Video & Memoir on Michael Jackson’s Bad- by Scorsese

Scorsese directs Michael Jackson’s Bad

(1986)

“Quincy Jones contacted us and sent me the song “Bad”, which I liked… When I met him in California, he said, you come up with the idea, so I brought in Richard Price and we came up with this idea based on a real incident in Harlem.”

Part 1

“We put Michael in with black actors in Harlem and we shot the dramatic sequences in black and white…at the crucial moment… we went into colour.”

(Scorsese on Scorsese, 113)

Part 2

“Michael did something he wanted to do and I actually encouraged him to keep doing, which he called a “breakdown”- a live performance after the song is over, in which he lectures these three guys, with a whole chorus behind him like a preacher, saying “it’s all over, guys.” (Scorsese on Scorsese, 113)

“Working with Michael Jackson on Bad was the counterbalance to my experience with Paul Newman on the Color of Money, just as The Last Waltz was the counterpart to New York, New York, Italianamerican to Mean Streets, American Boy to Taxi Driver and, I suppose, Mirror Mirror to After Hours.” (Scorsese on Scorsese, 113)