Martin Scorsese makes violence an art

When violence becomes art
Although “Raging Bull” was a filmmaker’s film and a triumph of style and technique, “Goodfellas” might be Scorsese’s signature work because it revisited the world of La Cosa Nostra that was touched upon earlier. Whereas “Mean Streets” literally dealt with organized crime on a street level,  “Goodfellas” was all pinky rings and Cadillacs. It focused on the lavish lifestyle and grandiose aspirations of those in organized crime because that’s what the main character, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), grew up dreamily fixated upon.

“Goodfellas” required Scorsese to indulge in brutality and violence because it was as essential to that milieu as garlic. Pesci’s Tommy DeVito was as cold-blooded to those who crossed him as all the shooters at the toll booth were toward Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather.”

The sequence in which Billy Batts (Frank Vincent) is beaten mercilessly in a bar, then thrown into a trunk, then stabbed later, then buried, then unearthed and buried again, is almost done with nonchalance, as if such actions are so natural to the characters as to be routine. That’s the kind of violence that resonates all the way to the bone marrow of movie-goers.

Five years later, Scorsese revisited mob turf in “Casino,” which worked as effective drama but was not a groundbreaking achievement. By then, he had broken enough bones and inflicted enough gunshot wounds, and “Casino” felt like a brilliant rehash of familiar themes.

“Gangs of New York” in 2002 was a different take on the gangster genre, about warring factions in the “Five Points” section of Lower Manhattan during the middle of the 19^th century. The film is awash in blood and grime, and the behavior of the antagonists toward each other is almost medieval. It’s the kind of material that Scorsese gravitates toward, and with which he is unmatched in presenting as harrowingly real.

And now comes “The Departed,” which is less graphic in terms of actual gore per frame than a typical Scorsese film, but just as powerful in its pacing and deft placement of barbarous acts. As usual, he lets the story tell itself. It’s not his fault if the story in question involves people who want to do each other great bodily harm.

There have been plenty of Scorsese films over the years that do not fit the savage paradigm. It just so happens he has become known for those that do. Failure to recognize his accomplishments in both categories is grounds for a one-way ride to a shallow grave in upstate New York. Figuratively speaking, of course.

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