Church, State, Assassins, And Critics: The Controversial Career Of Martin Scorsese

Depending on who you talk to, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street is either an “epic farce” or a “disgusting extravaganza”, “one of the most entertaining films ever made” or homophobic and misogynistic. At Deadspin, Will Leitch suggested that “I, for one, am not getting on the wrong side of history”, as a means of justifying his slavish Marty-boner and placing it on his top ten of 2013, despite some misgivings. At an official Academy screening in Los Angeles, one member apparently yelled “shame on you!” at the shocked director. And Richard Brody of The New Yorker even went so far as denouncing anybody who doesn’t get a thrill from Marty’s dollar sign debaucheries as “dead from the neck down”. My private parts are working just fine thanks, but in my own review I wrote that The Wolf Of Wall Street is indulgent and that “all of [Scorsese’s] charismatic filmmaking and brash style are in service of a story that feels particularly rote”.

Of course, perhaps critics and audiences have just grown complacent. Since the 2000s, we’ve become accustomed to a different kind of Scorsese picture. After the epic Kundun (1997) and the grungy character drama Bringing Out The Dead (1999) both flopped with audiences despite good reviews, the 71-year-old New Yorker has tended towards expensive, visually excessive works of cinema. Of his post-millennium output, all but one of Scorsese’s six theatrical features have cost $100 million+ and received Best Picture and Best Director nominations from the Academy (2010’s pulpy murder mystery Shutter Island was the odd one out, costing a frugal $80 million and missing out entirely on Oscars). Added to that, Scorsese has also won three Best Director trophies at the Golden Globes, and three Emmy Awards for his work on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and the documentary George Harrison: Living In The Material World (2011).

From religious zealots to Jerry Lewis

It’s a dramatic turnaround for a man whose career was littered with more controversy than awards for nearly three decades. In the grand scheme of things, the bombastic rhetoric and international censorship that exploded online in the shadow of The Wolf Of Wall Street’s American release is small fries compared to The Last Temptation Of Christ (1988). Long before depicting the deplorable acts of horny Wall Street stockbrokers, Scorsese was being protested, boycotted, and banned in Mexico, Chile, Turkey and Argentina; they even had police at opening weekend screenings. Even to this day, Scorsese’s bold, brilliant take on a humanistic Jesus remains banned in several Asian nations.

The studio behind Temptation — Universal Studios — were once bitten and twice shy when it came to Scorsese’s lavish epic, Kundun. When they backed out, distribution of this controversial Dalai Llama biopic fell to Disney, which risked the lucrative Chinese box office of future titles to do so. Scorsese and screenwriter Melissa Mathison were subsequently banned from entering China for their involvement in the film (but don’t worry about poor Marty, as Brad Pitt, Richard Gere and Sharon Stone are also banned from there).

Although it took the Academy until Gangs Of New York (2002) to really shower award nominations on a Scorsese film, his first blush with the Oscars came from Taxi Driver (1976). Given its realistic violence, and themes of anarchic retribution and teen prostitution involving 13-year-old star Jodie Foster, the film was hardly a censor’s dream. The rivers of blood in the climactic pimp den shoot-out had to be made less red to secure a commercial rating. Five years later, the film played a pivotal role in John Hinckley, Jr’s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan, and TV screenings featured a cryptic, unexplained disclaimer at the film’s end.

Controversy doesn’t always arise in a Martin Scorsese film from what’s on the screen, but rather what goes on off it, and the stunning satire of The King Of Comedy (1982) is a perfect example. Featuring a performance by love her-or-loathe her comedienne Sandra Bernhard that ranks to my mind as the greatest in a Scorsese picture, co-star Jerry Lewis was famously not a fan. Already outspoken about his thoughts on women in comedy, the 87-year-old recently thought it funny to discuss punching her in the face and making jokes about transgender women as Scorsese and Robert De Niro giggled like buffoons alongside.

A lamer kind of controversy

Of course, unlike those titles, The Wolf Of Wall Street‘s controversy doesn’t fall to fundamentalist religious zealots, anonymous culture censors, or international dictators. Rather, it’s descended into a battle of pompous words as critics and moviegoers see who can yell the loudest amongst the cacophony that is the internet. Broad statements have spread like wildfire, predominantly centred on the idea that Wolf’s detractor’s “don’t get it” and aren’t seeing the sweeping satire of the piece. Scorsese’s probably wondering where all these defenders of his honour were when the likes of New York, New York, Kundun and Bringing Out The Dead were failing dismally at the box office.

Spotting his own mortality in the rear-view mirror, the filmmaker recently stated, “I have the desire to make many films, but as of now, I’m 71, and there’s only a couple more left, if I get to make them.” So did one of them really need to be another film about the crooks on Wall Street? Wouldn’t you rather see Scorsese take the sky high cultural cache that he’s amassed and put it to something scrappier and new? According to recent reports, his next film is set to be a movie about Jesuit priests entitled Silence. If nothing else, it promises to be a quieter experience from his recent bombastics, which might be for the best.

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The Wolf Of Wall Street is now showing in cinemas nationally.

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Glenn Dunks is a freelance writer and film critic from Melbourne, and currently based in New York City. His work has been seen online (Onya Magazine, Quickflix), in print (The Big Issue, Metro Magazine, Intellect Books Ltd’s World Film Locations: Melbourne), as well as heard on Joy 94.9.