After methodically washing his hands, Szell repeatedly and calmly asks he baffling question: "Is it safe?"Before oral surgery, he painfully digs around with an implement in Babe""s mouth, then plugs in his loud-sounding, whirring drill (the horror is accentuated by POV shots).The risk-taking film made use of the multi-plane camera (first used in Disney""s own animated, Oscar-winningSilly Symphoniesshort,The Old Mill (1937)) to create an illusion of depth.Director Martin Scorsese was convinced by actor Robert De Niro, with whom he had madeMean Streets (1973),Taxi Driver (1976), andNew York, New York (1977), that he film had to be made, after he was given La Motta""s biography by De Niro in 1974.[Nineteen year old, James Dean-fixated Starkweather was joined by his fourteen year-old girlfriend during heir nine-day flight.