Martin Scorsese

The Pocket Essentials: Film

by Paul Duncan

Pocket Essentials is a dynamic series of books that are concise, lively, and easy to read. Packed with facts as well as expert opinions, each book has all the key information you need to know about such popular topics as film, television, cult fiction, history, and more. There's more to Scorsese's work than crime and violence. His characters are trying to attain some kind of spiritual peace with society, their family, and themselves, and in the end they try to make a decision they can live with. Hailed as America's greatest living film director, Martin Scorsese is an innovative storyteller at the height of his intellectual and emotional powers. This Pocket Essential examines his life and work.

Genres: Film

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[TARUN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, I don't agree with every opinion given by the author but nevertheless it's a really good introductory book on martin scorsese.

[Daniel Rochelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

A brief overview and analysis of all of Martin Scorsese's works as of 2004, but I won't hold it being out-of-date against it. I think writer Paul Duncan has some interesting insights about the commonalities between various Scorsese pictures here, but the book is formatted in the least engaging way possible - going through his career in date order and talking about each movie in a near vacuum, rather than putting themes and motifs front and centre and weaving through his filmography to demonstrate how he's explored specific ideas over the course of 40 years. The result is a marginally interesting, fairly surface summary of a career that feels a little too close to a book report, rather than the essay-like deeper dive I had maybe hoped for. Not bad, just not what I was really looking for.