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.

  • @[email protected]
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    01 year ago

    Say the guy who thinks everyone who doesnt enjoy the same thing as him is a Trump-voting fascist.

    Please. Dont generalise like that. To anyone.

      • @[email protected]
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        -11 year ago

        And thinking everyone should think the same and enjoy the same thing is a big step into fascistic thinking. You might tell yourself that forcing a modicum of thought and intellectual participation on people is for a good cause. But you arent, in these comments at least, a good judge of what intellectual participation is.

          • @[email protected]
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            1 year ago

            Well, excuse me for not wanting to be called a fascist just for liking action movies.

            you and the rest of the United States

            So now you’re calling me an American?! Jeez.

              • @[email protected]
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                -11 year ago

                What truth? That everybody should enjoy what you enjoy?

                who thinks the world revolves around you.

                I’m literally defending everybodies right to have our own taste.

                selfish, indolent, immature dipshit

                For this I’ve been called a fascist, trump-voter, ignorant common man, anti-intellectualist, selfish, indolent (TIL a new word!), immature, and an american! Name-calling isnt very mature. I threw your own word back at you (except the Trump voter, I couldnt in good conscience punch so low). Because acting all “out-of-touch academic in the ivory tower” (your words, not mine) thats a so damn typical fascist move, that has been caricatured in multiple movies, that I cant help point it out.

                  • Vashti
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                    -11 year ago

                    Heavens, it’s lucky we have people as smart as you to put the rest of us in our place. That guy has told you repeatedly, for instance, that he’s not American and views “Trump voter” as an insult. And yet you persist in accusing him of being an American Trump voter, while jerking it to the sound of your own voice - surely the act of someone a cut above the common herd, who’s not a self-important asswipe at all.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    -21 year ago

                    You assume seriously lot of me just because I enjoy action movies.

                    I’m as left as I think I can get. I believe in science, I believe in the climate crisis, and vaccines, and all that shit. I dont believe that we should all have guns. I’m against war, but for it if its the only way to survive. I havent blamed anyone for anything yet, except the fascists for being elitists. I definitly dont believe in Trump, how many times do I have to repeat that? Also again: I’m not American, and I dont know which country you live in that I could have destroyed. My own country is okay-ish, our politicians arent all good, but my country isnt close to destroyed by anything. Though I do admit that I do less than I should for a better tomorrow for everyone.

                    So you should sit down and cool down, take a look at where this thread started, re-examining your thought processes and behavior, and take another educated guess at who the one acting immature is.