Martin Scorsese was recently awarded the Robert Osborne Award at the TCM Film Festival. The Osborne Award is presented to the individual “whose work has helped keep the cultural heritage of classic films alive and thriving for generations to come.” So, during the acceptance speech for the award (via EW), Scorsese saw fit to give his thoughts on the modern film industry, as it relates to distribution and critical reception. Spoiler Alert — He’s not a fan of how things are done.
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“It can all be summed up in the word that’s being used now: content. All movie images are lumped together. You’ve got a picture, you’ve got a TV episode, a new trailer, you’ve got a how-to video on a coffee-maker, you’ve got a Super Bowl commercial, you’ve got ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ it’s all the same,” said the filmmaker. “They can also turn a picture off and go straight to the next piece of content. If there’s no sense of value tied to a given movie, of course, it can be sampled in bits and pieces and just forgotten.”
While he doesn’t name names, it’s clear that the idea of YouTube, and ultimately streaming services, bother Scorsese on a deep level. This is particularly interesting considering that his next major film, “The Irishman,” is set to be released on Netflix, and will no doubt be just another bit of “content” for the service as users scroll through their seemingly never-ending queues.
Another huge problem in the film industry today, according to the legendary director, is review aggregation and surveys. He looks at sites like Rotten Tomatoes and services like CinemaScore, who provide a letter grade “review” based on first-night moviegoers’ reactions to a particular film, as the main culprits of the “devaluation” of cinema.
“The horrible idea they reinforce that every picture, every image is there to be instantly judged and dismissed without giving audiences time to see it. Time to see it, maybe ruminate and maybe make a decision for themselves. So the great 20th-century art form, the American art form, is reduced to content,” explained Scorsese.
However, he does have a bit of hope. The director sees how people still value the art form by going to festivals. He ended his acceptance speech by thanking those people. “You know the difference between a YouTube video and the great American art form,” the filmmaker concluded. “You react against the devaluation of cinema and movies by showing up.”