Crime and history in America: Scorsese and the US criminal world

Abstract

The following text explores how personal experiences of filmmaker Martin Scorsese have had a strong influence on his films. He has printed the changes,variations and specifications of the criminal world throughout the history of United States. The Italian-American life, the concepts of guilt, mafia and violence thatScorsese lived during his childhood, youth and adulthood between 1950´s and 1980´s are reflected in films such as “Gangs of New York” (Scorsese, 2002),“Goodfellas” (Scorsese, 1990), “Casino” (Scorsese, 1995), “Mean Streets” (Scorsese, 1973) and “Taxi Driver” (Scorsese, 1976).