You’d have to be an idiot to claim that Martin Scorsese isn’t one of the greatest filmmakers to have ever lived, but it’s entirely within anybody’s rights to disagree with the legendary director’s current opinions on the state of cinema.
It’s an understatement to say he hasn’t been best pleased with the direction the industry has been heading over the last couple of decades, with the overwhelming success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe a particular bone of contention as he rallies against the corporate takeover of cinema as an artform.
Ironically, though, he doesn’t have an issue with a pair of unqualified smash hits that cost north of $250 million to produce and hauled in almost $2.5 billion at the box office, after he revealed to The Hindustan Times that Barbenheimer gets a pass, even if he hasn’t seen either of them yet.
“I do think that the combination of Oppenheimer and Barbie was something special. It seemed to be, I hate that word, but the perfect storm. It came about at the right time. And the most important thing is that people went to watch these in a theater. And I think that’s wonderful. I haven’t seen the films yet. I love Chris Nolan’s work. Margot Robbie, I must say, started with me from The Wolf of Wall Street. Rodrigo Prieto, after finishing Killers of the Flower Moon, went on to shoot Barbie. So it’s all in the family!
The way it fit perfectly – a film with such entertainment value, purely with the bright colors – and a film with such severity and strength, and pretty much about the danger of the end to our civilization – you couldn’t have more opposite films to work together. It does offer some hope for a different cinema to emerge, different from what’s been happening in the last 20 years, aside from the great work being done in independent cinema.”
Having become a viral sensation himself thanks to his regular appearances on his daughter’s TikTok videos, it shouldn’t be all that much of a surprise that Scorsese is supportive of the Barbenheimer effect, even if they do tick a lot of boxes he’s been blasting regularly.
