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One of the most surprising realities of Martin Scorsese<\/strong>\u2019s success<\/a> is just how often he was on the brink of losing it. The 82-year-old auteur\u2019s<\/a> setbacks occupy as much real estate as his victories do in Mr. Scorsese<\/a>,<\/em> a five-part docuseries covering his film career, now streaming on Apple TV.<\/p>\n Directed by Rebecca Miller,<\/strong> daughter of playwright Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis<\/strong><\/a> (who starred in Scorsese\u2019s The Age of Innocence<\/em> and Gangs of New York<\/em>), Mr. Scorsese<\/em> follows the director from his rough-and-tumble adolescence in New York\u2019s Little Italy neighborhood to his making of the 10-time Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon<\/em><\/a> (2023)\u2014touching on every set in between. Scorsese discusses his oeuvre<\/a> in great detail\u2014with assists from family, friends, and former collaborators such as Day-Lewis, Francesca Scorsese<\/a>,<\/strong> Robert De Niro,<\/strong> Leonardo DiCaprio,<\/strong> Mick Jagger, Steven Spielberg,<\/strong> Jodie Foster,<\/strong> and Cate Blanchett,<\/strong> as well as Casino<\/em>\u2019s Sharon Stone<\/strong> and The Wolf of Wall Street<\/em>\u2019s Margot Robbie,<\/strong> both of whom speak candidly about working on their respective male-dominated Scorsese projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n After exploring the Mob violence he grew up near on film, Scorsese was often reduced to his gangster dramas (Mean Streets, Goodfellas<\/em>), but nearly as much of the filmmaker\u2019s work is rooted in his Catholic religion (The Last Temptation of Christ, Silence<\/em>). Even Scorsese\u2019s otherwise secular titles ponder questions like, \u201cWho are we? What are we, I should say, as human beings?\u201d as he says in the series\u2019 opening. \u201cAre we intrinsically good or evil?\u2026 This is the struggle. And I struggle with it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n That dichotomy is reflected in some of Scorsese\u2019s darker chapters, which range from a drug addiction during the 1970s to four divorces before his marriage to his current wife, Helen Morris,<\/strong> in 1999. \u201cThe problem is that you enjoy the sin!\u201d Scorsese says in the series. \u201cThat\u2019s the problem I\u2019ve always had! I enjoy it. When I was bad, I enjoyed a lot of it.\u201d Ahead, some of the most revealing moments from Mr. Scorsese.<\/em><\/p>\n Scorsese credits his childhood asthma with facilitating his love of cinema.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAs far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster,\u201d Ray Liotta\u2019s character memorably declares at the end of Goodfellas<\/em>\u2019 opening scene. But Scorsese himself actually pursued the priesthood before his love of movies took root. He grew up first in Corona, Queens, then in New York City\u2019s Lower East Side after witnessing an altercation between his father, Charles, a Garment District worker, and their landlord. \u201cThere was an axe involved. I remember seeing an axe,\u201d Scorsese says in the doc, without elaborating much further. \u201cViolence was imminent all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n When not braving the mean streets or finding refuge in the Catholic Church, an asthmatic Scorsese often visited air-conditioned movie theaters and engaged in people-watching from his apartment window. In the series, Scorsese even credits that particular vantage point with instilling his love of high-angle shots in movies. Scorsese fantasized about destroying the rough cut of Taxi Driver<\/em> after it received an X rating.<\/strong><\/p>\n After helming the Roger Corman\u2013produced exploitation film Boxcar Bertha<\/em> (1972), his first De Niro gangster epic, Mean Streets<\/em> (1973), and Ellen Burstyn<\/strong>\u2019s Oscar-winning turn in Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore<\/em> (1974), Scorsese had his major industry breakthrough with Taxi Driver<\/em> in 1976\u2014which had a fraught journey to the screen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cMarty\u2019s life depended upon going to movies,\u201d says Goodfellas<\/em> and Casino<\/em> screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi.<\/strong> \u201cThat\u2019s where he could breathe.\u201d Or as Spike Lee<\/strong> more colorfully puts it: \u201cThank God for asthma!\u201d<\/p>\n