Mark T. Conard - The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARTIN SCORSESE

The Philosophy of Popular Culture

The books published in the Philosophy of Popular Culture series will illuminate and explore philosophical themes and ideas that occur in popular culture. The goal of this series is to demonstrate how philosophical inquiry has been reinvigorated by increased scholarly interest in the intersection of popular culture and philosophy, as well as to explore through philosophical analysis beloved modes of entertainment, such as movies, TV shows, and music. Philosophical concepts will be made accessible to the general reader through examples in popular culture. This series seeks to publish both established and emerging scholars who will engage a major area of popular culture for philosophical interpretation and examine the philosophical underpinnings of its themes. Eschewing ephemeral trends of philosophical and cultural theory, authors will establish and elaborate on connections between traditional philosophical ideas from important thinkers and the ever-expanding world of popular culture.

SERIES EDITOR

Mark T. Conard, Marymount Manhattan College, NY

BOOKS IN THE SERIES

The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick, edited by Jerold J. Abrams

The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese, edited by Mark T. Conard

The Philosophy of Neo-Noir, edited by Mark T. Conard

Basketball and Philosophy, edited by Jerry L. Walls and Gregory Bassham

Edited by Mark T. Conard

Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Copyright 2007 by The University Press of Kentucky

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,

serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre

College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,

The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College,

Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,

Morehead State University, Murray State University,

Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,

University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,

and Western Kentucky University.

All rights reserved.

Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky

663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008

www.kentuckypress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The philosophy of Martin Scorsese / edited by Mark T. Conard.

p. cm. (The philosophy of popular culture)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8131-2444-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Scorsese, MartinCriticism and interpretation. I. Conard, Mark T., 1965

PN1998.3.S39P55 2007

791.430233092dc22

2007003156

This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting

the requirements of the American National Standard

for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Steven M. Sanders

Aeon J. Skoble

Dean A. Kowalski

Mark T. Conard

Jerold J. Abrams

Deborah Knight

Jennifer L. McMahon

Richard Greene

Karen D. Hoffman

Paul A. Cantor

Richard Gilmore

Judith Barad

R. Barton Palmer

In the introduction to The Philosophy of Neo-Noir (University Press of Kentucky, 2007), I noted the conspicuous absence in that volume of the films of Martin Scorsese, who might rightly be regarded as a master neo-noir filmmaker. Indeed, Scorsese is best known for his works centering on the noirish elements of gangsters and/or violence, such as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Goodfellas (1990), and Casino (1995), to the point where hes identified with these types of films in the way that Billy Wilder is often thought of as primarily a maker of screwball comedies (The Seven Year Itch [1955], Some Like It Hot [1959]) or Woody Allen is often seen as the maker of existentialist comedy/dramas (Annie Hall [1977], Manhattan [1979]). But we should remember that Billy Wilder also directed Double Indemnity (1944) and Sunset Boulevard (1950) and that Woody Allens oeuvre includes Interiors (1978), Another Woman (1988), and Match Point (2005). The stereotyping of Scorsese is equally unjustified since, over his career of some thirty-four years and counting, his films have covered a wide range of topics and themes, from the Dalai Lama in Kundun (1997) and Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) to Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004), social roles and mores in nineteenth-century New York in The Age of Innocence (1993), pool hustling in The Color of Money (1986), and the boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (1980). Indeed, Scorseses work hasnt been limited to narrative feature films, also including documentaries (The Last Waltz [1978], No Direction Home: Bob Dylan [2005]) and music videos (Michael Jacksons Bad [1987]).

As I also noted in the neo-noir introduction, I omitted Scorsese from The Philosophy of Neo-Noir because I planned to devote an entire volume in the Philosophy of Popular Culture series to his films, and the present work is the fulfillment of that promise. The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese investigates the philosophical themes and underpinnings of the films of this master auteur as well as using the movies as a vehicle for exploring and explicating traditional philosophical ideas. It comprises thirteen essays from scholars in both philosophy and film and media studies. The essays are written in nontechnical language and require no knowledge of philosophy to appreciate or understand.

, Authenticity, Flourishing, and the Good Life, begins with No Safe Haven: Casino, Friendship, and Egoism, in which Steven M. Sanders uses Scorseses film to explore the uneasy relation between egoist ethics, which claims that the only duty one has is to oneself, and friendship, which seems at times to require self-sacrifice. Next, in Gods Lonely Man: Taxi Driver and the Ethics of Vigilantism, Aeon J. Skoble investigates the story of the assassin/savior Travis Bickle, wondering when and under what conditions vigilantism is ever justified. In Goodfellas, Gyges, and the Good Life, Dean A. Kowalski uses the case of the mobster Henry Hill to examine and evaluate Platos claim in the Republic that the immoral, unjust person is necessarily unhappy. Last, in Mean Streets: Beatitude, Flourishing, and Unhappiness, I use Scorseses first masterpiece to examine different philosophical conceptions of unhappiness, raising the issue of whether unhappiness is the natural state and condition of human beings.

, Rationality, Criminality, and the Emotions, begins with The Cinema of Madness: Friedrich Nietzsche and the Films of Martin Scorsese, in which Jerold J. Abrams discusses a prevalent theme in Scorseses films: the relation between madness, creativity, and criminality. Next, in