Non-Scoring Scorsese. - Review - movie reviews

National Review, Nov 22, 1999 by John Simon

Outdoing himself, though, is hardest for Scorsese. These (pre-Giuliani, as carefully noted) mean streets must be meaner yet, the ambulance driver's inferno more infernal than the taxi driver's. So he resorts to the kind of artiness that Robert Richardson, the Merchant-Ivory and Oliver Stone cinematographer, is only too eager to deliver.

There are dizzying camera movements and disorienting camera placements, as when an onrushing ambulance seemingly runs over us: Shot head on, it is somersaulted over by the camera, which, landing on its back, views the receding vehicle upside down! Many a camera has vied with the painter's brush; this may be the first one eyeing a job in the circus. It was a black day when Scorsese discovered Art with a capital A.