Martin Scorsese Reveals the Films That Changed Hollywood Forever

Martin Scorsese has always stood out as a director who pushes boundaries, never afraid to challenge the norms of filmmaking. From his earliest days behind the camera, he brought stories to life that felt as real as the world he saw around him. When he made films like Mean Streets, he often found himself just a step away from the lives he was depicting, blurring the line between fiction and reality.

As the 1970s drew to a close, Scorsese found himself at a crossroads with Raging Bull. The film, centered on a troubled boxer spiraling out of control, offered a raw and unfiltered look at a man’s downfall. Robert De Niro’s performance brought a harsh authenticity to the screen, making every moment feel painfully real. At the time, boxing movies were everywhere, with Rocky sequels dominating theaters. Scorsese, however, wanted his film to stand apart. He explained,

“Black-and-white would make it distinctly different from the other boxing films that were being made. Also, Irving Winkle pointed out to the studio that films that were made in black-and-white up until that point in the ‘70s were Paper Moon and Lenny, and they were hits.”

Breaking the Mold in Hollywood

Raging Bull’s release marked a significant shift in the industry. Scorsese recalled that the film hit theaters the same week as Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, both from United Artists, alongside Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. He reflected,

“The week that film was released was the same week, from the same studio, that Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate opened. That, along with Raging Bull and Apocalypse Now, all from the same studio, United Artists. It ended the power of the director in American filmmaking, and that had to come back through independent cinema, through the 1980s.”

These films, each bold in their own right, signaled the end of an era where directors held the reins in Hollywood. The fallout from their releases forced studios to rethink how much creative freedom they were willing to grant.

Visual Storytelling and Artistic Freedom

Scorsese’s approach to Raging Bull was groundbreaking. The choice to shoot in black-and-white gave the movie a gritty, almost documentary feel. The intense camera work during fight scenes pulled viewers into the chaos of the ring, while slow-motion shots and sharp editing heightened the emotional impact. Every frame was designed to immerse the audience in the brutality and vulnerability of the main character.

Meanwhile, Apocalypse Now, directed by Coppola, took on the Vietnam War through a lens inspired by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The film explored the darkness of human nature and the consequences of American intervention, setting a new standard for epic storytelling. Both movies, though very different, shared a willingness to break away from traditional Hollywood formulas.

The Aftermath and a New Direction

Looking back, Scorsese remembered the freedom he once enjoyed at the studio. He described those days as a time when anything seemed possible, saying,

“Things were wide open, and we took it like barbarians at the gate. We transformed whatever we could, but they caught us.”

That era of creative liberty didn’t last. The industry’s response to these ambitious projects led to tighter controls and less autonomy for directors. It wasn’t until the rise of independent cinema in the 1980s that filmmakers began to reclaim some of that lost power, forging new paths outside the traditional studio system.