1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910810058103321

Autore

Cullen Jim <1962->

Titolo

Martin Scorsese and the American dream / / Jim Cullen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Brunswick, New Jersey : , : Rutgers University Press, , [2021]

℗♭2021

ISBN

1-9788-1745-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (181 pages)

Disciplina

791.430233092

Soggetti

Motion pictures - Social aspects - United States - History - 20th century

Motion pictures - Social aspects - United States - History - 21st century

American Dream in art

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- A Martin Scorsese Feature Film Chronology -- Introduction: The Provincial Cosmopolitan -- 1. The Elizabethan Era -- 2. Redeeming Dreams -- 3. Impressive Failures -- 4. Dream Critiques -- 5. Recurring Dreams -- Conclusion: Dream of Life -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author.

Sommario/riassunto

More than perhaps any other major filmmaker, Martin Scorsese has grappled with the idea of the American Dream. His movies are full of working-class strivers hoping for a better life, from the titular waitress and aspiring singer of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore to the scrappy Irish immigrants of Gangs of New York. And in films as varied as Casino, The Aviator, and The Wolf of Wall Street, he vividly displays the glamour and power that can come with the fulfillment of that dream, but he also shows how it can turn into a nightmare of violence, corruption, and greed. This book is the first study of Scorsese’s profound ambivalence toward the American Dream, the ways it drives some men and women to aspire to greatness, but leaves others seduced and abandoned. Showing that Scorsese understands the American dream in terms of a tension between provincialism and cosmopolitanism, Jim Cullen offers a new lens through which to view



such seemingly atypical Scorsese films as The Age of Innocence, Hugo, and Kundun. Fast-paced, instructive, and resonant, Martin Scorsese and the American Dream illuminates an important dimension of our national life and how a great artist has brought it into focus.