Martin Scorsese, undoubtedly one of the great movie directors of this or any other generation, is much in the news these days for a couple of reasons. One, is the release of his new film, "The Irishman", a three and one half hour epic centering around the death of Jimmy Hoffa. The movie stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci and is one of the most highly anticipated films of the year.
The second reason revolves around a comment made by Scorsese in a recent interview. When asked about the popularity and preponderance of movies based on Marvel comic books, he responded by saying that they weren't for him. I've tried them, he said, but "they are not really cinema." This created a firestorm of response from both the creators of and fans of the comic book flicks, and the controversy was exacerbated when fellow filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg jumped in and agreed with Scorsese. "Not really cinema" they agreed while looking down their noses.
Normally, I would tend to brush off these comments and say something like "Let Scorsese yell at the clouds. He's earned a right to his opinion" and go on my way. However, I feel the need to opine on this, and it revolves around the production and distribution plan for "The Irishman."
The movie was produced by Netflix, and if you haven't been paying attention, this streaming service has gotten heavily into the production of top shelf feature films over the past few years as programming for its subscription service, which is fine. Netflix also thinks that these films should qualify for Academy Awards. (Something that Spielberg, I believe, has lobbied heavily against.) In order to qualify, films must be shown in actual movie theaters, or "cinemas", if you will, in either New York or Los Angeles, during the calendar year. So, Netflix, presumably with Scorsese's blessing, began a very limited release of "The Irishman" last week and it will expand a bit this week (not even sure if it will be on a theater screen in Pittsburgh) and then it will be pulled from movie theaters, I believe, in the third week of November. After that, the only way you will be able to see "The Irishman" will be via streaming on Netflix.
So, while Scorsese may sneer at popular films like the Marvel comic book franchise, he is okay knowing that most people will only see his latest masterpiece on their home TVs, laptops, iPads, or four inch telephone screens? Where is the cinematic value in that? Maybe this is the way of the future for full length motion pictures, and if so, give the 76 year old Scorsese credit for recognizing and embracing this new paradigm, but don't do so and then look down on other popular movies and labeling them as so much mindless trash. The truth of the matter is that while Marvel movies may never win Oscars or make Ten Best lists, the hundreds of millions of dollars that they rake in at the box office allow the doors of actual, honest-to-God movie theaters to remain open and in business, and that is no small thing, and auteurs like Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg should be glad of that.
Full disclosure: I am not a Marvel Movies person myself. Just not my cup of tea, but good for them and the movie going public that does enjoy them. Also, I can't wait to see "The Irishman", even if it will mean becoming a Netflix subscriber once again. One good thing abut these services, you can cancel them and come back to them at your convenience. I was going to re-up anyway once Season Three of "The Crown" becomes available.
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