Saturday, November 03, 2018

American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince




Directed by Martin Scorsese and treatment by Mardik Martin and Julia Cameron, American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince is a documentary film about the life of the young man who is known as a raconteur with a lot of professions including being a tour manager for Neil Diamond. The film has Prince discuss many things in his life that are considered out of the ordinary as well as the things he’s encountered. The result is a fascinating film from Martin Scorsese.

The film is a profile of Steven Prince who had a brief role as a gun salesman in Taxi Driver as he arrives at the home of George Memmoli where he talks with a few people and Martin Scorsese about his life. It’s a film with a simple premise where Scorsese interview Prince who discusses the many events of his life and how he had become a tour manager for Neil Diamond in the early 70s as well as his childhood through Super 8mm film footage of his life as a child. Shot at Memmoli’s home on January 13, 1977 in Los Angeles, Scorsese as well as Memmoli, writers Mardik Martin, and Julia Cameron invite Prince to the home where Prince has a wrestling fight with Memmoli in a playful manner to kick things off.

With the aid of cinematographer Michael Chapman, Scorsese would maintain a simplicity in the direction by using hand-held cameras to shoot Prince as he’s talking about his life. Particularly his own issues with heroin addiction and other issues as well as stories about other people and encounters he met including moments of violence. Prince himself is a unique personality as he is relaxed in his interviews but also filled with a lot of intrigue and pain into the things he had done. The home movie footage that comes in between some of the stories that Prince is saying as he would make commentaries on his family life as they’re shown to play into an air of innocence in Prince’s life through the editing of Amy Jones and Bert Lovitt. The film’s sole music comes from a song by Neil Young in Time Fades Away as it play into the craziness that Steven Prince had endured in his life.

American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince is a brilliant film from Martin Scorsese. At only 55 minutes, it’s a compelling film about an individual as he talks about his many adventures and misadventures along with the ideas that inhabit the idea of growing up in America as someone innocent into someone who been through a lot and is trying to come out of that darkness. In the end, American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince is an amazing film from Martin Scorsese.

Martin Scorsese Films: (Who’s That Knocking on My Door?) – (Street Scenes) – Boxcar Bertha – (Mean Streets) – Italianamerican - Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore - Taxi Driver - New York, New York – (The Last Waltz) – Raging Bull - The King of Comedy - After Hours - The Color of Money - The Last Temptation of Christ - New York Stories-Life Lessons - GoodfellasCape Fear - The Age of Innocence - (A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies) – (Casino) – (Kundun) – (My Voyage to Italy) – Bringing Out the Dead - (The Blues-Feel Like Going Home) – Gangs of New York - (The Aviator) – No Direction Home - The Departed - Shine a Light - Shutter Island - (A Letter to Elia) – (Public Speaking) - George Harrison: Living in the Material World - Hugo (2011 film) - The Wolf of Wall Street - (The Fifty Year Argument) – The Silence (2016 film) - (The Irishman (2019 film)) - Killers of the Flower Moon - (An Afternoon with SCTV)

© thevoid99 2018

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