Wait, Ray Liotta Was In Two MUPPET Movies?!!?

When Ray Liotta passed away last week, tributes poured in largely citing his intense performance as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 gangster classic GOODFELLAS, and his touching portrayal of Shoeless Joe Jackson in Phil Alden Robinson’s 1989 baseball drama, FIELD OF DREAMS. Liotta’s other notable work in various films and TV series got some print as well, but one vital item got glossed over, and that's the surprising, and very fun fact that the man appeared in two of the Muppet movies.

In Tim Hill’s MUPPETS FROM SPACE (1999), Liotta appears in the third act credited as “Gate Guard,” a typical authority-figure-our-heroes-have-to-get-past part. In order to infiltrate a top secret national security facility called C.O.V.N.E.T., Miss Piggy utilized her Mind Mist spray to manipulate Liotta, basically turning him into an agreeable, smiling idiot. Watch the scene:

15 years later, Liotta’s second cinematic run-in with the Muppets found him on the other side of the law. In James Bobin’s MUPPETS MOST WANTED (2014), Liotta plays a Gulag inmate named “Big Papa,” who mostly lingers in the background like an extra until the Siberian Gulag Revue, the prisoners’ annual talent show. That’s where we hear Big Papa declare “we like Boyz II Men,” and display some rough, but invested harmony singing.

In an interview with We Got This Covered, Liotta explained his involvement: “With the Muppets? We sing and dance. Me and Danny Trejo are in prison, Kermit is there as well as scattered other Muppets. Kermit gets thrown into jail because they think he’s somebody he’s not, and the identical of him, this guy Constantine, is going out and doing bad things. So yeah, we’re just singing and dancing. Tina Fey is the Warden, Ricky Gervais is somebody in it, it was a lot of fun. It’s really funny. It’s all singing and dancing.”

 

Another interview with Liotta, from the set of MUPPETS MOST WANTED with ScreenSlam, also shows us a bit of how much fun he was having on the shoot:

Now these cameos may seem trivial, maybe even the definition of trivial, but it’s significant to me because of Liotta’s tough guy persona, and that over the run of eight Muppet movies, the human guest stars rarely repeat. The only other example I can find is that Elliot Gould put in cameos in THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979), and THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN (1983), but Liotta’s walk-ons were just a little more substantial - one of them even has a name (“Big Papa”) while Gould’s were just “Beauty Contest Compare,” and “Cop at Pete’s” respectively.

 

It must be noted that Zach Galifianakis played the same character, Hobo Joe, in both THE MUPPETS (2011), and MUPPETS MOST WANTED, but the scruffy comic feels like more of a fit in the world of funny felt than Liotta for sure.

 

Liotta was only in a few other films of the family-friendly variety (or maybe only one, the animated Jerry Seinfeld vehicle, BEE MOVIE), which is why having two outings with Kermit the Frog and company stands out in his distinguished, and fairly dark filmography. It also seems like a necessary side-line since when looking over Liotta’s career, which spanned over four decades, and contained over 70 movies, I’m not seeing anywhere else where he could really get in some singing and dancing.  

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Ariel Vroman's Dark Thriller THE ICEMAN Now Out On Blu Ray & DVD

Out today on Blu ray and DVD:

THE ICEMAN (Dir. Ariel Vroman, 2012) *

Film Babble Blog favorite, Michael Shannon was seen by millions stepping into shoes once worn by Terrence Stamp for the role of the iconic villain General Zod in Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot MAN OF STEEL this last summer.

But late last spring, movie-goers got a thorough sampling of Shannon’s skills as a very different sort of bad guy in Ariel Vroman’s true story crime thriller THE ICEMAN, now out on Blu ray and DVD.

Shannon portrays New Jersey-based mafia contract killer Richard Kuklinski, who the film’s post script tells was believed to have killed over 100 people. Kulinski was called “The Iceman” because he’d often freeze the bodies of his victims so that cops would have difficulty determining the time of death (so no, it’s not like “The Ice Truck Killer” on Dexter), and because of the man’s cold as ice demeanor.

It’s a demeanor that Shannon really nails with stoic precision, and with enough charisma to woo Winona Ryder as the woman who married the murderer and had two daughters with him, without knowing how he was bringing home the bacon.

