Last week, legendary director Martin Scorsese kicked up some internet dust when he said that Marvel superhero movies were “not cinema.” Instead, he likened them to attractions at theme parks. “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
Scorsese acknowledged that these movies are well-made, but you know that coming after the biggest, most successful movies of our time is going to result in some backlash, with MCU mainstays like Samuel L. Jackson, James Gunn and Robert Downey Jr. all weighing in to gently disagree.
So has Scorsese reconsidered his position since then? In a word, no. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday ahead of a screening of his latest film, The Irishman, he clarified his comments. “It’s not cinema,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s something else. We shouldn’t be invaded by it. We need cinemas to step up and show films that are narrative films.”
That’s pretty similar to comments he made at BAFTA’s annual David Lean lecture:
"Theaters have become amusement parks. That is all fine and good but don’t invade everything else in that sense. That is fine and good for those who enjoy that type of film and, by the way, knowing what goes into them now, I admire what they do. It’s not my kind of thing, it simply is not. It’s creating another kind of audience that thinks cinema is that."
So…yeah, seems like his opinion is pretty set in stone.
Look, I love Martin Scorsese. The guy made Taxi Driver. He made Raging Bull. He made Goodfellas and Casino and Gangs of New York and The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street. He’s more than earned the right to say whatever he wants about movies.
But there’s just no avoiding that he’s giving some serious “Get off my lawn” energy here, even if he’s doing it amicably. I understand if Disney’s brand of superhero-driven uber-franchises “isn’t his thing” — that’s fine, he can keep doing what he likes to do — but to characterize these movies as “invading” cinemas, or to imply that they’re not “narrative” films…well, he sounds defensive at best.
Scorsese came of age as a filmmaker in the 1970s, after the studio system of the ’60s had collapsed and a new crop of filmmakers — him, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, etc. — were making waves with bold new visions of what movies could be. And the studios let them do it because they badly needed new ideas. But that status quo was never going to last forever. Nowadays, the movies are dominated by shared universes, remakes and sequels, with the bolder, more experimental stuff mostly happening on TV and on streaming services. (The Irishman, which is getting rave reviews, debuted on Netflix.) I’m sure the status quo will shift again sooner or later, but for now, that’s the way it is. Spielberg, who’s from Scorsese’s generation, has adapted to the times by forming a partnership with Apple TV+, but Scorsese sounds like he’s afraid of the inevitable, which isn’t a good look.
I still haven’t seen The Irishman, but it sounds amazing and I can’t wait to carve out a four-hour block to take it in. I doubt we’ll ever see a Marvel movie from Scorsese, but if it happened, I’d watch it. And maybe while he was making it he could show the people over there a thing or two about how he likes to do things.
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