One of my favorite movies is The Color of Money directed by Martin Scorsese. In fact, the movie had such an influence on me that I shared what I learned from it in my latest book. (There are many life lessons in The Color of Money, especially for writers and artists, so I hope you watch it.)
Another movie I love is Bram Stoker’s Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Not as many lessons in this one, with the exception of the most common horror movie trope of all time, don’t do that, which is whatever you see the character doing on the screen that’s obviously going to get themselves killed or worse (yes, Dracula, so clearly there is worse).
Both Coppola and Scorsese have done so much for cinema
But something they stated recently really caught me, as a voracious movie viewer, off guard and took me somewhat aback.
Scorsese said that Marvel movies are not cinema and Coppola followed that up by saying they’re despicable.
Sorry, what the holy-hell is that all about? (That’s my inner Deadpool asking.)
I mean, these guys have the right to say whatever they want, they’re movie gods for Star-Lord’s sake. So wait, what?
As much as I admire these wonderful directors, from what I’ve been reading online their comments are being seen as sour grapes. I don’t think that’s entirely fair, though.
I think they more likely mean that they consider Marvel movies to be commodities, made expressly for the purpose of making money, not for the purpose of creating art or furthering an art form or film genre as it were in classic cinematic films, such as what they created.
However, with that said, as many see it, if it wasn’t for Marvel the box office would be dying, if not dead. If you want to kill movie theaters the one thing that could be done to accomplish this goal would be to get rid of superhero movies.
Moviegoers used to love silent movies, then we loved cowboys and Indians, then it was gangsters, musicals, animation, and, oh my, horror, and where do we put Pixar? But now we love Marvel superheroes, too.
Life and film are ever-changing.
I grew up reading Stephen King and IT was one of my favorite books. I can’t tell you what a delight it was for me to see the new IT movies part 1 and 2 succeed the way they did, it was like watching my favorite team hit multiple home runs.
It wasn’t a Marvel movie, but I honestly couldn’t tell the difference in that IT has superheroes and a supervillain, just as every Marvel movie does. (Common, those kids took out Pennywise! That’s some superhero stuff right there, even if they couldn’t fly or shoot lasers out of their eyes.)
I also grew up reading Marvel comics and Spider-man was my favorite in that category of entertainment, so in 2002 when Tobey Maguire put on the suit, I went to see it and it was like a dream come true. I watched that movie a dozen times and I love the latest one, too.
I love Marvel movies, but not everyone will and some will insult and condemn them, even people I admire will do this, but I’ll tell you this, if you take away our current era of heroes and villains, the cinema complexes will die a painful and terrible death.
My living room is in many ways a thousand times better than any movie theater.
My large 4k screen and surround sound system look and sound perfectly fine compared to anything in the theaters when it comes to romance, drama, crime, comedy and other less special-effects driven cinema.
When I want to watch a “Theme Park” movie, as Scorsese calls Marvel movies, I’ve got to get out of the house. Marvel’s Avengers, DC’s Superman, or even WB’s Harry Potter for that matter, for those, I want to be dazzled in the most sophisticated IMAX theater I can find.
Marvel movies are what?
Cinema, by its very definition, is art, so when someone says Marvel movies are not cinema, what they’re really saying is that they are not art.
Wrong!
Marvel movies are works of art just as the comic book art on which they are based. They are a new type of movie-going experience that appeals to an entire generation of fans who grew up reading the stories and connecting with the characters, heroes and anti-heroes.
Maybe I’m missing the point, but I don’t think so, and I’ll tell you why.
Art of any kind, cinema, comics, novels, music, paintings―you name it, are all subjective.
The irony is that Scorsese’s latest movie, The Irishman, is a Netflix movie and I can’t wait to see it (at home). This kind of movie might not be doing all that well in cinema complexes anymore, but it’s still great art.
Besides, let’s not ignore the elephant in the room, why make such comments AFTER Stan Lee’s death? This makes it worse because the timing makes this faux ruckus seem somewhat, if not completely, cowardly.
Marvel is in great company with Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh produced over 900 paintings during his all too short lifetime, but he only sold one, Red Vineyard at Arles. His work was shunned, described as being too dark and lacking the bright liveliness seen in Impressionist paintings. In other words, not art in the eyes of the established artists and art critics of the time.
Before Van Gogh, Impressionist art was considered a joke. Until it wasn’t.
What can we learn as writers from this?
- Challenging the status quo can cause those entrenched in the current system to speak out against your efforts, especially if you’re successful. Remember how hard publishers fought the Amazon Kindle and then eventually embraced it?
- Not everyone will love your work, no matter how many readers or listeners you have. In fact, the more readers you gain will most likely cause even more disturbance and pushback.
- Your writing matters, it’s not dependent on any big names loving it or endorsing it, but if they trash it, well, then you know you’re on to something because they noticed it enough to remark on it.
- If you find nuggets of truth in the criticism you receive, learn and improve, and keep moving forward. No one’s perfect. This is why I recommend for all artists to read their reviews, the good, the bad and the ugly.
- Don’t quit. No, please don’t do that. I can guarantee you Marvel isn’t going to and neither should you. (For more on not quitting, go here.)
Keep writing and making your art.
