Showing posts with label Raging Bull. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Raging Bull. Show all posts

Monday, May 22, 2023

A Look Back At Martin Scorsese' World Of Crime


With Martin Scorsese (seen above in the white shirt with his Goodfellas actors) being hailed at this time as the director of Killers of the Flower Moon, I thought readers might like to look back at previous crime films from the famed director. 

I’m a huge fan of Mean Streets, Raging Bull and Casino. And I think Goodfellas is one of the greatest crime films ever made.

Below is a link to my Crime Beat column on Scorsese’s The Departed, and his earlier films:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Beat Column: Martin Scorsese's Film World of Crime

You can also read my Washington Times On Crime column on Scorsese’s The Irishman (which I called Oldfellas) via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: Oldfellas: Frank Sheeran, 'The Irishman' And 'I Heard You Paint Houses': My First Washington Times Weekly 'On Crime' Column 




Saturday, November 17, 2018

Happy Birthday To Martin Scorsese, Director Of Classic Crime Films 'Goodfellas,' 'Casino,' 'Raging Bull,' And 'Mean Streets'


As Biography.com notes, today is Martin Scorsese's 76th birthday. 

Although he has directed fine films in other genres, he is most known for his classic crime films, such as Goodfellas, Casino, Raging Bull and Mean Streets. I'm looking forward to watching his upcoming crime film, The Irishman, on Netflix.

You can read about the director's life and work and watch a video clip via the below link:



 
You can also read my Crime Beat column on Martin Scorsese via the below link:

Friday, November 17, 2017

Happy 75th Birthday To Martin Scorsese, Director Of 'Goodfellas,' Casino,' and 'Mean Streets'


As Biography.com notes, today is Martin Scorsese's 75th birthday. 

Martin Scorsese is the director of some of my favorite crime films, including such crime classics as Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Casino and Goodfellas.



Born November 17, 1942, in Flushing, New York, Martin Scorsese is known for his gritty, meticulous filmmaking style and is widely considered one of the most important directors of all time.

Martin Scorsese was born November 17, 1942, in Flushing, New York. Raised by Italian-American parents in the Little Italy district of Manhattan, Scorsese later remembered his neighborhood as being "like a village in Sicily." Scorsese's parents, Charles and Catherine, both worked part-time as actors, helping set the stage for their son's love of cinema.

Because Scorsese was afflicted by severe asthma, his childhood activities were limited; rather than play sports, he spent much of his time in front of the television or at the movie theater, where he fell in love especially with stories about the Italian experience and films by director Michael Powell. By the time he was eight years old, Scorsese was already drawing his own storyboards –often complete with the line, "Directed and Produced by Martin Scorsese."

You can read the rest of the piece and watch a video clip about Martin Scorsese via the below link:

You can also read my Crime Beat column about Martin Scorsese's world of crime via the below link:

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Frank Vincent, Actor Who Portrayed Mobsters In 'The Sopranos,' 'Goodfellas,' Casino' And 'Raging Bull," Dies


The Hollywood Reporter offers a piece on the death of Frank Vincent, a fine actor who portrayed convincingly mobster ‘Billy Batts’ in Martin Scorsese’s crime classic Goodfellas and other mobsters in Scorsese’s Raging Bull and Casino, as well as a mobster on HBO's The Sopranos, has died. .

Frank Vincent, who played the vicious mob boss Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos, has died. He was 78.

Vincent died Wednesday of complications from heart surgery in New Jersey, according to reports from The Blast and TMZ.

Vincent also portrayed tough guys for director Martin Scorsese in Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) — as the real-life Gambino gangster Billy Batts, he with the memorable line, "Go home and get your shine box!" — and Casino (1995). On HBO's The Sopranos, Leotardo often butted heads with James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano as he eventually rose to become boss of the Lupertazzi crime family.  

Note: Frank Vincent was also the author of A Guy's Guide to Being a Man's Man. 

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Happy Birthday To Robert De Niro, One of America's Greatest Actors


As History.com notes, today is the birthday of Robert De Niro, one of the greatest actors in modern movie history.

