Spooky Empire: Bruce Campbell vs Martin Scorsese on what is cinema?
At Spooky Empire, Bruce Campbell weighed in on the Martin Scorsese conundrum, “What is cinema?”
Bruce Campbell appeared at Spooky Empire this past weekend. At his Q & A session, the actor gave his take on Martin Scorsese’s criteria for cinema.
This isn’t the first time Campbell has sounded off on iconic directors. He took on Steven Spielberg when the legendary talent decided that Netflix films shouldn’t be Academy Awards eligible.
Yesterday, Deadline reported on Scorsese’s recent op-ed piece in The New York Times explaining what he meant by his criticism of Marvel movies. Basically, what ticks the auteur off is the fact that there is “no revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk.”
What he is addressing is storytelling, however, to imply that it isn’t cinema goes a bit far. For Campbell, he simply stated that when the director says things like that, “It hurts because its not like those movies are easy to make.”
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The actor went on to point out that The Irishman, Scorsese’s latest lauded effort showing on Netflix has more digital effects than any Marvel movie. Which is true because one of the reasons that no one in Hollywood would back the film is because of the expense of the de-aging technology. Basically, the audience gets to see Robert De Niro as a young man again.
Campbell astutely points out that nothing is real. Even if you make a movie about a person like Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts doesn’t look like her. It’s not a “real” story.
So, for Mr. Scorsese to pontificate on what constitutes cinema is forgetting the mere fact that film is designed to entertain and should appeal to many diverse tastes and interests.
As always, Bruce doesn’t mince words when he fires back his response to all the hoopla:
"“Every single bit of every movie is bull****. There’s just good bull****, lousy bull**** and boring bull****. It’s all as fake as you can get.”"
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Do you agree with Bruce Campbell or do you side with Martin Scorsese? What constitutes cinema for you? Let us know in the comments.