I don't really take the Academy Awards all that seriously, but Martin Scorsese has got to win the Oscar for Best Director tomorrow. He's been nominated and passed over, what, eight times? Martin Scorsese is one of the three greatest living American directors:

1. Francis Coppola
2. Martin Scorsese
3. Clint Eastwood

I'm with you.

In fact I will go so far as to say that Scorcese is one of the great directors (not American directors, directors) of all time.

But if I were honest, I thought that Eastwood did better work this time around and so did the un-nominated Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro.

Things have a way of evening out though and I thought Million Dollar Baby was grossly over-rated and Scorcese has been robbed so many times that it would only be fair for him to win this year and we should all pretend it was for Raging Bull and Taxi Driver and Goodfellas and...

Most of the films that I see I forget soon after, but "Taxi Driver" I know almost by heart. Why is that?

You have to give Paul Schrader at least some of the credit. He was tapped into something when he wrote that. Apparently he was next to homeless during that period.

Paul Schrader is an interesting director in his own right. Check "Blue Collar" and "Hardcore".

His "Patty Hearst" was a teriffic movie too--one of the few docudramas that is actually more engrossing than the autobiography upon which it is based--but tough to find on home video these days.

Blue Collar is one of my favorites. I'm not sure it has ever been released on DVD. That would be on my wishlist.

You guys are so right on. How Marty didn't win for "Raging Bull" is a mystery in itself. Let's hope he wins, "The Departed" is an excellent police drama as one would ever be.

Rick A.

AT LAST!!! And four big ones at that. What a moment!

'bout time.