You can read about Robert De Niro's life and work via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/robert-de-niro-born?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2016-0817-08172016&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=80488914&kx_EmailCampaignID=6665&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2016-0817-08172016&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa

Note: Robert De Niro is one of my favorite actors. I particularly like his film collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. Together they made what I consider the greatest crime film ever made, Goodfellas. They also made other classic crime films together, such as Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Casino. Robert De Niro also starred in and directed Chazz Palminteri's brilliant film, A Bronx Tale. 

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Joe Pesci’s 10 Most Brutal Movie Scenes As The Mob Actor Turns 73, From 'Goodfellas' To 'Home Alone' (Warning — Graphic content) Now Go Get Your Shine Box


Yesterday was actor Joe Pesci's birthday and to celebrate the day, Mark Emery at the New York Daily News offers a piece on the actor and presents 10 of his most brutal movie scenes.

Few can dish it — and take it — like Joe Pesci. 

The short actor with an even shorter fuse became famous for playing ruthless mobsters eager to inflict pain, and often their propensity for violence catches up to them — sometimes in savage fashion.

With Pesci turning 73 on Tuesday, here are his 10 most brutal movie scenes:

You can read the rest of the piece and watch the video clips via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/joe-pesci-10-brutal-movie-scenes-actor-turns-73-article-1.2525617

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Funny, How? I Amuse You, Like A Clown? Happy 71st Birthday To Actor Joe Pesci


As Biography.com notes, today is the birthday of one my favorite actors, Joe Pesci. He appeared in several of Martin Scorsese's classic crime films, including Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino. He also appeared in comedy films such as Easy Money and My Cousin Vinny.

Joe Pesci was born February 9, 1943 in Newark, New Jersey. After Robert De Niro saw Pesci's performance in The Death Collector, he brought the film to the attention of director Martin Scorsese, who cast Joe Pesci in his 1980 masterpiece Raging Bull. This was the beginning of a long line of supporting roles for Pesci, who soon became one of the busiest character actors in the business.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.biography.com/people/joe-pesci-9542518

You can also read an earlier post on Joe Pesci via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/09/funny-how-i-amuse-you-like-clown.html   

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Happy Birthday To Robert De Niro

Biography.com notes that actor Robert De Niro was born on this date in New York City in 1943.

Robert De Niro left school at age 16 to study acting with Stella Adler. He then worked with many acclaimed film directors, including Brian DePalma, Elia Kazan and, most importantly, Martin Scorsese. De Niro's role in The Godfather: Part II (1974) brought him his first Academy Award. He went on to make several other critically acclaimed films, including The Deer Hunter (1978), and scored his second Academy Award for Raging Bull (1980). In the 1990s, De Niro saw continued success with such films as Goodfellas and Analyze This. He recently won acclaim for his work on Silver Linings Playbook (2012).

You can read the rest of the piece and watch a video of De Niro's life via the below link:

http://www.biography.com/people/robert-de-niro-9271729?et_cid=55671190&et_rid=704027439&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.biography.com%2fpeople%2frobert-de-niro-9271729

Friday, April 8, 2011

Frank Vincent: A Veteran Character Gangster Actor Takes The Lead In Chicago Overcoat


Bill Iddings at The Muskegon Chronicle wrote an interesting piece about Frank Vincent, the character actor best known for his gangster roles in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino.

In Frank Vincent's latest effort - Chicago Overcoat - he again portrays a gangster, but this time he has the lead role.

You can read the piece via the below link:

http://blog.mlive.com/extra_iddings/2011/04/frank_vincent_a_veteran_charac.html

You can also read an interview with Frank Vincent via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2010/09/interview-with-actor-frank-vincent-who.html

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Total Bull (In The Good Sense): Boxing Champ Jake LaMotta On the Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro Film About His Life, "Raging Bull"


Boxing champion Jake LaMotta reminisces about the Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro film of his life and boxing career, Raging Bull, in The New York Post. The classic film was originally released on December 19, 1980.

As a former amateur boxer, a life-long fight fan and a film buff, I think Raging Bull is the best film made about the fight game.

