Both Ends Burning: Scorsese’s NEW YORK, NEW YORK, on 4K from MVD

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7.31.2026

The worst thing that ever happened to Hollywood is that it stopped regularly making films centered around complete and utter assholes. Or perhaps it was the modern American audience who stopped accepting the anti-hero as the protagonist of their popular entertainment. Certainly, the majority of our great classic American films from the New Hollywood movement from 68-77 would not be possible in today’s climate, and nowhere is this more true than Martin Scorsese’s mammoth and utterly devastating New York, New York (1977).

Coming soon as a 4K special edition from the MVD Marquee Collection, New York, New York features one of the great movie assholes in its lead saxophonist Jimmy Doyle. As played by Robert De Niro, in one of his great underrated performances, Jimmy is one of Scorsese’s great fractured and flawed male leads. Volcanic and cruel, then loving and poetic the next, De Niro’s demolishing performance is the stuff of legend, but too few have ever noted just how goddamn great the man is here, playing one of his most complicated and interesting characters.

I’ve seen New York, New York several times since my teens, so I am very familiar with it. That said, I wasn’t expecting the film to destroy me as much as it did on this most recent watch. Perhaps it was seeing it so boldly presented in 4K, but I’m hard-pressed to say that while this might not be amongst Scorsese’s great pictures, it is one of the bravest. One of the angriest too. I love this ‘let’s set the whole thing on fire’ film so much.

And New York, New York is an incredibly pissed-off film.
Let me divert a bit. Remember that thing Paul Thomas Anderson said when he won the Oscar? That thing about not liking ‘film cynics’. That really damaged the respect I had for what was one of the few modern American filmmakers I have followed. Like, dude, film cynics are what saved Hollywood. A film cynic is the guy who made New York, New York. It used to be the guy who made Boogie Nights. Film cynics are the artists who ensure that the entire thing isn’t just about commerce.

And New York, New York is as cynical as it gets. Yes Scorsese’s love for old movies and their music comes through, but more importantly, what comes through is this simultaneous absolute spitting revulsion at Hollywood itself. New York, New York might have a big band soundtrack, but this is a PUNK ROCK movie made by a PUNK ROCK filmmaker. This is the Martin Scorsese I grew up with, not the guy currently shilling for AI. I don’t know that guy.

Running nearly three hours and shot entirely on studio backlots, New York, New York is unlike any other Martin Scorsese picture, but make no mistake, nobody else except Scorsese in 77 could have made this. Come on, this is nervous breakdown Marty; where’s the coke Scorsese, both ends burning Marty! This is our guy! Come on. New York, New York is a film made by the guy with a gun in the back of Travis Bickle’s taxi. You should see what that guy can do with a camera. That you should see.

I think 1977 might be the most pivotal year in American film history. The summer of 77 saw two flops and a hit that changed everything, for the worse imho. The hit, Star Wars, changed (destroyed) everything. The two flops were this angry musical and the last-ditch effort to create a big-budget soft-core epic, The Other Side of Midnight, for adult audiences who, sadly, it turned out were much more interested in Jawas in the sand than beautiful naked flesh. Imagine if it had been the bitter musical and jaded sex film that stole the box office in 77. Imagine how different things would have been.

New York, New York isn’t just De Niro and Scorsese. The film is packed with legendary figures in front of and behind the camera. Kudos especially go to Liza Minnelli, who had never had to go head to head with someone like De Niro before. Changing her entire style to suit the crazed coke-fueled improvised production, Liza is quite astonishing throughout, and her performance is as nearly undervalued as Bobby’s.

New York, New York literally has everything. It’s heartbreaking, it’s funny, it’s exciting, it’s disturbing. It is so much movie for one film, and Scorsese directs with the hand of God throughout. There are moments as breathtaking as anything else in his filmography here, although the film’s bitterness makes it more difficult than his more embraced classics. Regardless of the film’s many critics, New York, New York is a masterpiece to my eyes, a bruised, exhausted, and schizophrenic masterpiece but a masterpiece nonetheless. We wouldn’t have Raging Bull without New York, New York, and really what else can be said.

In the wake of New York New York’s tragic failure of a release, a totally BURNED OUT Scorsese joined an equally burned-out Robbie Robertson for The Last Waltz. Then he and Deniro returned for blood, and they got it. To my eyes, though, none of this happens with New York, New York. Art has to be painful sometimes, and there is so much pain in this beautifully painful film.
Jean-Luc Godard loved New York, New York.
You should too.

Thank you to MVD for putting one of Scorsese’s great unrecognized works on 4K. I’ve always dreamed of seeing this screened theatrically, and this is the closest I have ever gotten to it. The film’s original full-length cut is presented on the 4K disc, while the shorter international version is included as a bonus on the Blu-ray disc. MVD has ported over the bulk of all the past American supplements, including the early nineties laserdisc commentary with Scorsese and the 2005 anniversary DVD Supplements. Missing are the extras from the Imprint import Blu-ray version, but this new MVD collection spotlights the majority of the key extras. I only wish they’d commissioned a new critic’s commentary, but otherwise this is the definitive edition of New York, New York.

New York, New York is one of Martin Scorsese’s most important films, which makes it one of the most important American films period. Featuring a for-the-ages performance by one of the greatest screen actors, a wonderful soundtrack, amazing choreographed musical numbers, and breathtaking cinematography, New York, New York is a triumph, withstanding five decades of criticism. Order now from MVD. A HUGE recommendation and a reminder that the “movies Marty made about New York” are the best of us, often about the worst of us.