focusing on labor and unions. Being a Corman picture, there is the requisite violence and nudity (and woo hoo … young Barbara Hershey was hot!). I haven’t seen this film for over a decade, but I’ll always remember one shot near the end when David Carradine (Hershey’s lover) is nailed to the said of a boxcar in a crucifixion pose. Scorsese always brought his Catholicism into his filmmaking, even in a Corman produced picture, and while Boxcar Bertha is by no means a great film, it’s not difficult to see how its young director went on to make what is a phenomenal movie, The Last Temptation of Christ.

Like Boxcar Bertha, I haven’t seen New York, New York or The Last Waltz in many years. The former is actually the one Scorsese film that I never liked at all. I found it overlong and dull, and it seemed like the director was simply trying to do too much in this epic love-story musical. This film has its admirers, and to be fair, I definitely need to watch it again. Scorsese original cut was reportedly around four hours long (ugh!), and this DVD release (the film’s first, I believe) includes multiple outtakes and deleted scenes, an introduction to the film by Scorsese and a commentary track with Scorsese and film critic Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Last Waltz is a concert film of the final performance by the great 70s country-rock group The Band. The concert featured a lineup of guest performers who were among the most important musical artists of the day, such as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton and Neil Young. This film wasn’t Scorsese’s first foray into concert documentary — he was an editor on Woodstock. That film along with this one (and of course the Maysles’ Gimme Shelter) basically influenced every concert movie produced since then. But even more importantly in terms of Scorsese’s oeuvre is seeing how in touch his filmmaking is with the music. Few movies have ever used songs as part of a soundtrack as well as Scorsese did in GoodFellas; in The Last Waltz it’s interesting to see how things are different (if they are) when instead of using the music to serve the filmmaking, he utilizes the filmmaking to enhance the music.

With the release of this collection from MGM, it looks like most of Scorsese’s pre-GoodFellas work is getting the right treatment on DVD. His vastly underrated The King of Comedy was released on DVD last year, but it includes no extras and if anyone should do commentary tracks for all his films, it’s Scorsese. Taxi Driver could use some beefing up of its extras as well – the current release offers little more than a brief making-of “featurette” and some screenplay pages. Maybe that’s coming for the film’s 30th Anniversary next year.

In the mean time, I highly suggest you immerse yourself in the two collections that have been released so far. It’s very interesting to compare these first 20-odd years of his career to films such as Gangs of New York and The Aviator which both present a more epic form and style of filmmaking than almost any of these earlier films. Even GoodFellas, which is a grand, operatic work in its own way, still maintains the intimate feel of a specific insular world characterized in all his earlier films. While rival studio ownership may preclude what could be a perfect third collection — Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, The Color of Money, Cape Fear, and Bringing Out the Dead — even with Taxi Driver missing, these two box sets (along with the Criterion release of The Last Temptation of Christ), they prove why Martin Scorsese is one of, if not the, most important American directors to work during the end of the 20th Century.