You can read the Post story via the link below:

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/total_bull_thb1HNE28hxGAA9W0P8ZcP

Above is a photo of LaMotta in his prime and below is Raging Bull poster:


Wednesday, November 17, 2010

My Crime Beat Column: Martin Scorsese's Film World of Crime

 
In the opening scene of The Departed, Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-Winning film, Jack Nicholson gives a speech to his young criminal aspirants. With facial expressions and motions perhaps more suited to a warlock than a South Boston hoodlum, Nicholson tells his students that when he was a kid he was told that he could become a cop or a criminal. He then asks them, when someone is facing you with a loaded gun, what’s the difference?

Well, Scorsese himself noted the difference in his 1990 film Goodfellas. When Ray Liotta, portraying small-time hood Henry Hill, is backing out of his driveway, a loaded gun is placed behind his head and a man yells for him not to move or he’ll get his head blown off.

In the voice-over narration, Hill relaxes and says it must be a cop, because if it were a criminal – a Goodfella - he would not have heard a thing. He would be dead.

That, Mr. Nicholson, is the difference between a cop and a criminal with a loaded gun. The cop arrested Hill, whereas the criminal would have given Mr. Hill the proverbial two behind the ear.

It is insulting to believe that working class kids from neighborhoods like Irish South Boston, or South Philly’s Little Italy, where I grew up, have only the two choices in life. Although it’s true that most of the mob guys as well as many cops come from South Philly - including one who went on to become the police commissioner and mayor of Philadelphia, Frank Rizzo - there were and are many other job paths available.

Including, I might remind The Departed's screenwriter, Bill Monahan, writing and filmmaking.

The stereotype, I suppose, is that cops and criminals are both violent and gun-crazy, but that notion is pure nonsense. I grew up with guys who went on to become criminals and guys who went on to be cops (as well as electricians, doctors and postal workers). Those who became criminals never stood at a fork in the road asking themselves if they should apply for the police department or rob a warehouse. Usually, they already had criminal records that would preclude them from becoming cops. But beyond that, the criminal, unlike a cop, has a bent mind. They are generally sociopaths who have no empathy for their victims.

Cops, on the other hand, generally have a sense of justice and duty, and/or they like the idea of a good job with benefits and a pension. Cops rarely use their guns and when they do, they are buried in an investigation that will determine their future as a police officer. Cops and criminals may come from the same working class neighborhoods (as well as from the suburbs) and there have been aberrant cases of bent cops, to be sure, but the two groups are as different as night and day.

That criticism aside, I’m genuinely happy that Martin Scorsese finally received an Oscar for one of his films. But I don’t think The Departed is in the same league as Goodfellas, which I rank as one of the greatest crime films ever made. Scorsese’s Casino (1996) and Raging Bull (1980) are also superior films in my view.
I enjoyed The Departed when it came out last year and I recently watched it again on cable TV. I think it is a good film. Scorsese offered a grand showcase for some fine acting from Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin and Mark Walberg. Ray Winstone (who was also brilliant in Sexy Beast) energizes the film as a criminal henchman and Martin Sheen gave a fine, understated performance as the police captain who oversees the undercover cop portrayed by DiCaprio. His calm demeanor is a counterpoint to Walberg’s angry young police Sgt.

Understated is not exactly the word I’d use to describe Nicholson’s performance, although to be fair, he was portraying a flamboyant crime boss based in part, I’m sure, on Boston’s own Whitey Bulger, a vicious murderer and FBI informant who is now one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted.

James "Whitey" Bulger was a notorious Boston criminal that ruled in the 1980s and early 1990s. He went on the lam in 1994 after he was tipped off to an arrest warrant for a variety of crimes including murder. Bulger, who is suspected of 21 murders, was the leader of the Winter Hill gang. The gang included a cold-blooded killer named Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi and an assortment of demented and violent criminals.

Bulger’s Irish-American gang competed with the Italian-American Patriarca crime family. In this joust, Bulger was aided by his brother, William "Billy" Bulger, who was president of the Massachusetts State Senate, and an FBI agent named John Connolly.

Although Billy Bulger was never convicted of a crime in connection to his brother, local observers believe that the brothers used each other’s power and influence to get ahead. Connolly, who grew up in South Boston and had a long connection to Whitey Bulger, placed him on the FBI’s payroll.

