MovieChat Forums > Martin Scorsese Discussion > Doesn’t write most of his movies

Doesn’t write most of his movies


I find it completely astounding that Martin Scorsese isn’t a writer of his movies yet for some reason he gets a pass. He only has 6 writing credits out of his 25 feature length films (and he has a co-writer on 5/6). Meaning he really doesn’t write his movies and has not written his best films. I don’t understand why he seems to get full credit for his movies when he doesn’t write then, he just does half of the work. Because of this, is Scorsese overrated?

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Lots of good directors don’t write the majority of their movies. David Fincher, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Tim Burton, Danny Boyle, Clint Eastwood, and Denis Villeneuve have all either written sparingly or not written at all. He's judged on his ability as a director, not as a writer. The director almost always gets the credit, whether it’s fair or not.

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I would not say Scorsese is overrated, but he definitely gets more credit than his frequent writer Paul Schrader, who co-wrote two of Scorsese's best films (Taxi Driver and Raging Bull). I never understood how Scorsese gets all the credit for those two films while Schrader's contributions are largely ignored by critics and the media.

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They call him a director for a reason. I don't really care for his style or choice of movies, but he is a competent director for the stories he chooses to tell.

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