Flyover Online

A double win at the Oscars Sunday night earned veteran New York moviemaker Martin Scorsese (pictured above, left, with his longtime collaborator Robert De Niro) coast-to-coast front-page newspaper coverage. “Scorsese Scores at Last” was the headline in “The Seattle Times.” Hometown tabloid “The New York Post” trumpeted the success of its local golden boy with the headline “Marty Scores.” Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director qualified “The Departed,” Scorsese’s rousing remake of the Hong Kong gangster drama “Infernal Affairs,” as the project that finally ended his streak as an Oscar runner up. Thelma Schoonmaker’s third career Oscar for editing brought extra glory to “The Departed.”
Marty Scorsese was the expected Oscar story, but my core comment focused on someone who wasn’t competing for Best Director alongside Scorsese, one of his peers and the artist responsible for the extraordinary spy drama “The Good Shepherd,” Robert De Niro.
Richer, vaster and timelier than “The Departed” and its gangster shootouts, “The Good Shepherd” and its epic tale of the CIA deserved a spot at the Oscars podium. More importantly, De Niro deserved a chance to compete with Scorsese, “Letters From Iwo Jima” director Clint Eastwood, “United 93” director Paul Greengrass, “The Queen” director Stephen Frears and “Babel” filmmaker Alejandro González Inárritu for a shot at Best Director.
Scorsese’s Sunday night win came after years of losing, despite creating some of the best American films. I’m convinced that De Niro will have his prize, sooner rather than later.