The FBI was hot to bring down the Patriarca crime family and Bulger, despite the "Southie Code," became an informant – a rat, in criminal parlance – for Connolly and the FBI. Bulger cleverly used the FBI to wipe out his competitors and to shield him from prosecution from federal and commonwealth authorities.

As the Italian mob guys were rolled up thanks to Bulger’s inside information, Bulger assumed their criminal enterprises. Connolly, thanks to Bulger, looked good to his FBI bosses.

Eventually, Bulger’s murders, narcotics dealing, extortion and other crimes became so vast and violent that he went beyond the protection of his brother and the FBI. Connolly was later convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for crossing the line in aiding Bulger.

I’ve visited Boston many times and I know the city fairly well. Boston reminds me in many ways of my own city, Philadelphia.

If you would like to know more about Boston crime and Bulger, there are several good books on the subject and I recommend Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, and The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century by Howie Carr.

Although the Bulger/FBI storyline is an added twist to the story, Scorsese's film is based on the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, which in a way, I wish I had not seen before I saw The Departed.

Infernal Affairs, which I saw in Chinese with English subtitles, was an interesting film. I visited Hong Kong many years ago when I was in the Navy and I vividly recall the crowded streets, the neon lights with Chinese symbols and the hustle of the people. When I read that Scorsese was filming a remake, I wondered what his vision of this story would be.

Like the original film, The Departed tells the tale of two young men who go undercover. The story is very similar, merely exchanging Chinese gangs in Hong Kong for Irish-American gangs in Boston. One of the undercover cops is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, who goes undercover to infiltrate Nicholson’s Irish mob and the second, portrayed by Matt Damon, is a criminal protégé of Nicholson’s who becomes a cop and infiltrates the Massachusetts State Police.

I’m not too crazy about DiCaprio. I did not buy him as a street tough in Scorsese’s Gangs of New York and although I loved the film and the otherwise stellar cast of Daniel Day Lewis (who was also brilliant in The Last of the Mohicans) Liam Neelson (also brilliant in Batman Begins), Jim Broadbent, Brendan Gleeson and John C. Reilly, DiCaprio’s unbelievable performance lessened my enjoyment of the film. I also think DiCaprio stunk up Scorsese’s The Aviator. I just could not buy him as Howard Hughes.

DiCaprio, thankfully, was not nearly as front and center in The Departed, and I have to admit that he gave a good performance. His performance sucking up to former Vice President Al Gore at the Academy Awards ceremony is another matter.

I’ve been a Scorsese fan since Mean Streets came out in 1973. I was a young aspiring writer at the time, hanging out at a bar in South Philly that was the same type of bar that Scorsese portrayed in Mean Streets.

The characters in the film, based on people he knew from the Lower East Side of New York, had their counterparts in South Philly. Replace New York’s tenements with South Philly’s row homes, and you had the same type of neighborhood and people.

One weeknight at the bar, the bar’s owner called me over. He had seen Mean Streets and knowing that I was a film buff as well, asked me if I had seen the film. I said that I had and that I loved it. We laughed as we pointed out our own "Johnny Boy," "Michael" and the other characters from the film.

Inspired by our conversation, he promptly closed the bar, told customers to come to the movies or go home. About a dozen of us went to see Mean Streets.

I later read The Playboy Interview with Scorsese and he mentioned a story about another crew that had flocked to see Mean Streets. He said that while filming Goodfellas, Henry Hill told him that he and Paul Vario’s son had seen Mean Streets and loved it. They saw Paul Vario, who was a capo in the Lucchese crime family, and urged him to see the film. Vario, who rarely went to the movies, gave in and saw the film.

Vario, who would years later be portrayed by Paul Sorvino in Scorsese’s Goodfellas, called his crew together and instructed them to see Mean Streets. Vario, a man of few words, simply told his astonished crew, "It’s about us."

If you have not caught The Departed yet, I recommend that you see the film on DVD or on cable. It is not Goodfellas, but it is still a pretty good crime film. You might also want to revisit Scorsese’s other great crime films.

Bulger is still at large today, walking around with his millions. There have been sightings of Bulger leaving movie theaters showing The Departed.

Note: The column originally appeared in the Orchard Press Online Mystery Magazine in 2007.