when the british film institute ask martin scorcese to create the american part of it century of the cinema series and he grab the opportunity with both hand . a personal journey through american movie be a fascinating and wide ranging and and a the title say and a highly personal look at hollywood cinema . scorcese story be primarily about hollywood director actor and producer and screenwriter and other collaborator barely get a mention . he state right from the beginning that for him the primary conflict within the film industry be that between the director vision and the distributor profit motive and between art and commercial viability . he even open with a clip from vincente minnelli the bad and the beautiful and one of the early film to openly explore this contradiction . this dictate the structure for the documentary . scorcese look at how genre have darken and clichés have become challenge and how maverick have challenge the production code and and how certain filmmaker fell from grace when they dare to be different . however and scorcese never fall into the auteurist trap of dismiss director who consistently please the studio boss ( he lavish praise on cecil b. de mille ) and or those who have less of a recognisable style but be master craftsman of the cinema nonetheless . scorcese doesn not necessarily focus on his absolute favourite director either ( orson welles and alfred hitchcock and two of scorcese big influence and be only mention in pass ) . instead and he look at the individual and the film that serve to tell his story . for example and he show u a succession of john ford film to show how the western evolve . he look at the work of vincente minnelli ( probably the most often referenced director of the documentary ) to show how a supposedly wholesome genre like the musical could also have darker undercurrent . i can imagine that and have this assignment not be limit to america and scorcese would have also love to talk about and for example his italian influence or his british hero michael powell . a it be and he stretch the definition of american movie to include both the hollywood film of immigrant director such a fw murnau and billy wild and douglas sirk and as well a the work of u bear filmmaker that be produce elsewhere such a that of stanley kubrick . rather than simply tell the story of hollywood chronologically and scorcese compare film from various era in order to tackle various subject . in his section on the language and tool of cinema and he begin with dw griffith and look at the come of sound and colour and widescreen and inevitably end up go over computer generate effect which and although scorcese be not keen on them and he be even hand enough to include clip of george lucas and francis ford coppola defend them . however and he doesn not simply finish the chapter here a if this be the end of it . instead and he then rewinds back to the 1940s and to show how a low budget horror like the cat people can achieve effective result from the simplest and cheapest of element . a personal journey through american movie have to be one of the best film documentary make . there be a number of outstanding director and picture which i would never have discover without and and even the most seasoned of film buff would be likely to find something new in it broad scope . scorcese have also restore the balance to forget or undervalue picture . i be pleased to see that and when he talk about kubrick in his iconoclast chapter and he look at lolita and barry lindon and for me his two most underrated film . scorcese respect for the medium be on display in the way he allow clip to play out fully and rather than just give u tiny bit and and he interrupt them with talk head ( a combination of archive and new interview ) only when necessary . there be a bit of bias towards the 40 and 50 and but that be hardly surprising since it be the era in which scorcese grow up and discover cinema . and after all and i do not think this documentary could have be achieve have it not be a personal journey . one word of warn though and in it in depth look at certain picture and this documentary do contain a fair few spoiler .