Martin Scorsese is urging filmmakers to save cinema, by doubling down on his call to fight comic book movie culture.
The storied filmmaker is revisiting the topic of comic book movies in a new profile for GQ. Despite facing intense blowback from filmmakers, actors and the public for the 2019 comments he made slamming the Marvel Cinematic Universe films — he called them theme parks rather than actual cinema — Scorsese isn’t shying away from the topic.
“The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture,” he told GQ. “Because there are going to be generations now that think … that’s what movies are.”
GQ’s Zach Baron posited that what Scorsese was saying might already be true, and the “Killers of the Flower Moon” filmmaker agreed.
“They already think that. Which means that we have to then fight back stronger. And it’s got to come from the grassroots level. It’s gotta come from the filmmakers themselves,” Scorsese continued to the outlet. “And you’ll have, you know, the Safdie brothers, and you’ll have Chris Nolan, you know what I mean? And hit ’em from all sides. Hit ’em from all sides, and don’t give up. … Go reinvent. Don’t complain about it. But it’s true, because we’ve got to save cinema.”
Scorsese referred to movies inspired by comic books as “manufactured content” rather than cinema.
“It’s almost like AI making a film,” he said. “And that doesn’t mean that you don’t have incredible directors and special effects people doing beautiful artwork. But what does it mean? What do these films, what will it give you?”
His forthcoming film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” had been on Scorsese’s wish list for several years; it’s based on David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction book of the same name. He called the story “a sober look at who we are as a culture.”
The film tells the true story of the murders of Osage Nation members by white settlers in the 1920s. DiCaprio originally was attached to play FBI investigator Tom White, who was sent to the Osage Nation within Oklahoma to probe the killings. The script, however, underwent a significant rewrite.
“After a certain point,” the filmmaker told Time, “I realized I was making a movie about all the white guys.”
The dramatic focus shifted from White’s investigation to the Osage and the circumstances that led to them being systematically killed with no consequences.
The character of White now is played by Jesse Plemons in a supporting role. DiCaprio stars as the husband of a Native American woman, Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), an oil-rich Osage woman, and member of a conspiracy to kill her loved ones in an effort to steal her family fortune.
Scorsese worked closely with Osage Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and his office from the beginning of production, consulting producer Chad Renfro told Time. On the first day of shooting, the Oscar-winning filmmaker had an elder of the nation come to set to say a prayer for the cast and crew.
Oh, boy. Should have guessed that’s the bit that would get picked up.
I mean, I didn’t think Guardians was very subtle about this at all. James Gunn doesn’t seem to be an asshole, but you can be religious and not be a completely reactionary idiot. The movie features actual heaven, where a character tells another “there’s the hands that made us and then there’s the hands that guide the hands”, and says that heaven “is beatutiful and it is forever”. And then the villain yells “there is no God, that’s why I stepped in”, which is the tipping point for his allies turning on him. The entire diagnosis the movie has on the guy ends up being that “he didn’t want to make things better, he just hated things the way they are”, which is, for the record, a much, much better take on the equally conformist version of that in The Flash. It’s a very well made, very emotional, very beautiful movie, but… you know, it’s not very shy about spiritualism. If I had to sum it up I’d say it’s… eh… Stephen Colbert Catholic? In that wavelength?
As for Back to the Future… well, I’m not the first to notice that the “good future” is a Reaganomics fever dream. Somebody points out the Trumpy bad guy in the sequel, which I guess from the modern day makes it read different, but… yeah, it’s a very 80s franchise with very 80s sensibilities. Zemeckis has pushed back against this slightly, I think, and yeah, it’s being a bit jokey about the weirdness of the americana he’s clearly nostalgic for, but that doesn’t change the text. I mean, he’s also the guy that used “a black family lives here now” as shorthand for the town going to crap in the sequel. He also made the entirety of Forrest Gump, so… yeah, you don’t have to present a worldview on purpose to have it color your stuff. Once again, the movie isn’t mean about it, and it’s certainly not dumb, but it’s coming from a certain worldview and you can absolutely tell.
Die Hard is straight up MRA propaganda, though. Great film, love it to bits, but it’s entirely about how the down-to-Earth cop feels emasculated by his wife having a career and rubbing elbows with all the California yuppies only to get himself vindicated when things turn violent and he’s the only one with enough common sense and old school skills to fix the situation. Also, the government is fundamentally incompetent unless it’s specifically the cops. And Reginald VelJohnson’s entire arc is about how he should not stop shooting people just because he once killed a kid when he saw his toy gun, which is up there for “plot point that has aged the absolute worst in movie history” award. Still love it, though. Super conservative movie. The most political of this bunch, probably. Still good filmmaking.
Look, you don’t have to dislike things just because they’re built on implicit viewpoints that you don’t agree with. Art is art, and it carries meaning and implications. You can notice them and still enjoy the result regardless of whether you agree with those viewpoints. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to enjoy anything made outside this century or… you know, your own culture. It’s fine.
I wasn’t on board with you at first, but this write-up was thought provoking and I appreciated the read.
Cool, thanks!
People sometimes think analysis or interpretation of stuff they like is an attack, especially when it identifies elements they disagree with in things they enjoy.
But that’s not the point, it’s about understanding what you’re hearing and seeing and you can absolutely enjoy things even if they’re saying things you don’t agree with. If I made that point to one person this entire thread was worth it (and already more interesting than Martin Scorsese not liking superhero movies, honestly).
Wow, just wow. Are your arms sore from all of that reaching?
Oh, hey, shitposting. Maybe this is a legit Reddit alternative after all.
For the record, except for Guardians 3, which is a bit too new to have much in the way of hermeneutics going on around it, none of those takes are new at all. I’m being a lot less original than you give me credit for. It’s less a reach and more the go-to default read for these.