Shannon goes from working in the sketchy pornography business (he tells Ryder he’s dubbing Disney cartoons), to doing hits full time, while his family thinks he’s a currency trader.

For his third full-length film as director, Vroman has made a gritty shadowy movie that has traces of ‘70s Scorsese in its DNA, along with the grimy aura of latter day reality based true crime sagas as John McNaughton’s HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1990) and Jonathan Hensleigh’s KILL THE IRISHMAN (2011). There are many moments that this film mostly set in the ‘70s, looks like it was actually shot in that era with its grainy textures and authentic looking lighting.

Ray Liotta, still working on perfecting his Henry Hill scowl from Scorsese’s 1990 gangster classic GOODFELLAS adds to the dark décor as a Gambino family crew boss Roy DeMeo (one of the few real names used in the film) who’s constantly breathing down Shannon’s neck, while Chris Evans effectively brings the sleaze as a fellow hitman, Robert ‘Mr. Freezy’ Pronge, who drives the ice cream truck the killers make morbid use of.

Shannon bounces around the streets of New York doing hits, visiting his jailbird brother (Stephen Dorff), and doting on his wife and kids, though in one wild instance of road rage, his temper gets the best of him, and he scares his family half to death chasing down some schlub who made the mistake to yell profanities at our cold-blooded killer after a mild automobile accident.

There is some strained pacing, and like so often the Carter-era fashions and facial hair looks way fake (as has from ANCHORMAN to ARGO), but these factors I can forgive.

THE ICEMAN, follows a familiar dark biopic path, but Michael Shannon’s power and intensity is well captured as this unredeemable soul who can’t help but be anything but a son of Satan, its cast which includes a cameo by James Franco, and an unrecognizable David Schwimmer (it’s true - I didn’t know it was him until the end credits) is beautifully chosen, and it’s the best acting I’ve seen by Ryder in ages.

So before you get bombarded by the big ass Superman reboot hoopla, consider taking in this more subtle piece of Shannon’s work. With this and his superb turn in Jeff Nichols' TAKE SHELTER (Shannon also appears in Nichol's MUD still in theatrical release), the man has well proven he can carry and be the core of a very fine film. Here’s hoping the films will get finer.

* This review originally appeared in the May 30th, 2013 edition of the Raleigh News & Observer. It has been slightly written to reflect its release on home video.

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Talky KILLING THEM SOFTLY Gives Us A Lesson In Gangster Economics

Opening today in Raleigh and the Triangle area:

KILLING THEM SOFTLY (Dir. Andrew Dominik, 2012)

Although this film is based on the 1974 crime novel “Coogan’s Trade” by George V. Higgins, fans of The Sopranos are going to find its trappings familiar. Not only because it features Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini, and series regulars Vincent Curatola, and Max Casella, but because its scenario set-up about low level idiots that try to get ahead by robbing a mob protected card game is ground well trodden by David Chase’s iconic characters.

But director/screenwriter Andrew Dominik, re-united with his THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES star, Brad Pitt, has loftier goals that just staging a big screen Sopranos episode. Dominik sets the story in New Orleans in 2008, and we are taken back to the days of Obama getting elected during the country’s economic collapse via a string of television screens in the background always tuned to the news. The underlying implication is that the mafia is yet another American corporation whose business model is faltering in these tough times.

Pitt, with slicked back hair, shades, and goatee, plays an enforcer for the mob who’s brought in to track down the three low level idiots who thought it was a good idea to rob a high-stakes card game run by the fidgety stressed-out Ray Liotta. Liotta, is in real hot water with this theft, because he’s robbed the game before himself, and he’s going to take the blame for this one.

An often smirking Richard Jenkins, brings his Nathaniel Fisher (the all-knowing ghost dad on Six Feet Under) confidence in his part as Pitt’s contact, a jaded mob lawyer, who says matter-of-factly that “this is a business of relationships,” ever so slyly adding to the movie’s not-so-subtle set of themes.

Gandolfini shows up as a boozing burn-out of a hitman that Pitt seems to think he needs in order to pull off the job. Gandolfini and Pitt have a few intense and intimate scenes together; one on one exchanges in which you feel their history together both as these shady guys, and as actors who’ve worked together for 2 decades, starting with Tony Scott’s TRUE ROMANCE. 

