Recently, Mark Ruffalo spoke at an awards ceremony, where he was giving a Best Blockbuster Film trophy to Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, for the work done on “Avengers: Endgame.” And during his presentation, Ruffalo gave some pretty sound arguments for why ‘Endgame,’ and by proxy, other quality superhero films fall under Martin Scorsese’s definition of real cinema. But now, in a new interview, Ruffalo goes a bit further and challenges the legendary filmmaker to put his money where his mouth is. And we’re a bit concerned for what might come from these comments.
Speaking to BBC, Ruffalo was again asked about Scorsese’s claims that Marvel films aren’t “cinema” because they don’t move and emotionally affect audiences the same way that some of the most iconic films have done in decades prior. Considering Ruffalo has appeared in quite a number of these Marvel films and is iconic, in his own right, for playing Hulk, it’s only natural that the actor would defend his work.
He started his answer by inviting Scorsese to watch a Marvel film with fans in the audience to see how the films “move” them. He said, “I haven’t seen more people cry at the end of the movie and screaming and yelling and being affected as I have in those.”
But beyond that, he gets into the facts of life in regards to studio filmmaking and suggests that Marvel films are being bashed for their success and that’s just how society operates now because studios value money and release films that will dominate the box office charts.
However, the most controversial part of the statement from Ruffalo is towards the end, when he does the whole “put your money where your mouth is” argument. Unfortunately, we’re not sure if this is going to be the argument that wins the hearts and minds of film fans.
“In that article, he says something really interesting and I wish he took it all the way,” explained Ruffalo. “He said, ‘I’m not suggesting we subsidize films.’ But that’s exactly what he’s suggesting. We should have a national endowment of the arts that gives money to another kind of cinema and does support another kind of cinema. If you’re working in the milieu of ‘I’m going to try to make a movie that has economic success,’ which he does too by the way, then how can you complain about that system when you’re not on top of it anymore?
He concluded, “I’d love to see Marty create a national film endowment, and he could do this, that lets young, new talent come in that isn’t just driven by the marketplace but driven by precepts of art. That would be amazing. That’s really at the crux of this conversation.”
Why is this a bit off base? Normally, we wouldn’t suggest that someone is wrong in their opinion (unless it’s blatantly obvious that they are). And in this instance, it’s difficult for anyone to suggest that Martin Scorsese should do more when it comes to the art of film.
Over the past three decades, Scorsese has created not one, but two separate film foundations to help preserve the art. In 1990, he founded The Film Foundation, which is a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of film and exhibition of restored and classic cinema.
The foundation’s mission statement reads:
“By working in partnership with archives and studios, the foundation has helped to restore over 850 films, which are made accessible to the public through programming at festivals, museums, and educational institutions around the world. The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project has restored 40 films from 24 different countries representing the rich diversity of world cinema. The foundation’s free educational curriculum, The Story of Movies, teaches young people – over 10 million to date – about film language and history.”
As mentioned in the statement, Scorsese also founded the World Cinema Foundation, which branched off as part of the World Cinema Project. That foundation, as stated, has restored 40 films and has almost half a dozen more in the process of restoration.
Sadly, for Ruffalo, no one is going to agree that Scorsese needs to do more for cinema. For decades, that’s exactly what the filmmaker has done. Long story short, you can argue the merits of Marvel films all day long and say that maybe Scorsese is out of touch. But it’s probably not a solid stance to take saying that the filmmaker should somehow use his clout to help the art. He has been doing that for years.
