Howard Stern asked Jonah Hill in late 2018 about his experience working with Martin Scorsese for "The Wolf of Wall Street". Hill responded enthusiastically to Hill's praises of the veteran filmmaker. Scorsese is without doubt one of the most important living directors. Hill says that a lot of it has to do with his ability problem-solve. Hill said that directing is about solving problems constantly. He claimed to have seen Scorsese solve a complex problem in his 30 seconds.

Scorsese was well-versed in filmmaking, having been around since the 1970s. He knew what he wanted and how he could make it happen. Unprecedented behind-the scenes footage shows that Scorsese approached his crime thriller drama starring Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio with cool equanimity. He demonstrated with every calmly spoken direction that he was a master of his craft.

It is a remake partly of "Infernal Affairs", a 2002 Hong Kong movie. However, it was also inspired by the Boston Winter Hill Gang. Jack Nicholson was Frank Costello's mafia boss, which was inspired by Whitey Bulger (an Irish-American gangster). Costello (Damon) places one of his men within the Massachusetts State Police. Sullivan is forced to play a tense game of cat-and mouse with Billy Costigan (DiCaprio), an undercover State Trooper who is embedded in Costello’s gang. It's a fascinating and possibly complicated story.

It all works out wonderfully, thanks to Scorsese's problem-solving skills. When Scorsese sat down and edited the entire thing, "The Departed", almost lost his hand.

"I'll figure it out later"

William Monahan, scribe to "Kingdom of Heaven", wrote "The Departed", which contains all the classic Scorsese themes. It's full of guilt, greed, murder, and jealousy. It all seems to have happened on set. The director encouraged actors to improvise and collaborated with Monahan to adapt their scripts as they shot.

Quentin Tarantino, a fellow film geek, spoke to Quentin Tarantino about how he had to add four days to his shoot due to the script constantly changing.

"We kept changing it in the middle of filming. I continued to work with Bill Monahan, and everyone rewriting stuff. It became so complicated that my continuity person asked me, "Where do you want the new scene [that] just arrived in?" It got so complicated that my continuity person asked, "Where do you want this new scene [that] just came in?" I replied, "Put it in between everything else." It will be figured out later.

Jack Nicholson seemed to like Martin Scorsese’s flexibility. He was open to the possibility to improvise. He once asked the prop master for a gun to be hidden on set so that he could use it against Leonardo DiCaprio in a tension scene. He also participated in the rewriting process. He added his unique and disturbing dialogue to scenes.

It was not surprising that there were too many scenes in the edit bay. This made it difficult to complete the entire process. Scorsese said to Tarantino that it felt like they were trying to wrangle six wild horses. He and editor Thelma Schoonmaker. The pair were able to control the situation and create a film that earned Scorsese his only Oscar win for best director.

Heavy Lies from The Crown

It is important to note that "The Departed," is not an exception. Martin Scorsese was always open to actors being able to improvise or tweak a script while on set. Variety's Jack Nicholson said in 2007 that Scorsese is open to allowing actors to improvise and tweak a script on set. His films have a sense of spontaneity and grounded reality that gives them a real feeling, even when they portray outrageous behavior. Scorsese's ability to adapt scenes as needed may have been a problem in editing "The Departed", but it seems that it paid off in the end.

There's much to love about William Monahan’s script, but, as the screenwriter put it, it would "make literature professor wet himself." Consider Nicholson's scene starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In it, Costello (Nicholson), tries to intimidate Costigan, (DiCaprio). It helps that Nicholson is firing at all cylinders and that the surprise gun reveal DiCaprio didn't expect is the cherry on top. The dialogue is great.

It's hard to believe how much of Monahan’s rich dialogue was preserved and how much was rewritten during the shoot. It's impressive to think that such dialogue was written on-the-spot. Scorsese pulled it off, even though it left him with a lot of footage to sort through later. Perhaps such challenges are part of being the best at what your do. Costello snorts at Costigan in a Shakespeare quote: "Heavy lies crown!"

Film.

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