Despite some vivid violence (this movie is where to go to see Liotta getting the shit beaten out of him), it’s a dialogue-driven film, all about the sit-downs. The power and thrust of the film’s thesis can be found in Pitt’s parked car consultations with Jenkins, Gandolfini’s meaty monologues, and the frightened babbling of Scoot McNairy’s Frankie (one of the idiots involved in the card heist), who steals the movie out from under the bigwigs when he’s onscreen with his perfectly unhinged performance.

As McNairy’s partner in crime and stupidity, Ben Mendelsohn (ANIMAL KINGDOM) is also effective as a seedy heroin addict you can’t believe anybody would trust to get them coffee, let alone pull off a dangerous job.

Pitt, who is one of 17 (!) different producers on this project, provides a solid performance, but it’s nothing we’ve never seen him do before. Still, the man’s particular brand of presence is never bland.

Sort of like a mash-up of GOODFELLAS and MARGIN CALL, KILLING THEM SOFTLY may be a bit too talky for its target audience. 

Because of its marketing, which highlights the stars, the stylishness and the one explosion, audiences are likely to think that it’s a different movie than it is - much like Anton Corbijn’s THE AMERICAN, which looked like a commercial George Clooney action flick, or Nicolas Winding Refn’s DRIVE, which looked like a commercial Ryan Gosling car chase thriller. Both turned out to be artsy cerebral takes on their genres, and while film buffs like me loved them, I knew many folks who were turned off.

This take on the gangster drama genre deserves an audience’s attention, even if the dry tone that Dominik creates, along with the immaculately shot framework (by cinematographer Grieg Fraser) surrounding some of the year’s most astonishing acting, ultimately makes more of an impression than any of the political points he’s attempting to make. 

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DATE NIGHT: The Film Babble Blog Review

DATE NIGHT (Dir. Shawn Levy, 2010)

Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are 2 of the most likable and funny people currently on network television in their NBC sitcoms The Office and 30 Rock respectively. That reputation hasn't changed in their transition to the big screen even if some of their previous choices of projects have faltered a bit. 


Pairing them up as a bored, and purposely boring, married couple from New Jersey who find themselves caught up in a wild and violent night from Hell in manic Manhattan isn't the most inspired concept in the world, but on the strength of their comic charm alone it's still very likable and funny.

After learning that a couple of their friends are splitting up (Mark Ruffalo and Kristen Wiig in an all too brief appearance), Carrell decides to try to re-ignite the spark of their marriage by abandoning their routine date night plans and heading into the city for a meal at a posh upscale restaurant that they don't have reservations for. 


A dolled-up Fey is hesitant at first, but is soon game - same goes for when Carrell, not able to get a table, steals somebody else's reservations which, of course, leads to a case of mistaken identity with gunshots and frantic chases galore.

The MacGuffin here is a flashdrive, or "computer sticky thingie" as Fey calls it, that 2 thugs (Jimmi Simpson and Common) insist Carrell and Fey possess. Our not quite heroic duo elude their pursuers, find out that the thugs are cops on the take, and call upon one of Fey's real estate clients, a shirtless Mark Wahlberg, for help. 


It really doesn't matter where the plot goes from here - it's just an excuse for Carrell and Fey to run around and spout out one-liners, many of which are just funny enough to keep the enterprise rolling.

Cameos from James Franco and Mila Kunis as a trashy couple who amusingly share some of the same relationship issues as do our protagonists work better than they should, and Ray Liotta as an angry mobster (once again resurrecting Henry Hill from GOODFELLAS) also adds nicely to the mayhem, as contrived as it is.


It's as predictable as its fabricated THE OUT OF TOWNERS meets AFTER HOURS formula would suggest, but if you like Carrell and Fey (I can't imagine somebody liking one and not liking the other) you'll most likely like this.

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OBSERVE AND REPORT: The Film Babble Blog Review

OBSERVE AND REPORT (Dir. Jody Hill, 2009) Last weekend on Saturday Night Live, Kristen Wiig playing an audience member in a Q & A, said to host Seth Rogan: "You’re in a second mall cop movie? Good luck with that!" It was an obvious dig at his new movie, but once you get past the seemingly similar premise, Rogen's deluded schlub of a character recalls such an alienated legend in their own mind like De Niro's Travis Bickle in TAXI DRIVER more than it does Kevin James's PAUL BLART: MALL COP. An old school trenchcoated flasher is terrorizing shoppers and employees alike at Forest Ridge Mall and Rogen as head of mall Security is determined to serve up justice. "Hot plates of justice" he specifies to the vein-popping annoyance of the hard nosed police detective (Ray Liotta) called in to investigate. There is also vandalism and a robbery that Rogen also feels he can handle as he attempts to flirt with Anna Farris as a superficial make-up counter clerk. Rogen trades insults with a kiosk salesman (comedian Aziz Ansari) - one of his many mall adversaries resulting in one of the film's funniest scenes. Between crude confrontations Rogen gulps free coffee served to him by Collette Wolfe, a sweet girl-next-door but with a leg in a cast, who we know immediately is a better love interest for him than Farris but following Rogen's every misguided move is the name of the game here. Frustrated with Rogen's wannabe Police state, Liotta drops him off in a bad neighborhood but it backfires making our would be hero go with gusto into the enlistment process to become a full fledged officer of the law. Darker than the Judd Apatow produced playgrounds of Rogen's former films, OBSERVE AND REPORT alternates between edgy and goofy with just the right tone. It's the best acting I've witnessed from Rogen and he's well matched with the crusty Liotta working his worry lines to great effect, Farris being all too convincing as a vapid vulgar slut, Michael Peña as fellow mall security, and Celia Weston as Rogen's alcoholic, though supremely supportive mother (as incoherent as she is). Nice comic turns from Danny McBride and Patton Oswalt also fill out the funny. A much more accomplished and layered film than Jody Hill's previous piece (THE FOOT FIST WAY), OBSERVE AND REPORT may not be up to the manic comic levels of SUPERBAD or PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (even with the most gratuitous and grotesque display of flabby male nudity this side of BORAT) but it's still a worthy, if crass, character study that will satisfy fans of lovingly lowbrow comedy such as BAD SANTA or Comedy Central's Reno 911. Not too shabby a predicament for "a second mall cop movie". More later...

WILD HOGS #1 - America Has Spoken

"This whole country's just like my flock of sheep!" - Lonesome Rhodes (Andy Griffith) A FACE IN THE CROWD (Dir. Elia Kazan, 1957)

WILD HOGS (Dir. Walt Becker, 2007) 

In the last few years there has been much op-ed piece and pundit speak about whether movie critics really matter any more. If we judge solely by the case of WILD HOGS the answer is a deafening “Hell NO!” 

This film, which was critically panned by practically everyone (it has a 15% approval rating = rotten on the Tomatometer), was the #1 movie for several weeks when it opened earlier this year even staying in the top ten 13 weeks after its release! 

It was the #1 DVD in sales upon release and rentals (now it's #3) and the #1 download right now online according to iTunes. It’s like it’s giving the finger to every movie critic ever! So yeah, I had to see for myself – I couldn’t take anybody’s word for it. I put it in my Netflix queue and naturally it came up “Very Long Wait” which made me feel even more ashamed to giving in to what I knew was going to be an atrocious experience.

And boy was it! Another depressed yuppies take to the road in an attempt to re-boot their stale lives – it's CITY SLICKERS get their GROOVE BACK by way of EASY RIDER and LOST IN AMERICA. 

Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, and the really slumming it William H. Macy are the motorcycle crew here – they face off with real bikers led by Ray Liotta while Macy falls for Marissa Tomei. That’s about all of what happens here unless you want to count the endless stopping to go to the bathroom jokes and all the homophobic humor especially embodied in a gay cop (Scrubs’ John C. McGinley), who may be the most offensive character in a movie comedy in a long time. 

I didn’t think one second of this film was funny – I didn’t even smile at the Peter Fonda cameo (especially as it is such a contrived walk-on). With its base, broad and just plain boring kind of comedy WILD HOGS is the movie equivalent of pig slop but I know, my opinion doesn’t matter - as Stephen Colbert says "the market has spoken."

Post Note: There has been much speculation that a significant percentage of the gross of WILD HOGS was from teenagers who bought tickets to it and then attended 300 but that doesn't explain the DVD and download numbers. Maybe it's a Red States thing.

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DVD Babble Blurb Bash-tacular!

