Martin Scorcese Tribute (American Spirit Award,2012):USA

Reviewed by Jesse Deason at the 2012 Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Wow!……………………………….Wow!! I’m getting chills just thinking back on how special this night really was. We as an eager audience, were given a treasure trove of amazing personal information I can’t imagine getting in another forum. This event was hosted by the talented Leonard Maltin flawlessly. He seamlessly allowed Marty to talk from the heart and segway into introducing clips from films like “Mean Streets”, which he directed in cowboy boots, that I haven’t seen as of yet but DEFINITELY will after hearing from the Director’s mouth some of the details behind it. Mr. Scorcese made that movie over 40 years ago and it was actually a reflection of the neighborhood he and Robert DeNiro grew up in. We found out they knew each other when Robert DeNiro was only 16 years old.

Apparently Mr. Scorcese had asthma as a youth and therefore went to the movies often. Apparently he had plans of joining the priesthood as there was a young Catholic priest who was very influential on him growing up before he was expelled from preperatory seminary school. He talked about some of the essentials to greatness in this industry being: “passion, knowledge, talent and curiosity”.

He spoke about how nine minute of fight footage in “Raging Bull” took ten weeks to shoot. How he chose black and white because the color stock at the time wasn’t that high of quality. We found out from Mr. Maltin how Martin Scorcese has almost single handedly raised hollywood awarenesss of the value of the restoration of its history of old films that are rapidly deteriorating. One of the most priceless things I walked away from that evening was hearing Mr. Scorcese’s laugh. He has this endearing little nerdy snicker at the end I’ve never heard from him on camera before that was priceless! Good Stuff for sure.

A truly amazing night capped off with the heartfelt presentation of the American Spirit Award by Sir Ben Kingsley. Wow! Again, what he had to say about his feelings for this great director brought tears to both the audiences and Mr. Scorcese’s  eyes. I’m so grateful for being given the opportunity to experience this night. Thank you.