Martin Scorsese/USA/1985; R4
Warner Bros, NZ$19.95 | Reviewed by John Spry

ANOTHER Martin Scorsese film has been released on DVD and contains an excellent picture with many extras that cineastes will love. Like most recent Scorsese DVD releases, this is a must-own and will fit nicely alongside other titles available.

Although not literally a comedy and definitely not a drama, this second comedic effort from New York director Scorsese is a bit of his earlier effort Mean Streets (1973) mixed with The Perils of Pauline (or in this case Paul).

This is the first Scorsese film to be conceived and developed outside of his normal cadre of writers, i.e. Paul Schrader et al. After Hours was scripted by Griffin Dunne, also the main actor in the film. From this effort Dunne would also develop and direct his own films, something he is still doing.

The plot of the film is fairly simple and follows (to a point) a logical, classical Hollywood structure. The main character Paul (Griffin Dunne), a repressed word processor working in a large company in New York City, one night meets Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) in a café whilst reading a novel. Needless to say he is immediately attracted to her and endeavours to make intimate contact with her. In a convoluted scene, he manages to get her phone number and later that night calls her and learns that she is staying with a female artist friend, and is invited over. From this point on, Paul’s night becomes a trip through a private Hell that nobody else quite believes or understands. The meat of the story involves Paul’s adventures as he attempts and ultimately fails to complete a simple task – to get home. The films ends where it begins, at Paul’s work, where he exits a taxi and heads back to his mundane job, a possible lesson learnt.

After Hours is easily Scorsese’s strangest film and to me still remains as enigmatic as when it was first released. The idea behind the film is not a new one and has been repeated in other efforts especially in the late ‘80s and early to mid ‘90s.

Scorsese seems to move quite easily from the realm of the ‘real’ to the almost ‘surreal’ and of course back again within the framing of this film, all without missing a beat and taking the audience on a ride with no clear ending. Although the budget for this film was small (a situation Scorsese would deal with for most of his career) and the timing to complete the film limited, Scorsese used the talents of Michael Ballhaus (his sometimes regular cinematographer), Thelma Schoonmaker (his always reliable and regular editor) and many other regular collaborators in a variety of roles to construct scenes and shots with a minimum of time, effort and cost.

Whilst this film does standout from the rest of Scorsese’s oeuvre, especially twenty years down the track, there are a number of commonalities that make the argument for it to be included in his past and future films, more so than many others.

After Hours is set and shot in New York which shares the same locale as at least 75 percent of other films directed by Scorsese. To say that this is not an overriding motif in the directors’ work would be to ignore the obvious importance this city has in the life of the Scorsese, and how it has shaped not only him but also his outlook on films and his life. The twist introduced in regards to the location setting is that it is set in the early hours of the morning, and is at least partly based in a mythic paranoid world created by Paul, the central character. In a sense, the film is attempting to be an urban post-modern homage to the story of The Wizard of Oz (1925); Paul is of course the Dorothy character, with his trip through the after hours of New York the equivalent of the journey through Oz.

The style of the film is certainly an element that marks the film as a Scorsese effort through not only technique, but the misc-en-scene, the score of the film and the use of contemporary music, as well as the casting of the actors to reflect an inner city theme.

After Hours, like many that involve filmmakers from the 1970s New Hollywood, contains long takes and tracking shots that help bring the isolation felt by Paul in a city that millions live in. Paul is under constant scrutiny from his peers and from the audience. The feeling of Paul’s own feelings of redundancy in his own life is shown throughout the film, and in one instance in an excellent scene at the beginning of the film where Paul is at work and the camera patrols his workplace like a hunting shark. In this scene and with the use of music to highlight Paul’s own life and his feelings about this Scorsese plays out what the entire film will come to mean for the audience and poor old Paul. After this scene another pure cinematic experience shows a still framed shot of the front of the building where Paul works. At the end of the day the front door slowly opens to reveal workers leaving their mundane employment is search of fulfilment elsewhere. This is reminiscent of a short film made over a hundred years ago by the Lumiere Brothers who were pioneers in the film industry and the possible profits that were to be made from this new medium. The similarities are familiar but separated by time and not only echo the past but also bring into perspective for both the audience and the main character what Paul must face, that not his personal life, but his working life and very existence are controlled by unseen forces, he must wake up or forever be unconscious to these forces.


THE DVD is presented in widescreen and enhanced for widescreen televisions. Considering the age of the print and the numerous “night” scenes, the picture is remarkably clear and the sound excellent.

As with all of the recently released Martin Scorsese DVDs, there is extra material included that will enlighten viewers in terms of the making of the film and where the participants place it in terms of their bodies of work. This DVD contains an audio commentary by Scorsese and other members of the crew, deleted scenes and a featurette on the production of the film. The production featurette, while only running a mediocre 18 minutes, is informative and offers valuable information on the film, director and writer.

The film itself is a welcome inclusion to those already available Scorsese DVDs, and whilst it won’t necessarily be a highlight for all, at a very reasonable price it is a welcome addition for DVD enthusiasts.