For fifty years, this New Yorker has become one of the greatest directors of all-time. Known mainly for his gangsters, Scorsese has given us some of the most memorable films of all-time.
For me, I always seem to appreciate his films more than love them. Most of his gangster films I give good reviews, but never ones that would call one of the greatest films I have ever seen. The only exception would be The Departed. It seems to be his other films that I give more love for such as Hugo and Shutter Island.
I purposely avoided the trailers. But I was hearing that it looked really mysterious and heavily religious based. Now that I have seen it, I would definitely not consider this a masterpiece as some reviews are calling it. But there is plenty in here that I liked and admired about it.
The content was emotional, brutal and tough to watch. It was definitely the type of film you just don't see anymore and not one you usually see from Scorsese. I could see similarities with Apocalypse Now and one of the Scorsese's previous films, The Last Temptation Of Christ.
The performances were very strong throughout. Andrew Garfield was great in the lead. I honestly did not think he could hold this film for its 2hrs 40mins duration. But his performance gave us a character that we saw gradually break down from start to finish. It is certainly a well crafted performance that might get him an Oscar nomination and is by far his best work since The Social Network.
While Adam Driver and Liam Neesons give us good performances as well, it is the Japanese actors that stole the show. Yosuke Kubozuka shone in the first half, and then the second half belonged to Tadanobu Asano and Issei Ogata who were both fantastic. Don't be surprised if you hear those names in the awards nominations.
Other positives was the use of the landscape. It was a fantastic choice of location and it became a character in itself. With the top cinematography, this was certainly a gorgeous film to look at.
While there is a lot to like about this film, especially in its technical side, it is a film that I would probably not watch again. But I remain impressed with what Scorsese created.
This is can relate to why I don't think a lot of people will see this. I think the duration, complexity of the story and slow pacing of the film will put the mainstream audience many other demographics off seeing this.
Whether you see it or not, I think Scorsese has done another great job. It is wonderful to see him still going for ambitious projects and coming out with another welcomed addition to his back catalogue.
The performances are a huge draw and the environment is like something out of a nature documentary. It will create a lot of interesting debates within the realms of religion and politics. But I won't be surprised if this gets a small take in box office and this might be more for the Scorsese purists.
Rating: 8/10
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