The 50 Year Argument
Synopsis
The 50 Year Argument, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese and his longtime documentary collaborator David Tedeschi, rides the waves of literary, political and cultural history as charted by its subject; the influential publication The New York Review of Books. America’s leading journal of ideas for over 50 years, this provocative film explores the power of these ideas in shaping history.
The film weaves rarely seen archival footage of cultural icons such as Gore Vidal, Susan Sontag, and Norman Mailer; newly filmed interviews with many of the Review’s current contributors including Joan Didion, Michael Chabon, and Yasmine El Rashidi; along with original verité footage filmed in the Review’s West Village offices reflecting the humming, restless energy of a magazine that, heading into its second half-century, still feels as vital and young as its indefatigable founding editor, Robert Silvers; all told through the inimitable and energetic documentary style of Martin Scorsese.
