Mean Streets to Goodfellas: An Auteurs Vision of the Mafia

In his article entitled “Ideas of Authorship” Edward Buscombe discusses the development of the auteur theory of cinema as it was started by the French film critics of the 1940’s. The article states that “the project of a new film magazine would be to raise the cultural status of the cinema. The way to do this, it seemed, would be to advance the claim of the cinema to be an art form like painting or poetry, allowing the individual freedom of personal expression (23)”. In the same article Buscombe quotes Francois Truffaut, one of the founders of the auteur theory in saying that “a true film auteur is one that brings something genuinely personal to his subject (23)”. 

Martin Scorsese is a director who has been considered an auteur of cinema for most of his career. His personal and artistic touches to films are clearly defined. His films Mean Streets which he made early in his career and Goodfellas which was made long after he had established himself as a director both deal with the world of the New York City mafia. The former film is a semi-autographical piece about a character that is torn between his lifestyle and his Catholic guilt, while the latter is a piece about the consequences that the temptations of a life of crime can lead to. Each film uniquely represents various stages of Martin Scorsese’s life. 

In his article “The Auteur Cinema the film generation in 1970’s Hollywood” David A. Cook states that “Scorsese grew up in New York’s Little Italy and became deeply infatuated with the movies. After graduating from high school, he entered seminary school with the intention of becoming a priest (24).” Scorsese’s conflict between his Catholicism and his love for cinema was particularly evident in his early films. In the Journal of Popular Film and Television Richard A. Blake writes: