Martin Scorsese Talks About ‘The 50 Year Argument’ in Exclusive Interview Clip
Martin Scorsese‘s The 50 Year Argument, a documentary detailing the history of the New York Review of Books, recently premiered on HBO, and Scorsese and his co-director David Tedeschi sat down with Rolling Stone for an exclusive interview where the filmmaking legend talked about growing up in a lower class house with no books, how the New York Review of Books influenced his approach to critical thinking, and the Sixties in general.
“The Sixties was an extraordinary time for change. Even if it wasn’t lasting, it was a time where everything was changing every minute,” Scorsese says of the decade that spawned the semi-monthly magazine that was founded in 1963 and celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. “It was an amazing time, because you may not agree with what [New York Review of Books] were saying, but it makes you think about it. Because I come from a place where you weren’t supposed to think, you see, and that’s the difference for the Review for me.” Tedeschi and Scorsese also discuss the genesis of the Review of Books, which was hatched out of an idea someone had at a dinner party.
The 50 Year Argument is the latest in a long line of past and future collaborations between Scorsese and HBO. The network has previously aired the director’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World documentary, Boardwalk Empire and the HBO Sports doc Glickman, both of which Scorsese credit as executive producer. Next up for HBO is Scorsese and Mick Jagger’s rock n’ roll drama about the music industry and a serialized version of the director’s psychological thriller Shutter Island.