I have seen a lot of recent DVDs over the last few months that I haven't been blogged about so I thought it would be good to take a break from the summer sequel season and round up a handful and square them off. I tried to keep it in a brief blurb format but since this is film BABBLE the reviews of course wind on and on. Let's start with -

New Release DVD Recommendations :

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (Dir. Clint Eastwood, 2006) Word was that this was vastly superior to FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS but this politically correct companion piece is roughly the same quality in my estimation. Told from the Japanese point of view entirely in their language with sub-titles LETTERS has the same sense of earnest honor and the same grey overcast tint. The standout characters are General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) the young Saigo (Kazunari Ninomira) who run into each other more than once in the tunnels between Mount Saribachi and the north side of the island as bombing and ground attacks by the American troops rage above. The melodrama involving the sympathy that emerges is handled deftly by Eastwood while the sentiment - such as the sunny Speilbergisms that sadly have defined the modern era war-film is kept in check. It may be too much to watch both FLAGS and LETTERS in one sitting or some double feature setting but both even with their glorified old-school faults (most likely from the screenplay written by CRASH * director Paul Hack-ish, oh - I mean Haggis) should not be missed.

* Incidentely my least favorite Best Picture Academy Award winning film ever!



49 UP (Dir. Michael Apted, 2005) The 7th in the excellent documentary series that began in 1964 with the bold statement - "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man" and followed 14 British children catching up with them every (yep) 7 years. Since most people I know haven't seen any of these movies I'd highly recommend the Up Series box-set which has the previous 6 films but honestly that's not absolutely necessary to enjoy this movie. Plenty of clips from all the films inform and enhance the new material and don't come off as redundant for those who have kept up. It would be too much for me to recount all the names, stories, and economic backgrounds so check out this Wikipedia entry if you are curious. Seeing this group of real people at the various stages of their lives through turmoil and peace makes for extremely satisfying viewing. Bring on 56 UP!

ROCKY BALBOA
(Dir. Sylvester Stallone, 2006)

It's hard for me to believe this is making my recommendations list. I mean as a kid I hated the ROCKY movies, ridiculed them with other snotty pimpled faced friends, and grew up to believe them to be populist Narcissistic America at its most lame brained epic-wannabes. At some point when I got older I caught the original Best Picture winning ROCKY and found myself liking it. It came from my favorite era of cinema (the 70's dummy!) and it was grittily touching in its portrayal of the boxing underdog making a name for himself. Then sequel-itis set in and the character became a machine who could never lose in glitzy gimmicky match-ups with Mr. T (III) and that evil Russian powerhouse played by Dolph Lundgren (IV) - yes that's right - Rocky was going to win the Cold War! I never even saw ROCKY V (1990) - so why do I like and recommend ROCKY BALBOA? Because we have Stallone at his most likable - an aging humble simpleton running a restaurant named after his deceased wife Adrian (Talia Shire - who is not deceased; she just didn't return to the series), telling the same fight stories, and brushing off daily indignities. It seems oddly necessary for Stallone to return to his Rocky roots - this is his best and most definable character and even with the contrived 'inspired by a video game simulation Rocky gets an exhibition match with the current troubled champ Mason 'The Line Dixon' (Antonio Tarver)' scenario, I hate to admit it but it works. Bring on JOHN RAMBO! Okay, no wait - that's a bit much.

And now :

New Release DVD Disses :

BOBBY (Dir. Emilio Estevez, 2006) I had heard the news upon its theatrical release that this was a NASHVILLE remake - relocated to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles with the RFK assassination the backdrop to a convoluted mishmash of over 20 cliched '60s stereotypes. I held out 'til it came in that red Netflix envelope because of my love for political period pieces but damn was that description right on the money! The Altman derived framework doesn't disguise the awful screenplay with ham-fisted base dialogue like Nick Cannon playing an insufferably idealistic Kennedy staffer emoting "now that Dr. King is gone - no one left but Bobby. No one." Cannon joins an ace cast including Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence Fishborne, William H. Macy, Harry Belfonte, Christian Slater (one of the few non-idealist characters - he plays a base racist), and Estevez's Daddy Martin Sheen. Not so ace actors here include Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, Demi Moore and Estevez himself. The cringe inducing cliches pile up - Ashton Kutcher does his worst acting ever (can't believe that was possible) as a hippy that would look phony on Dragnet 1967- during a horrifyingly stupid acid trip sequence actually sits staring at an orange in his hand saying "no, you shut up!", every TV set has a perfect quality picture of carefully chosen clips of RFK speeches and there's even a MAGNOLIA-esque montage going from strained close-up shots actor to actor. Can't deny the heart that went into this movie but all we have here is an A-list cast, B-list production values, C-list cliches, D-list overused soundtrack standards, and an F-list script. Somebody revoke Estevez's cinematic license! He should be exiled to the TV movie circuit after this film felony.

