Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese
teams with Academy Award winners Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro in
this splashy, flashy musical spectacle celebrating the glorious days of
the Big Band Era in the Big Apple! Jimmy is a joint-jump in saxophonist
on his way to stardom. Francine is a wannabe starlet who dreams of
singing in the spotlight. When they meet, sparks fly and when he plays
and she sings, they set New York on fire! It’s the beginning of a stormy
relationship, as the two struggle to balance their passions for music
and each other under the pressures of big-time show biz. 
Film (3 out of 5 stars)
New York, New York is Martin
Scorsese’ s tribute and criticism of the old 30s and 40s big budget
musicals (including the ones that Liza’s father Vincente Minnelli made)
that he loved growing up. While he loved the idea of a somewhat
artificial “Hollywood” look to the films, he always wondered what
happened to the characters when they weren’t doing some big production
number. Some films had touched on that before like A Star Is Born,
but Scorsese felt that the idea hadn’t really been explored fully
before. This idea of merging the artifice of old Hollywood musicals
with the new style of in your face conflict that had been championed
by John Cassavetes who was one of Scorsese’s influences. While it was a
bold concept to attempt, the end result made many people (including
myself) think that while it was a daring move, the two just don’t mesh
and I think the movie would have worked a lot better if he had just
picked one version.
In fact, my feelings for this movie are fairly close to how I felt when I watched Raging Bull (another
Scorsese/DeNiro collaboration) since both movies have an entirely
unsympathetic main character who ruins his own life and the lives of
others around him by acting in a selfish, egotistical, and abusive way.
Between the two movies, they could sell them as a box set on The Jerry Springer Show
with the title of “Men Who Behave Badly, and the Women Who Love Them.”
Why this artistic team that has so much talent between them, continued
to explore the same flawed character types is beyond me. Both of the
characters that DeNiro played are so detestable that I don’t even want
to watch the movie again which is a shame since there’s some very good
elements in it. The combination of an schizophrenic film that doesn’t
know what it wants to be, combined with a fantastic but hate inspiring
performance by DeNiro really left me antagonistic towards it.
Robert DeNiro plays saxophonist Jimmy
Doyle, who at the start of the film is a horny con artist that spends
his time trying out pick up lines on women during the celebration of the
Allies victory over Japan. He seems somewhat charming and desperate at
first until he meets Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli) where he won’t take
no for an answer. Nowadays, his behavior would be labeled as a stalker
and he would be arrested but unfortunately that wasn’t the case in
1945. Even when he finally wears her down enough to be his girlfriend
and later wife, his constant insecurity and ego drive him to abuse
Francine mostly because he’s jealous of her. In every situation he
needs to be the main man, whether it’s with Francine, or band players,
music producers, or pretty much anyone else. Jimmy is the scum of the
earth who feels like he is owed everything when he contributes little.
Francine on the other hand, starts off
strong but the longer she’s around Jimmy, the more co-dependent she is.
He’s like radiation and he’s killing her slowly the longer she’s around
him. Francine has the talent to go far but unlike Jimmy she keeps
putting him and later their baby before her career which Jimmy refuses
to do. He’d rather let her move back to New York City alone and
pregnant so he can still lead a semi-professional band and sleep with
Francine’s replacement. Of course, once Francine leaves, the entire
band falls apart without her and Jimmy is forced to sell the band. When
he returns to New York, there’s a brief period of happiness for them
but it doesn’t last and his jealousy gets the better of
him culminating in a horrific argument between them as he’s driving a
car and beating his pregnant wife. Eventually, the two of them will
have to discover if they are happier together or apart and what impact
that will have on their professions.
Video (3 out of 5 stars)
The film’s 1080p (1.66:1) transfer has
some good and some bad points. While color is presented well here with
all of it’s natural intensity and variety, the image itself is often
soft with varying degrees of print damage. There’s a ton of color in
this movie especially all of the neon throughout the movie (there’s even
one scenes that is completely made up of neon) and Laszlo Kovacs did a
great job capturing it. Black levels are mostly good but the flesh
tones verge on being a little too reddish. Some scenes look very sharp
while others look like they’ve been shot through some Vaseline but that
may be due to the film stock that was used. There’s also a lot of grain
present so purists don’t need to worry about DNR being overused on this
one.
