Last Thursday evening, Scorsese gave an acceptance speech for the Robert Osborne award at the TCM fest in Hollywood. Scorsese, a renowned director of the modern era, is described by DiCaprio as knowledgeable, committed, and drawing inspiration.
During the acceptance speech, Scorsese has stated that review aggregators such as Rotten Tomatoes lead films to be "instantly judged and dismissed" before audiences can see them and judge them for themselves. He describes the "devaluation of cinema," where movie images are being lumped together with everything else, and how there's no sense of inherent value being tied with movies. Nowadays, the content is being emphasized over the actual art form of the movie, and audiences are not even able to make decisions themselves about the movie.
While Scorsese takes a noble stance on the current state of movies, it's a stance that I don't agree with. First, I would argue that it's actually Hollywood and the consumer base that is causing the apparent "devaluation" of cinema. I mean, sure it's true that often times it's the same action/superhero movies or horror movies filled with stupid jumpscares that are still managing to fill the theatres all the time, but it's a combination of the majority of the consumer base happening to like them as a form of basic entertainment (as opposed to an art form) and Hollywood trying to cash in. I mean, the same thing was present 60 years ago with the rehashing of Westerns over and over again. But Scorsese blaming Rotten Tomatoes doesn't make much sense to me, because movie reviews have been around even before the internet, and it's simply impractical for someone to pay some crazy sums of money to see every movie in theatres and create their own opinions about it. Sure, there are some aspects of these sites that can be improved, but I find no issue with the idea itself.
Do you guys think Scorsese is right when he describes the devaluation of cinema? Do you think Rotten Tomatoes is one of the problems of modern cinema, and if so how should we change it? And what changes do you think we will see with cinema and the movie industry in the future?
1 comment:
I agree Jason, even if Scorsese is right about the "devaluation" of cinema, I don't think that it comes from review sites. Newspapers have reviews, books get reviewed, etc. If a film is truly valuable and inspiring, the sites mentioned will praise that. Hollywood has filled theaters with sappy romances and comedies that are more offensive than funny. Review sites don't alter Hollywood. Hollywood decides on what they present and what their cinema is characterized by.
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