SMOKIN' ACES (Dir. Joe Carnahan, 2007) Another better than average cast slumming it through derivative drivel. Flashy Vegas gangster caper in which every one in the cast is after sleazy magician soon to be snitch Buddy Aces (Jeremy Piven - pictured on the left). Some are trying to protect him - (lawyer Curtis Armstrong, FBI agents Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta under the supervision of chief Andy Garcia) but everybody else is trying to kill him including Alicia Keys, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, and rapper Common - okay yeah so it's not A-list but most of them are still better than the material in this worn entry into the PULP FICTION-GET SHORTY-LOCK STOCK-GO sweepstakes that expired over a decade ago. Kind of like Shane Black's also post-dated glib witless KISS KISS BANG BANG (2005) SMOKIN' ACES is a lesson in how quick cutting and hip-hopisms don't ensure a clever crafty meta-movie. Just say Tarenti-NO to this piece of pop-nonsense.

This post (especially the disses) is dedicated to Good Morning America critic Joel Siegel (1943-2007). He became a film babble hero when he walked out of a screening of CLERKS II last summer. Knowing his days were numbered he figured he didn't want to waste his last hours on that crap. The fact that it pissed off Kevin Smith was the icing on the cake! Check out Roger Ebert's heartfelt tribute.


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Exile On Mean Street - Or Scorsese & The Stones Together Again

“He could stay up for days on end talking about movies and music, more about music than movies. He had this rock 'n roll head, knew every lyric and every title. He understood that the music was really a critical aspect of the zeitgeist of the times.” - Don Simpson (Warner Bros. Producer) on Martin Scorsese *

Okay, so I loved THE DEPARTED as did the majority of the critics, but I didn’t want to write a formal review for it so I decided to do a piece on the notable reappearance of the Rolling Stones on the soundtrack of a Martin Scorsese film.

I know, it’s far from surprising. Scorsese has made many movies that are chock full of ‘60s and ‘70s classic rock. I mean he got one of his first movie gigs editing the movie WOODSTOCK (arguably the sunny flipside to the Altamont Hell of GIMME SHELTER). And, of course, Scorsese made the seminal concert film THE LAST WALTZ and the definitive pre-motorcycle crash Dylan bio NO DIRECTION HOME, sure, but it’s his telling cinematic relationship with the music of the Stones, one song in particular, that is the theme of this post that I call:

EXILE ON MEAN STREET: Scorsese and the Stones Together Again

Martin Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED opens with a gruff Jack Nicholson voice-over monologue taking us through archival news film of violence during Boston’s anti-busing protests in 1974.

Eerily winding its way through the grainy footage comes Keith Richard’s stinging guitar intro to “Gimme Shelter,” the all-too familiar but still potent 1969 Rolling Stones classic.

The film shifts to the present with shots of Nicholson’s character, Irish mob boss Frank Costello, shrouded in a darkness that remains even when he enters a fully lit store-front. The piercing familiar strains of Richard’s guitar fade as the scene is set. The song has done its job of setting the ominous tone and spooky feel and can exit.

Thing is, Scorsese has played this tune before, twice before as a matter of fact. Several Scorsese soundtracks have been peppered with Stones tracks, always from the ‘60s, and early ‘70s era, and always as scene carrying tone-setters.

MEAN STREETS, Scorcese’s 1973 breakthrough, has an early scene in which the 2 main protagonists each respectively get stamped with their own Stones songs. A barroom jukebox blares the soulful “Tell Me” to present a cool, calm and collected Charlie (Harvey Keitel) as he glides half-dancing through the smoky red-lit tavern.

A few minutes later wild rough unpredictable Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) gets the jarring rollicking “Jumping Jack Flash” to greet him at the door. We assume back stories, identify the moods, and form some sort of a connection to these guys just from these songs doing their thing.