Audio (3 1/2 out of 5 stars)
New York, New York’s DTS-HD
Master Audio 5.1 mix is decent but it’s not as good as I hoped it would
be. Despite being in 5.1, the satellite and rear speakers get little
action with only some light ambiance given to them. This is a front
speaker heavy mix and while the dialogue is clear for the most part, I
really wish they had expanded this more than they did. The music is
allowed to spread across more than the front speakers but it only last
during the musical numbers. I should acknowledge that the musical parts
do sound good but I kept hoping for more. Liza Minnelli’s performance
(especially at the end of the movie) is well represented and she really
belts those songs by Kander and Ebb out.
Special Features (4 out of 5 stars)
There’s some decent extras on this disc
but I especially liked the two-part documentary series that gave an in
depth look at the genesis of the film and the making of it.
- Audio Commentary – Film Critic Carrie Rickey and director Martin Scorsese share a commentary track which allows you two points of view and two different ways that the film is explored. Rickey sounds like she is reading a thesis on the movie while Scorsese reminisces about the movie, the cast, the reasons he did it, and often goes off into a tangent that has nothing to do with the movie which is amusing. His mind is almost as fast as he talks and he’s an entertaining speaker full of insight, humor, and humility. I’d recommend this track to anyone interested in film.
- Scene Specific Commentary - Cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs talks about his process and what steps he had to take to keep Scorsese happy and to get the shot. He doesn’t cover a lot of shots, but just enough to make you appreciate his talents.
- Introduction by Martin Scorsese – For those of you that just want a quick overview of the director’s thoughts about the movie. If you want more than this, then you should watch the two-part documentary series that has all of this footage included in it and more.
- Alternate Takes/Deleted Scenes – There’s really nothing to see here other than some more back and forth between Jimmy and Francine.
- The New York, New York Stories: Parts 1 & 2 – This is the real meat and potatoes of the disc. This is an all access pass into the making of the movie that combined lasts over an hour. The cast and crew (with the notable exception of Robert DeNiro) talk about making the movie and share their recollections of the production. Those included are producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, Liza Minnelli, and of course Martin Scorsese. This is a very candid look back as Irwin Winkler admits that mixing the two genres didn’t work and hurt the film at the box office and even Scorsese readily acknowledges that he doesn’t know if it worked or not. This is highly recommended for fans and non-fans of the movie alike.
- Liza on New York, New York – Minnelli talks about the movie and how she was intrigued and intimidated by DeNiro as well as her feelings about the songs and how proud she is to be in the movie. I think she is the film’s biggest cheerleader and the movie gave her some of her biggest hits, especially New York, New York, which became huge after Frank Sinatra recorded it.
- Teaser Trailer
- Theatrical Trailer
Final Thoughts (3 1/2 out of 5 stars)
While I get what Scorsese was going for
with his effort to mix a 70 aesthetic with a 40s musical, but it flat
out doesn’t work. Or at least it doesn’t in this movie. The balance
between the two is too far apart and it doesn’t help that the last third
of the movie is a out an out musical. It’s like he had his cake but
wanted to eat it too. If he had just picked one genre and stuck with
it, the movie would have turned out better and been more successful.
It’s obvious from the musical sequences that he has an eye and a talent
for staging the musical numbers and we all know he can do serious
drama, so I’m not sure why he attempted to merge them. Perhaps it was a
calculated risk, as he inferred in the extras, since this was a chance
to do something audacious and big while he was still young enough to not
suffer the consequences. While the film as a whole didn’t work, the
performances are very good and the musical numbers are the highlight of
the movie.
Order yours today by clicking on the image below!
No comments:
Post a Comment