"I do think that the manufactured content isn’t really cinema"- Martin Scorsese on comic and franchise films taking over

In a recent interview with GQ, Academy Award winner Martin Scorsese spoke about his style, influences, thought process, and the changing world. The veteran filmmaker also revealed his views on the rapidly growing franchise culture and comic adaptations.

Scorsese said:

"I do think that the manufactured content isn’t really cinema...But what I mean is that, it’s manufactured content. 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?"

It wasn't long ago that Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest directors of all time, became a part of several hundred memes for his comments on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The veteran filmmaker has some strong opinions on storytelling through cinema, which he has gathered over decades of exceptional filmmaking, and the changing industry has probed another set of comments from him in this recent interview with GQ.

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"We've got to save cinema"- Martin Scorsese talks about taking cinema back from the franchise culture

One of the main topics Martin Scorsese discussed in this latest interview with GQ dealt with the effects of comic-based cinema and franchise films over films that aim to tell real stories. The Taxi Driver director also pointed out that, in time, people will begin to think that this is the purpose of cinema and not telling stories through pictures, effectively destroying the purpose for which it was created.

Speaking about franchise culture taking over, Martin Scorsese said:

"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....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."

He continued:

"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.”

This isn't the first time Scorsese has spoken out against Marvel and superhero films. In an interview with Empire in 2019, he compared Marvel movies to theme parks.

“I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

Martin Scorsese will return to theaters soon with Killers of the Flower Moon, the long-in-making project from the veteran director about the Osage Native American tribe and a series of murders from the 1920s.

Killers of the Flower Moon will premiere on October 20, 2023.