For over four decades, Martin Scorsese has been the chronicler ofan obsessive society, where material possessions and physicalcomfort are valued, where the pursuit of individual improvement isrewarded and where male prerogative is respected and preserved.
Scorsese has often described his films as sociology and he has apoint: his storytelling condenses complex information intocomprehensible narratives about society. In this sense, he has beena guide through a dark world of nineteenth century crypto-fascismto a fetishistic twentieth century in which goods, fame, money andpower are held to have magical power.
Author of Tyson: Nurture of the Beast and Beckham,Ellis Cashmore turns his attention to arguably the most influentialliving film- maker to explore how Scorsese envisions America.Greed, manhood, the city and romantic love feature on Scorsese'slandscape of secular materialism. They are among the themesCashmore argues have driven and inform Scorsese's work. This isAmerica, as seen through the eyes of Martin Scorsese and it is adeeply unpleasant place.
Cashmore's book discloses how, collectively, Scorsese's filmspresent an image of America. It's an image assembled from theperspectives of obsessive people, whether burned-out paramedics,compulsive entrepreneurs, tortured lovers, or celebrity-fixatedcomedians. It's collected from pool halls, taxicabs, boxing ringsand jazz clubs. It's an image that's specific, yet ubiquitous. Itis Martin Scorsese's America.