After Hours (Summer of Scorsese)

In 1985 Martin Scorsese was already an incredibly established filmmaker. He had made Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull already, amongst other things. He had begun work on a film he had wanted to make since the beginning: The Last Temptation of Christ (Not to be confused with The Last Airbender). Everything appeared in place, but at the last second the entire project was scrapped by Paramount. Scorsese said of the aftermath: “My idea then was to pull back, and not to become hysterical and try to kill people. So the trick then was to try and do something.”

Thus we are given After Hours, a movie which seems out of place on the Scorsese filmography. He was not involved with the project from its inception (three days!), and it seems small in every way. Usually Scorsese films have higher ambitions than the story of a strange night in the life of word processor Paul Hackett, but here Scorsese is directing this small little film. In the process he makes it seem more important than it really is, and one of the more interesting films in Scorsese’s body of work if not the best (and it certainly isn’t). After Hours feels more like the promising debut of a young director than the project of one more experienced.

The screenplay was written by Joseph Minion, at the time a film student at Columbia University. Originally intended to be an early feature for Tim Burton, Scorsese was given the script by actress Amy Robinson, who had previously worked with Scorsese in Mean Streets. Scorsese became interested, and saw the film as an opportunity to vent his frustrations over the cancellation of Last Temptation. Burton stepped aside, and thus began the project.

Griffin Dunne, who also produced the film with Robinson, stars as Paul Hackett, a man who leads an exceedingly normal existence. While reading in a café he meets a girl named Marcy. He becomes romantically intrigued and later that night he calls her up and heads over to her apartment. This is just the first step in a night that would soon spiral out of control.

After Hours is strange in the way it seems to be resistant to true criticism. The events happen, one after another, and we believe all of them. The characters are believable in the way that they seem rooted in reality, despite the chaos around them. However, I remain amazed at just how small it all is, and that is the only thing I feel one can pick apart about the film. The only ambition is to show what happens, and then move on. Scorsese directs with his usual energy and draws you in to the story, but at the end of the day the usual substance one expects from a Scorsese film is not there. It doesn’t leave one empty, per se, but if anyone asked me if they absolutely needed to see After Hours I might say no. But that may not even be true, because of its importance in Scorsese’s career.

The characters here are all wonderfully strange as a counterpoint to Paul, our “straight man”. Marcy, it turns out, is a much weirder girl than is originally suspected, but that is nothing compared to her roommate Kiki, who creates paper mâché sculptures in the living room and is apparently in to sadomasochism. Marcy is married, and has another boyfriend already besides Paul. Paul decides to leave the apartment, appropriately freaked out, and the night goes further downhill from there. He meets a few other women, all encounters ending badly. A rumor spreads that Paul is the burglar who has been running wild around town, and a large angry mob begins following him. There is a suicide, a couple of strange painters played by Cheech and Chong, a bartender played by John Heard, and a few adventures in Club Berlin, a place Paul decidedly does NOT belong.

To go to deep into plot synopsis would be to spoil the fun for those who have not seen it, and there is a whole lot of fun to be had in After Hours. Scorsese was able to go on and make The Last Temptation of Christ later on, but I think After Hours holds a special place in his heart. It represents one of his few adventures into the world of comedy, coming right after The King of Comedy, which is hardly a laugh-out-loud film. Neither is this, but I feel this film works better within the definition of comedy, but it is incredibly dark.

As a dark comedy it is probably incredibly influential. Various indie comedies and indie films in general probably owe a lot to this film. On top of all that After Hours stands as one of the more original in the bunch, including an attempt at making the same basic plot more hip and happening in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. To any other filmmaker this film would be a breakthrough, but when comparing it to the rest of Scorsese’s work it comes off as strange and small. Then why is it so darn entertaining?

Summer of Scorsese
Original Post
Goodfellas
Taxi Driver
After Hours
The Departed (My Favorite Movies)
Shutter Island (Original Review)

Up next: Gangs of New York