NEW YORK, NEW YORK (1977)
Directed By Martin Scorsese
On DVD
(***)
Subscribe to Hollywood North Magazine
Written By: John H. Foote
In the days following the release of his dark and powerfully brilliant Taxi Driver (1976), Martin Scorsese was being hailed as the next great American filmmaker. In the heyday of the directors’ era, it seemed there was a great new director arriving every year. Scorsese, a graduate of NYU Film School, where he would lecture, had made his mark in the early seventies with Mean Streets (1973) which was acclaimed by critics, and impressed studio executives enough to allow him to make Taxi Driver (1976).

Taxi Driver (1976) remains one of the great films of all time, a disturbing study of a man’s descent into psychosis and utter madness climaxing in a torrent of violence. Nominated for four Academy Awards including best picture, the film earned several critics awards and placed Scorsese firmly in the spotlight. He would parlay the success of Taxi Driver (1976) into a deal in which he would make his first big budget studio film, New York, New York (1977) which would very nearly be the death of him.

When first released in the summer of 1977 New York, New York (1977) had been the topic of many articles in the trade papers for the manner in which the studio had seized the picture from Scorsese when the overages became too much for them to accept. They would recut the film, deleting several key scenes he believed to be integral to the story resulting in an empty film that the critics attacked without mercy. The film was pulled out of theatres after a very short theatrical run, and Scorsese would not make a big budget studio film for another fourteen years.

New York, New York (1977) seems the oddest film of his career if one knows nothing about him. However, those who have studied Scorsese and been loyal to his work (as I have) are aware that the film was born of a love for Hollywood musicals of the thirties and forties, when lavish costumes and sets were created for the stars to make their magic. Scorsese as a young moviegoer was transported from his life in tough New York into the magic of what musicals had to offer.

When he made the decision to make a musical he wanted to do two things, first to make a film that paid homage to the pictures of the past he so adored, and second, make a film that was new, that was unlike any musical anyone had seen before. That he succeeded on both counts is somewhat miraculous considering the constant interference from the studio and the condition of Scorsese during the making and post-production of the film.

MGM Home Entertainment has just released New York, New York (1977) in a superb new digital transfer as part of their fine new Martin Scorsese Collection, marking the film’s debut on DVD. As had happened with the video release a decade ago, Scorsese was permitted to go back to the film and replace the sequences cut by the studio, lengthen the picture to its original running time, and give audiences the chance to see the film he had intended for them to see the first time. While the results are mixed and one can understand why critics of the seventies took issue with the film, there is a great deal to admire in the film. Scorsese pushed the boundaries of the art form, as he has consistently done over the course of his career and small minded critics may have missed that upon seeing the film for the first time. Far too many critics think only of knocking a film for what it is not as opposed to recognizing what it is. Is this the greatest work of Scorsese’s career? Of course not, but it is an important film in the growth of the man they call the greatest living director.

He wisely chose to stylize his film, to give the film an abstract and surrealistic quality that might have been off putting to those lacking in imagination. Often the backgrounds are clearly fake, which is the point as he wants the audience always to be aware they are in a movie and that the characters are not real. Name me a classic musical in which the characters appear for one moment to be real life? It simply cannot be done.

The Second World War had ended and the big band era is sweeping the nation. Francine (Liza Minnelli) is a singer who dreams of being a big star and when she first encounters Jimmy (Robert De Niro) she despises his fast talk and arrogance. However they make sparks together, particularly when they perform as Jimmy plays a mean sax and coupled with her voice they quickly become the toast of New York. They marry and slowly we see the impact of success on their fragile marriage. The relationship was always stormy, but marriage, success, and parenthood drive a wedge between them that cannot be healed. Each becomes famous, Francine spectacularly so, and while their love for one another is apparent whenever they talk, each seems to know their relationship is doomed because while they make magic on stage, they cannot replicate that in their marriage.

Liza Minnelli had won the Academy Award for best actress for her stunning performance in Cabaret (1972) one of the greatest musicals ever made. The daughter of Judy Garland, she was a born performer, and the part of Sally Bowles in Bob Fosse’s Cabaret (1972) seemed tailor made for the gushy actress. In many ways Francine is tailor made for Minnelli, however the chemistry between she and De Niro is non-existent and I am not convinced this is the fault of the actress. Minnelli is luminous throughout the film giving what I believe her finest screen performance other than her miraculous work in Cabaret (1972); she brilliantly conveys the sense of love lost in her large gamine eyes, and when she sings, one sees why she is a star.

De Niro was the hottest young actor of his generation in the mid-seventies, an Oscar winner for The Godfather Part II (1974) and nominated for Taxi Driver (1976). There are two roles in the years spanning 1976-1977 that began to show De Niro’s limitations, the first being The Last Tycoon (1976) for director Elia Kazan, the second, New York, New York (1977) in which De Niro portrays such a selfish lout one can hardly look at him. He nails the role, of that there is no question, but he falters in his love scenes with Minnelli; we have an actress whom we believe totally, an actor, who we simply do not. Understand that this is not a bad performance, on the contrary De Nero is very good, but after ten minutes of his character I found him to be repellant. Jimmy is annoying, grating, and gets on the nerves of the audience as well as everyone in the film. He is a selfish boor and one wonders what the fine Francine ever saw in him. The lack of chemistry between the pair is what keeps the film from being a masterpiece, and when the love we are asked to believe is not there, how can the film recover?

Scorsese captures the period to perfection, the post war years when everyone was happy to be alive and see what was going to happen now that peace had come. There is a driving energy in the film that is the trademark of the classic musicals of the era, something Scorsese understands is essential to the film. However, something went tragically wrong with the mixing his stars. Whether it was Minnelli’s acting style confused De Niro or his mixed her up., we have two actors in the same film that seem unable to relate to one other.

The DVD is superbly presented in widescreen, with directors’ commentary from Scorsese, an introduction from Scorsese, alternate takes, and a discussion with film critic Carrie Rickey.

As a whole New York, New York (1977) is often a thrilling movie experience as Scorsese’s energetic direction and ever moving camera drive the film. Minnelli is remarkable, and though grating and often annoying De Niro acts his part very well. Had they just realized they were in the same film?

One of the great forgotten and under appreciated films of the seventies.










© Copyright 2010 Hollywood North Magazine Inc.