The clash between original filmmakers and superhero productions only seems to be getting worse since Martin Scorsese’s comments on superhero films, with Francis Ford Coppola and Alejandro G. Iñarritu joining in.
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While promoting his film Irishman, Martin Scorsese stated “big-time comic book movies” are not cinema, despite being shown in theatres, they’re something different. He received a lot of flak from Marvel fans for also calling superhero movies just theme park rides.
Alejandro G. Iñarritu’s beef with superheroes
Known for directing Birdman and The Revenant, Alejandro G. Iñarritu has clashed with Robert Downey Jr.a few times. The Oscar-winning director had previously referred to the superhero genre as “cultural genocide”, which triggered a response from the Iron Man actor. He stated:
“For a man whose native tongue is Spanish to be able to put together a phrase like ‘cultural genocide’ just speaks to how bright he is.”
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While promoting his film Bardo, the director responded to Robert Downey Jr.’s comments in an interview with IndieWire. He believed his comments were disregarded because of his ethnicity and not the content, he stated:
“Oh, you guys from your banana country… If I were from Denmark or Sweden, I might be seen as philosophical, but when you’re Mexican and you say things, you’re pretentious.”
Are superhero movies really right-wing?
While describing his issues with superhero movies, Alejandro G. Iñarritu deconstructed the superhero genre by calling it violent and right-wing oriented as it’s only the rich people who have the power to make important choices, he said:
“What the f*** does [‘superhero’] mean? It’s a false, misleading conception, the superhero. Then, the way they apply violence to it, it’s absolutely right wing. If you observe the mentality of most of those films, it’s really about people who are rich, who have power, who will do the good, who will kill the bad”
While there might be some truth to this statement, there are some superheroes in the MCU who aren’t rich and powerful such as Spider-Man and Daredevil. But maybe the director’s problem is more about the subtext than the plot.
Source: Heroic Hollywood
