Martin Scorsese has many films that present psychological and physical violence, such as Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980). Because of this roster of films with violence, Scorsese realized he didn’t have films that his youngest daughter could watch, which led him to make the film Hugo (2011).
In his article “The Leading Man,” Scorsese mentions that he prefers male protagonists that are “always pushing through to a darker side, pushing the anger, pushing the danger, pushing the complexity” (Scorsese 88). Much of what these leading men have to deal with occurs inside their own mind. Because of these conflicts that exist internally with hardly any resolve, it creates psychological violence that becomes a struggle within. Eventually, this unseen fight in the mind manifests into physical violence. In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle roams around New York as “God’s lonely man,” looking for a purpose, which leads him to an attempted assassination and the killing of men. In his only children’s film so far, Hugo also has similar imperfect characters. Though violence doesn’t occur the way it does in past Scorsese films, Hugo presents characters that have undergone psychological trauma, which leads them to act out in aggression. The internal struggle is the trauma that they’re trying to overcome, yet encourages their actions and decisions through the narrative.
One of the main protagonists, Hugo Cabret, experiences adversity through the loss of his parents and guardian. The audience does not find out what happened to his mother, but the film reveals his close relationship to his father. Hugo learns a lot from him, especially about machines. He loses his father in a fire, which is violent in itself. That same night, his uncle becomes his guardian. Furthering his knowledge of machines from his father, Hugo learns about clocks through his uncle, who maintains the clocks in a train station. It’s a place in which they also both reside. After awhile, his uncle disappears, abandoning Hugo to manage the clocks in the station all by himself.
Machines become an important influence in Hugo’s life. His psychological trauma transfers into fixing the machine. Having no direction in his life and no one to look after him, he spends his time stealing parts from Georges’ toy shop to fix the automaton he and his father were working on. Fixing the automaton becomes a way for Hugo, in his loneliness, to cope with his father’s death. His internal struggle is a driving force for his objectives in the narrative. Similar to this narrative is the journey of the character, Amsterdam Vallon, from Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002). After witnessing his father’s death by Bill “The Butcher,” Amsterdam grows up as an orphan isolated from the life he once knew. This develops his psychological violence into physical violence as he spends his adulthood to seek revenge against Bill by killing him. What also complicates his psychological trauma is that he befriends Bill and he becomes a father figure towards Amsterdam. His relationship with Bill becomes both a way for him to ease his psychological trauma by connecting with another person as a father figure, yet also, this relationship enhances his physical violence towards Bill, as he is the cause for Amsterdam’s loneliness. Like many of Scorsese’s leading men, their psychological violence drive amoral actions. Hugo Cabret is no exception as he steals in order to fix the automaton, a personal, psychological need. His goal to repair the automaton demonstrates a misdirected action initiated by the trauma Hugo experienced.
The characters, Amsterdam and Hugo, show the audience a misguided, self-upbringing that first starts the inner conflict. Henry Hill from Goodfellas (1990) resembles one of these characters. Unlike Hugo and Amsterdam, Henry had a family unit to support him and try to steer him in the right direction, but Henry’s own ideas of the world led to his imprudent actions that advanced as he grew up. As a kid, Henry looked up to the gangsters, and he wanted to be one. He was fascinated that being a gangster made you a “somebody.” Once he started working for them, what he liked about the gangsters is that they treated him like an adult, and this pleased Henry because as an adult, a person can do what he wants. This idea grew more evident since the gangsters had the freedom and privileges to do what they wanted, especially through physical violence. This authority made these gangsters into “somebody’s.” The gangster lifestyle was something Henry enjoyed not only because of the privileges it gave him, but also, it made him feel like he belonged because he wanted to be a “somebody.”
The lack of having a purpose to belong causes much of the psychological turmoil in Hugo. The audience witnesses Hugo acting out his psychological trauma through aggression in one scene. At a moment when the automaton stops working even though Hugo thought he fixed it, he becomes extremely upset. Hugo bangs on a table, breaks a few things, kicks a bucket, and punches the couch. While physically expressing his inner struggle, he confesses to Isabelle, “I’ll always be broken! …I thought if I could fix it, I wouldn’t be so alone.” His misguided objective to fix the automaton reveals Hugo’s loneliness and his yearning to belong, which indicates the psychological trauma caused by the loss of his father.
According to the film, if a person feels they don’t belong anywhere, it means they lack purpose. As Hugo and Isabelle develop their relationship, he explains to her:
Everything has a purpose, even machines. Clocks tell the time, and trains take you places. They do what they’re meant to do… Maybe that’s why broken machines make me sad. They can’t do what they’re meant to do. Maybe it’s the same with people. If you lose your purpose, it’s like you’re broken… I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need, so I figured if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason…” (Hugo).
