This is Martin Scorsese's much-maligned 1977 masterpiece starring Robert DeNiro and Liza Minnelli, with Mary Kay Place, Barry Primus, Lionel Stander, Georgie Auld, Diahnne Abbott and Clarence Clemons. During the heyday of location shooting and gritty documentary-style filmmaking, nobody wanted to see a "Method musical" shot on soundstages. (Milos Forman's adaptation of Hair, shot mostly on location in New York City and released two years later, was much more appealing to critics and audiences.) But there is so much to adore in Scorsese's film, an hommage to Liza's parents with elements of Doris Day's life story. Outstanding art direction, cinematography, score, costumes, film editing, make-up.
Watch Liza's first scene, in which she manages to hold her own against DeNiro with the word "no" as the only dialogue she is allowed to speak; hear Liza's (speaking) voice go to astonishing places in the fight scene where she sits in the back seat of car driven by an angry DeNiro; marvel at Liza's original performances of "But the World Goes Round" (masterful camera and lighting) and "New York, New York" (hello Judy). In case you haven't figured it out by now: This is the performance for which she deserved the Oscar she stole from Diana Ross (or Cicely Tyson) five years earlier.
I think I have seen at least three edits, two of which (136 and 153 minutes) are butchery. The director's cut is probably 161 minutes long. This is the one to see, and not just for the movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie musical number "Happy Endings," which is a Vincente Minnelli wet dream and features the late, great Larry Kert.
According to Wikipedia: "Made after Scorsese's successful Taxi Driver, the film was a box-office failure. Its budget was $14 million, a large figure at the time, but it grossed only $13 million at the box-office and the disappointing reception drove Scorsese into depression and drugs."
Marty, I know the feeling.
