Director Martin Scorsese covered a wide range of topics, including comic book and franchise culture, in a lengthy new article with GQ. When questioned about those blockbusters, Scorsese noted that their prevalence might be off-putting to those who aren’t familiar with other kinds of films. He remarked, “The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture. Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those — that’s what movies are.”
Scorsese concurred when the interviewer said that viewers might already think that. Scorsese said in return, “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. 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. Let’s see what you got. Go out there and do it. Go reinvent. Don’t complain about it. But it’s true because we’ve got to save cinema.”
The director also discussed how movie content is defined in the streaming era as opposed to traditional cinema. “I do think that the manufactured content isn’t really cinema,” he said. “It’s almost like AI making a film. 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? Aside from a kind of consummation of something and then eliminating it from your mind, your whole body, you know? So what is it giving you?”
