This a heartfelt tribute from one filmmaker to another. From one great director to another great American director. Narrated and written by Martin Scorsese he extols and covers the career of Elia Kazan. There isn't much doubt that Kazan is one of the great directors but to some degree his career and himself was castigated because he talked. He had been a Communist back in the 1930's and during the HUAC hearings and the Red Scare of the 1950's he gave names of 8 other Communists whose careers were ruined. Of course lots of people gave names but Kazan stood out because he had been one of the good guys working for social fairness and equality. His friends and many others felt betrayed.


Scorsese gets into this a little bit but certainly doesn't seem to hold it against Kazan. He mainly talks about how certain of Kazan's films impacted him so much as a teenager and how much he respects his work. The two became friends after Scorsese started making films.


Kazan himself divided his films into two periods - before he talked and after. Before he gave us A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Gentleman's Agreement, Pinky, Panic in the Streets and A Streetcar Named Desire. After he talked and the self-examination he went through he made his two greatest films - On the Waterfront and East of Eden. Some other good ones followed but nothing quite up to those two. Those two incredibly emotional films seemed to come out of some dark tormented space within him.