Danai Gurira Has Some Choice Words About Scorsese's Marvel Remarks
The opinion that superhero blockbusters are not true cinema is not exactly uncommon, both on the web (though on the web less respectful terms than "superhero blockbusters" are used) and among the filmmakers.
Most of the time, people who don't share it simply ignore it. But then Martin Scorsese voiced this opinion in his lengthy essay, devoted to Federico Fellini. His jab was quite vitriolic:
"Flash forward to the present day, as the art of cinema is being systematically devalued, sidelined, demeaned, and reduced to its lowest common denominator, "content"… "Content" became a business term for all moving images: a David Lean movie, a cat video, a Super Bowl commercial, a superhero sequel, a series episode" (via).
And many of the numerous actors who played roles in MCU movies felt themselves obliged to answer.
Danai Gurira, a star of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was the latest to weigh in. And of course she was offended on behalf of those with whom she worked with to create their part of the MCU.
"Well, I've worked very closely with Ryan Coogler. My experience working under his helm, it's definitely deeply cinematic in every way I can imagine," she said when asked about the opinions of Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, who also recently denigrated the current Hollywood output.
"We're not leaving anything at home. We're bringing it all. We're bringing our understanding of our culture, understanding of our humanity, of our gender, of the complexities therein of this world that we're in, and all the specificities of this world," she said (via).
According to the actress, even if some people consider superhero genre as something a whole lot less serious, she still pours everything into her performance, conveying her character's emotions and grievances on screen truthfully; the same thing all her Marvel colleagues do on set.
"We have to come in and pour all we've got into this franchise. And that's what we definitely, definitely do. We didn't get through either movie and be like, 'Oh, that was nothing.' No. It was all we had. It was all we had, and then some. So I hope that's cinema to somebody."
It is rather doubtful that this answer will convince Scorsese or others, who just don't consider superhero movies to be true cinema. (Indeed, he would probably retort with some argument along the "no matter how much effort and passion a mere craftsman puts into her craft, results still don't deserve to be called art" line of reasoning.) But it, perhaps, can convince some of the readers that people working on MCU movies – and other blockbusters – treat their job very seriously.