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Every day I find a new reason to love the Russos.
Wow… that’s a pretty toxic take, but you do you I guess.
The guy is saying auteur filmmaking was conceived in 70s , I dont think even he believes the things he is saying . 
So basically they are of the opinion that the theater isn’t the end all be all, movies can be great via other ways too, such as streaming services? I don’t fully understand what elitist means in this case.
Can you see through his bullshit now ? They say all kind of shit depending upon who is paying them .
Summary of the entire back and forth of all of this:
Filmmaker X and Filmmaker Y think that the thing that they are doing/what they believe at the moment is best for the industry.
Personally I think a good theater experience is unrivaled. Seeing a movie on a screen bigger than my house on a sound system I could never afford or replicate with an audience equally invested in the movie as you are is something special (not checking their phones/talking/etc, they are there to see the movie). Or in my case these days as an old man, I go to super early showings of things and basically watch the movie by myself.
At the end of the day though, the important thing is that people’s art has the ability to be viewed/consumed. Theaters turned into, as Scorsese put it “amusement park rides” because a family can’t really afford to go to the theater anymore. My sister and her husband have two kids, for them to go see a movie, tickets and snacks, they are looking at a $100+ outing. That is hard to justify unless it feels like some sort of spectacle that experiencing at that scale cant be replicated at home.
No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood are two of my all time favorite movies. Masterfully crafted, exceptional performances, but not something you NEED to pay an arm and a leg to see in a theater. Arguably it is a better experience at home to take in without the rustling pop corn and candy bags, soda slurping, talking, and cell phone users. Movie like this thrived in a time where the volume of content being released was far far slower and they had long runs in the theater. Even when I was a kid movies would be in the theater for months. You only found out about new movies in advance by actually going to see other movies! Now the theater turnaround is less than one month for most films and all the information is out there. We know about films years before they even begin filming now. A lot of that theatrical magic has been lost over the years. They are also now competing with Television content that can match the quality of film content, which wasn’t true in the past.
I think the most important thing moving forward is that they simply do whatever allows the content to continue being made and consumed. If theaters become a casualty of that, it is what it is. And I say that as someone who, since childhood, going to the movies has been one of my absolute favorite activities.
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Well said.
The theater definitely is something special. Although i can’t deny that having a sub kinda lessens the specialty of it, but that’s how it is. Other people in the audience can be nice, true but as you said as long as they are not checking on their phones. Or in my case lately I just sit down, chill, and for some reason some people that sit behind me find it necessary to probably put their feet against the back of my chair. Once is fine, twice it becomes annoying, several times during a movie and it’s honestly infuriating. But I’ve always been the kind of person that just accepts it, instead of kindly asking them to quit.
As for how expensive it is nowadays, facts! Popcorn price here isn’t too bad, but what they charge for just a bottle of coca cola is insane or just some chips or M&Ms, it’s quite crazy. Tickets used to be a decent price, but now a normal ticket and if a movie is in 3D it’s just no fun anymore. If this theater didn’t offer subs I would not go to the theater often.
yea 3D is shit . I actively avoid those movies .
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These are the things that bum me out. It is sad that inconsiderate jerks ruin the experience for others like this. I am on the opposite end of the spectrum. I am exceedingly confrontational and will ask nicely once. If it happens again, Ill will make it so uncomfortable for everyone that they will probably leave. I don’t put up with people’s bullshit.
That is actually one of the primary drivers of me sticking with early morning showings most of the time. I find that people who are going to see a movie at 10am generally are just there to watch the movie. And it takes me out of situations like I mentioned for everyones benefit.
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Honestly don’t know what the Russos were trying to say in that statement but it sounds right I guess lol ?
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If you read the article you’d see that they value the theater, made their movie for the theatre as well as streaming, and it actually also debuted first on theatre…
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All Im saying is that going to theater is elitist is one hell of a take .
Theatre exclusivity is absolutely elitist and proponents of it don’t try to hide the elitism around it.
Reading the article, what they say is more about the exclusivity and imposed sacredness of it rather than just “going to the theater” as the elitist thing. Although I see that exact quote makes it hard to see that way without reading the whole thing, so that’s on them I guess, or the article, I don’t know.
