Martin Scorsese proves he's not very good at summarizing famous films in 5 seconds

Martin Scorses tries to summarize famous movies in a few seconds, mostly fails

(Image credit: The Tonight Show)

last updated 4 February 2016

The Tonight Show game "5-Second Summaries" involves one person trying to summarize a famous movie in 5 seconds (or less) for the second person to guess. Jimmy Fallon is pretty good at the game. Director Martin Scorsese, Fallon's guest Wednesday night, is not. Scorsese proved very able at guessing movies, but when it came to summarizing them, he just didn't seem to know the right details to include. "You're too much of a director," Fallon said after Scorsese's terrible 3-second summary of Casablanca. "My movies are long — what can I tell you?" Scorsese explained. But the famous director did catch on, and his 1-second summary was spot-on, even if Fallon almost blanked on Rosebud. Watch this lesson in the perils of knowing too much below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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