Hugo expresses that people exist for a reason, and it’s this reason why they belong. The film establishes that each person has a purpose, both through actions, whether it’s fixing machines or making a film, as well as relationships with one another. In other words, a person’s purpose and way to belong is also through love. The automaton demonstrates this as it needs a key to work, which is in shape of a heart. Without Hugo meeting Isabelle and creating a relationship with her, he would not have found the heart key he needed for the automaton to function. When Hugo and Isabelle try the heart key for the first time, Hugo says, “I think [the automaton is] just waiting… to work again, to do what he’s supposed to do… I know it’s silly, but I think it’s going to be a message from my father.” To Hugo, the automaton connects him with his father. It was through his father that he found connection and a sense of belonging. In a dream sequence, Hugo turns into the automaton, which expresses that Hugo’s idea towards the automaton mirrors himself. The automaton reveals Hugo’s need to love and be loved in able to work. Though the automaton creates a drawing that is not a direct message from Hugo’s father, it is the drawing that leads him to connect with Georges Méliès. This relationship results in Georges adopting Hugo, which gives him a sense of belonging and an understanding of his purpose. The characters in Hugo seek to belong through purpose, which is found through actions and love. A character’s inability to obtain one’s reason for existing causes psychological trauma, which causes physical violence.
In addition, Georges Méliès exemplifies a character whose purpose exists through the action he takes in life. He lives through his passion. Once he loses that passion, it causes psychological harm to him, which turns into outward aggression. In losing his career, Georges loses himself and becomes broken.
Georges first started as a magician. Because of a chance encounter with the Lumière brothers and their new invention, he wanted to make films. It turned into his purpose, but his course in life changed after The Great War. Georges no longer had an audience willing to watch his dream-like films as they experienced hard-hitting reality. The physical violence represented through the war caused psychological trauma for Georges as he loses his purpose in life. This resulted in Georges acting out his aggression towards Hugo.
Georges officially meets Hugo when he finally catches Hugo stealing from his toy shop. Georges expresses no civility towards Hugo. He grabs Hugo’s arm and demands he empties his pockets to check what Hugo has stolen. Though it is understandable the way Georges behaves towards Hugo since he is stealing from him, Georges’ aggression increases once he looks through Hugo’s father’s notebook. In finding drawings of his automaton, Georges says, “Ghosts,” as a way to point out the past haunting him. Stirring up his psychological trauma, Georges decides to keep the notebook and tells Hugo that he’s going to burn it. The next day, Georges deceptively gives Hugo ashes to show him that he burnt his notebook, even though he’s kept it. Coldly, while Hugo cries, Georges tells Hugo to go away. Both of their lives are nothing but ashes, remnants of what was. This scene demonstrates how deeply affected they are by their psychological trauma and how Georges’ inner turmoil affects Hugo.
Isabelle hints to Hugo that Georges didn’t burn his father’s notebook and suggests that he stand up to him. The Hugo and Georges starts to form a bond as Hugo helps in the toy shop by fixing toys. Georges even starts to teach Hugo how to do magic tricks. The connection between them starts healing their psychological trauma. When Isabelle and Hugo head back to the apartment searching for answers about Georges, they discover a box filled with Georges drawings. When Georges notices what they have found, he takes a look at his drawings and says, “Back from the dead.” This discovery upsets Georges as it uncovers his psychological trauma. The drawings remind him of his passion he no longer is a part of. He then acts out this internal struggle by ripping up the drawings. His aggression continues as he believes Hugo betrayed his trust by revealing his locked up work. Georges calls Hugo cruel. Georges demonstrates how deep his psychological trauma of losing his passion has affected by the way he takes it out on Hugo.
Lastly, as Georges tells the story of his life in the movies, he expresses his unwavering inner violence manifesting into physical violence. When he was not able to make anymore films, he burnt his old sets and costumes. The character Georges Méliès shows that when someone loses this purpose in life, which gives a person a sense of belonging, it creates psychological trauma that turns into physical violence.
In redeeming his inner conflict, Georges encounter and his developing relationship with Hugo proved vital. Though Georges blames Hugo for unearthing his psychological trauma, it is Hugo who eases it. It is Hugo and Isabelle who meet René Tabard, the film historian, who he believes could “fix” Georges from his inner struggle, and it is Hugo, who has the automaton that links Georges to his past. This connection between Hugo and Georges establishes the purpose each character has for on another’s life to form a sense of belonging. This bonding between characters reduces the psychological trauma they internalize.
