It's been quite a while now, but the Martin Scorsese vs. Marvel controversy continues to burn online, and now it looks like Logan director James Mangold has decided to join the bandwagon and share his thoughts about the Taxi Driver director's issue with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Speaking in an interview with UPROXX, Mangold touches upon the Scorsese vs. Marvel controversy, discussing the different ways that Scorsese was right and the different ways the critically acclaimed filmmaker was wrong with his rhetoric against the comic book movie franchise.
Mangold seems to understand Scorsese's frustration with the genre, saying that the point is all about creative freedom and how the popularity of Marvel movies has made the filmmaking industry more tepid.
"I think that the point is less about whether the source is a comic book or not and much more salient is just the freedom the filmmaker has in whatever creative arena there is, because I certainly had 100 percent freedom in Logan," the filmmaker explained, "I mean exactly what we wanted to make."
However, while the director understands what Scorsese is trying to fight for, Mangold says that the complaint doesn't just apply to Marvel movies, but "across the board" of movies being offered by Hollywood today.
"Clearly he hasn't watched that many of them," Mangold says. "That's the only tragic part of his dissertation. But the reality is that what he's saying, it couldn't be more true. It just doesn't have to only be true for that specific stripe of film. It's true across the boards. I see shitty comedies made by the numbers. I see shitty romantic films made by the numbers. I see gobs of adventure films made by the numbers. And you know they've been tested through the wazoo and re-shot and extra ending and an extra coat and an extra cherry on top. That isn't just the province of comic book movies. That's the province of mainstream corporate filmmaking all around, and it's up to folks like him — or me to the degree I can do it — and others to push back against it in any genre."
Mangold makes for an interesting point. There are a lot of different films pulling down the creativity of the filmmaking industry – not just Marvel or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, the popularity of Marvel movies might seem to be killing the market for other types of films, but the blame isn't all entirely the MCU's.
What do you think? Is Mangold right? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Black Widow is set to release on May 1, 2020.
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