Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese talks us through a fascinating journey across 100 years of American cinema, touching on the creative process, storytelling and technical aspects of film production. He also profiles filmmakers who have shaken the establishment and changed the way we see films today, providing some insight on personal expression in filmmaking. It was a great documentary to start off the school term with, setting up discussions about things like framing techniques and other tools directors use to enhance visual storytelling that we would continue to see in later films.
Personally, this film helped me better understand the significance of the cowboy-western genre of movie, which was significant to American culture and lovingly represented in many films throughout the ages. Not having grown up watching many films of the genre, it was eye-opening to see Martin Scorsese talk about how characters and themes were portrayed in those films, and the techniques employed to showcase them, many of which we see employed in visual media today. It also made me think of a contemporary cowboy western film I had recently watched and enjoyed: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) by the Coen Brothers, and recognized many of the homages paid in that film to its predecessors mentioned in the documentary by Martin Scorsese.
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