The Stones don’t show up in a Scorsese film again until GOODFELLAS (1990). Rightfully considered a return to form and probably his most popular film, the soundtrack was an amazing mesmerizing ride. It’s mix-tape moviemaking at its finest with three Stones songs (or bits of) in the mix.

When the era defining icons (Tony Bennett, the Moonglows, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Vinton) of Henry Hill’s (Ray Liotta) ‘50s childhood fade into a crime-filled adulthood which dissolves into an unglamorous ‘70s downfall, we have “Gimme Shelter” make its Scorsese film debut.

Only a minute of it appears and it’s from the song’s second half when Jagger and guest vocalist Merry Clayton’s wailing is at its peak. It defines the shot of Henry cutting cocaine at his girlfriend on the side Sandy’s (Debi Mazar) apartment. The jump-cut montage masterpiece finale sequence features bits of the Stones “Monkey Man” and “Memo From Turner” mixed in with snatches of the Who (“Magic Bus”), Muddy Waters (“Mannish Boy”), Harry Nilsson (“Jump Into The Fire”), and George Harrison (“What is Life”).

These jarring song excerpts give a frantic jagged heartbeat to that one fateful day when Henry is on the run trading guns, setting up a major coke deal, hiding from helicopters, and trying to get a proper meal made at home (“keep stirring the sauce!” he yells on the phone to his wheelchair bound brother).

Scorsese’s CASINO (1995) presents the same tone, tension, and some of the same cast (Robert Deniro, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Scorsese’s Mother Catherine) as GOODFELLAS, with this time four Stones songs on the soundtrack, “Gimme Shelter” among them.

CASINO does offer some good film making and an involving narrative drive, but even for this hardcore Marty fan it has too much of ‘been there, done that’ feel. “Sweet Virginia,” “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’” and “Heart of Stone” make their brief snatch cameos, and its five Stones songs if we count Devo’s cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Which I have to admit is an inspired choice here considering.

With the intro to “Gimme Shelter” setting off THE DEPARTED it’s almost as if Scorsese could argue that he’s never used the same part of the song in a film.

Not sure if that’s true. I didn’t want to watch CASINO again but maybe someone will edit together a version of it from all three films and Youtube it. The new Stones addition to the Scorsese canon is “Let It Loose” from the 1971 album Exile on Main Street, possibly the most obscure Jagger/Richards composition to be chosen for his soundtracks. Appearing in a crucial scene it underscores the fear and intensity of boss Costello (Nicholson) roughly intimidating undercover cop Billy Castigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) in a barroom backroom.

The Stones sound best playing on some sleazy jukebox in a run-down dive you understand. The scene is timed to "Let It Loose" - the entire song plays never dropping out or fading away. An searing effect that lingers comes off this standout scene. It makes the case for Marty to continue digging up, polishing off, and setting to visceral action whatever Stones song he wants (‘60s to early ‘70s era only, mind you).

So why has Martin Scorsese used the Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter” in three different films? Probably the same reason Woody Allen has used Benny Goodman’s “Sing Sing Sing” (more than once: it’s an effective, exciting and historic piece of music.

“Gimme Shelter” was born out of the same era that Scorsese was being born as a filmmaker. No other song captures the darkness that came when the ‘60s Utopian dream went deadly wrong with such wicked passion. It is a depiction of a floodgate of war, rape, and murder threatening to break violently open and drown us all.

The song seemed to be talking about Vietnam, reacting to race riots, and somehow foreshadowing Altamont (the documentary concert film of which was named GIMME SHELTER), all at the same time, illustrating everyday life in that scary era.

While writing this I learned that one of Scorsese’s next projects may be a concert film of the Rolling Stones current tour. According to the info circulating Scorsese will be following the aging rockers between two shows at New York’s Beacon Theatre on October 29 and 31. The shows will be part of former US President Bill Clinton’s birthday celebrations.

Ah, well it all makes sense now. Very good chance we’ll have “Gimme Shelter” in a fourth Scorsese film. Maybe this time he’ll really nail it. I mean, in our current scary era, a live in-the-moment performance of this dark scorching song (with a former President in attendance no less) might get the real cinematic treatment that the previous appearances of the songs were mere auditions for.

Scorsese might just yet capture the true force and nature of that rock classic beast and tame it with his camera and later master editing. I mean as the song says “it’s just a shot away.”

* This quote was taken from Peter Biskind's excellent book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (Simon & Schuster 1999)

More later...