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You’ve shifted the argument so many times over the course of a couple hours it’s hard to figure out what your actual point is, aside from you not liking the Russo brothers or their output (which you deemed mediocre).
For starters, despite you taking a two year old article to make some sort of gotcha moment for a current interview (I’ll come back to that in a minute), the comments about the directors saying a movie has to be in a theater to be a viable experience (Nolan stated this running up to Tenet’s release… during a pandemic, which was why it wasn’t available for streaming for months) is elitist. That is the talking point that the Russos were addressing; gatekeeping the venues of availability for entertainment (again, while still in a pandemic) is elitist, it’s that simple. Inflation is out of control right now and that is the other element to their argument.
Nowhere did they say you have to watch movies streaming to enjoy them (unlike the discourse they’re responding to), and nowhere do they make it to be some zero-sum like you clearly are trying to imply. All that statement says is that the idea that movies should only be released and enjoyed in theaters exclusively is bullshit, and if you can’t see the elitism in the counter argument there I’d suggest you check your privilege.
Secondly, the comments Scorcese and others have made about Marvel movies being “trash” is also elitist. There’s quality and valuable movies that don’t just fit the Scorcese mold; it’s like saying Forza Horizon 5 is trash because it’s not a “cinematic masterpiece” like TLOU2. Diverse content can exist and be quality without following the same set of rules, and it is elitist to suggest so.
Then you bring up an article from weeks after the pandemic, before anyone knew the long term impacts or how it would shift film-making and distribution, to prove how they’re “hypocrites”? That’s a pretty shit point and not at all as damning to the point being discussed as you think it is.
Finally, you then nitpicked about their “auteur” comment, but I’d argue that the 70s were very much the inception of major studios backing arthouse/film school grad directors to make massive projects (The Godfather for crying out loud being the most obvious, successful example). It’s when we saw Lucas, Spielberg, Kubrick, etc. gain the massive backing for multi-film/AAA budget projects from studios, and a practice/model that continued arguably up to this point. Russo bros simply said that it’s time to bring in a new generation of filmmakers and filmgoers, built around models that make sense for the means available today.
So yeah, your original argument of distilling a broader series of reflective points down to jealousy and shit-talking is toxic.
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Let’s be clear about that, Marty didn’t actually say that Marvel and superhero movies were trash, he said they’re a different type of filmmaking not the “cinema” he’s grown with, and he’s not criticizing them for existing, but rather for their influence on the whole industry and the audience expectations, which I very much agree with.
I mean, he explicitly said Marvel/Superhero movies “aren’t cinema” (verbatim). He later elaborated to walk it back somewhat but the original point was still very much said and is exactly the elitism I addressed in my point. I’m happy to provide additional sources to back up my statement.
There’s absolutely a debate to be had about the impact they’ve had on the industry and all that, but was explicitly said was elitism and just as much about gatekeeping what is quality. I say this as someone who loves most of Scorcese’s movies and Marvel’s, but this obsession with zero-summing every goddamn thing and being obsessed with getting whatever the current fix for negativity is, is such a killer of genuine discourse and such wasted energy diverted from things that actually matter, that I’m over it.
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- Want to enjoy movies on streaming ? Sure but not at the sacrifice of cinema .
- Tickets are expensive , but so are most streaming services now a days . Blame capitalism .
- Saying going to the theater is elitist and then turning around and making a 200 million dollar for Netflix is… weird!
People misunderstand his comment all the time . He’s not saying they are not cinema because they are lesser, unworthy movies. He is making a distinction that anyone could make after watching them - they are mass-market entertainment trying to appeal to all audiences, not movies made to express something personal and possibly challenging about the world we live in. The latter is what he sees as cinema.
I think zero-summing is what makes so much of culture discourse broken like this.
For me, the most basic movie ticket is at least $12, plus like $5 worth of gas, and the whole thing takes away at least 45 minutes of my free time, that’s wasted time that serves no purpose. And even then, yeah the theatre experience is cool but I don’t get to watch on my pace and pause whenever I want, and it doesn’t guarantee there won’t be annoying people at the theater. That’s not comparable to streaming subscriptions at all, it’s a loss on almsot every front for me. The only way theatre gives me something I mostly don’t get on streaming or blu-ray is IMAX but that’s an [elitist] industry licence limitation not a technical one.
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