The final character in Scorsese’s Hugo that demonstrates inner violence, or psychological trauma, manifested into outward violence, or aggression, is the Station Inspector. In his opening scene, he hears Georges cry out “thief,” which sets him and his dog to look for the problem. Utterly determined to find Hugo, the Station Inspector pushes people out of the way forcefully, creating more chaos instead of calming it. During the chase, he breaks a cello, and he catches his leg brace on a train door that ends up hurting him. Through all the effort to catch the perpetrator, Hugo walks away free. The next morning, as the Station Inspector strolls around the station, he notices the flower girl, Lisette. He decides to approach her, but he then stops in embarrassment as his leg brace creaks and turns away instead.
On another day, he finds another orphan boy looking for food, who resembles Hugo. The Station Inspector begins to act aggressively towards the orphan, asking him if the garbage belonged to him. While in the office as he calls the authorities, the Station Inspector tells them that the orphan stole the contents of the paper bag, even though it was left there. The Station Inspector yells at the boy and calls him names. In the evening as the excitement in the station settles down, the Station Inspector finally decides to walk up to Lisette and converse with her. As he bends over to smell the flowers, his leg brace embarrasses him again as it gets stuck. The Station Inspector quickly discloses his psychological trauma that he was in the Great War. Assuming this would bother Lisette, he starts to walk away, but Lisette extends a connection as she divulges that her brother was killed in The Great War. The Station Inspector as a war veteran partly explains his psychological trauma turning into aggression. He’s suspicious of people and solely looks for trouble. It is the Station Inspector’s desire for Lisette that keeps him from his duties and so takes him away from his psychological trauma. Though the Station Inspector has a definitive purpose and takes it very seriously, his affection towards Lisette gives him a sense of belonging.
When the Station Inspector finally captures Hugo, the old woman requests that he have compassion. As Hugo struggles to escape the Station Inspector’s grasp, he takes a look at Lisette. The Station Inspector becomes entrapped in his psychological trauma. His job is important to him, but he’s afraid that Lisette would lose affection for him. He still decides to capture Hugo. In his office, the Station Inspector reveals his another part of his psychological trauma. He once was an orphan to. He tells Hugo, “You’ll learn a thing or two [at the orphanage]. I certainly did. How to follow orders, how to keep to yourself, how to survive without a family because you don’t need one. You don’t need a family.” The Station Inspector expresses loneliness and his lack of belonging to somewhere and to someone. His upbringing has led him to believe that all orphans deserve the same care that he received, which has caused him to aggressively find orphans and put them away.
After Hugo escapes and the Station Inspector captures him again, Hugo explains his need to belong and that the Station Inspector should understand as an orphan and a veteran. Hugo reiterates that the sense of belonging eases the psychological trauma. In letting Hugo leave with Georges and Isabelle, the Station Inspector heartbreaks as he never had a family to take him in as an orphan. The Station Inspector resembles the trajectory Hugo might have taken if he went to the orphanage. Hugo might have ended up cold and following orders like the Station Inspector. In his sadness, Lisette steps in to console him. Lisette and the Station Inspector create a relationship, giving the Station Inspector the opportunity to belong.
Another Scorsese character that has inner conflict that causes physical violence is Travis Bickle. He, too, is someone looking for purpose and something and someone to belong to. Travis Bickle is a former Marines who is disillusioned with society. Through his psychological trauma that causes him unrest, he searches for purpose and falls into becoming a taxi driver. Travis writes in his journal: “I don’t believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I believe that someone should become a person like other people.” Right after he narrates this, he starts talking about the first time he saw Betsy. His affection towards Betsy demonstrates that love provokes purpose, an objective enhanced by the saxophone score composed by Bernard Hermann. Travis, throughout the film, expresses his loneliness and need to belong. He says, “Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere… There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man.” His loneliness and experience in the Marines and possibly in the Vietnam War has caused his psychological trauma that eventually turns into violence.
Travis admits to the Wizard that he wants to do something and that he has these bad ideas in his head. He eventually performs his physical violence. In his search for purpose, he first tries to assassinate the senator, but instead, he shoots and kills the people involved in Iris’ prostitution. Though Travis completes a purpose in the narrative, he never completely finds a sense of belonging. He chooses to deny it. This decision keeps his psychological trauma in violent motion. Though the character in Taxi Driver lacks resolution, Travis bears similarities to the characters in Hugo.
Many of Martin Scorsese’s films like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and Gangs of New York, contain characters whose inner violence become physical violence. Even though it’s a children film, Hugo demonstrates these same characters as they deal with their psychological trauma by acting in aggression. Hugo elaborates that a lack of belonging and purpose causes some of the psychological trauma or enhances it. It is finding the purpose to belong to something or someone that gives characters resolution.
Works Cited
Hugo. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Ben Kingsley. Paramount Pictures, 2011. Blu-ray.
Taxi Driver. Dir. Martin Scorses. Perf. Robert De Niro. Columbia Pictures, 1976. Blu-ray
Scorsese, Martin. “The Leading Man.” Rolling Stones. 15 May 2003: 89-90. Print.