The 411 Dumpster Fire of the Week: Martin Scorsese

The 411mania Dumpster Fire of the Week

Hello, everyone, and welcome to The 411 Dumpster Fire of the Week. I’m Bryan Kristopowitz.

The first AEW show on TNT is in the books and, for the most part, it was a good show bordering on being pretty good. The actual in-ring action was generally superb, from the opening match all the way through to the end of the six-man tag team main event (although I do have a question about that match). The wrestlers were all clearly on their A-games and they all helped make the actual wrestling part of the show exciting. The three-man announce team was also great, with Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, and Excalibur all doing terrific work (I never thought Schiavone would come back to big time wrestling, When I found out he was doing commentary for MLW I thought he was just doing that for fun but he didn’t really want to get back into it like back in the day with the NWA/WCW). They didn’t really talk over one another, which is what I thought would happen. Everything else about the show was… eh.

First off, the Dynamite theme song is lame. I appreciate the fact that AEW wants to have such an on-the-nose theme song for AEW Dynamite, but the result is just, again, lame. Second, the wrestler themes are all just noise. Outside of Cody’s theme and Jericho’s theme, no one has entrance music that sounds like entrance music. Hopefully, that changes as the show continues. And third, all of the stuff that happened outside of the ring (interviews, etc.) was just filler and it felt like filler. Even the video packages setting up the matches were time wasters.

Now, when it comes to the six-man main event, did they announce that the match was no disqualification and I just missed it? I ask because Jon Moxley attacked Kenny Omega right in front of the referee and the referee didn’t stop the match, which is what usually happens in pro wrestling unless the match is no DQ. So, again, did I miss a “this match is no disqualification” announcement? Or are some of the rules in AEW different?

All in all, AEW Dynamite was a good show and I’m now fully onboard. What the heck is going to happen next?

And now onto this week’s Dumpster Fire of the Week.

This week, the 411 Dumpster Fire of the Week goes to legendary movie director and producer Martin Scorsese, for his recent comments regarding whether or not Marvel movies are cinema. While doing an interview with Empire magazine, presumably promoting his new movie The Irishman, Scorsese told the interviewer that, when it comes to superhero movies, “they’re not cinema.” Instead, the director of Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, and Casino, believes that superhero movies are best described as “amusement park rides.” Scorsese’s comments unleashed a torrent of opinions, both for and against the idea that movies like Iron Man, Black Panther, Aquaman, and The Avengers are not “real” movies, at least not in the context of “the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

It’s perfectly fine for Scorsese, one of the greatest movie directors of all time, to not like superhero movies/comic book movies. Lots of people don’t like superhero movies. Superhero movies may make lots and lots of money worldwide, but they aren’t universally loved by movie going/movie watching audiences. Just go on the internets and you’ll see tons of people excited for the next Marvel or DC or whatever movie, and you’ll see tons of people who have zero interest in the next Batman or Superman movie. And, really, when it comes to “genre” entertainment, whatever the particular genre is, you will see fans and detractors all over the place. Horror, science fiction, action, westerns, romantic comedies, gangster movies, they all have their lovers and haters.

However, to say that a particular kind of movie isn’t cinema because it’s designed to be a certain way is just ludicrous. Because, really, why can’t cinema, sometimes, be like an amusement park ride? Amusement park rides, as I understand them, are meant to be fun, scary, and thrilling. Tons of movies, made since the beginning of movies, have tried to do that, too. Cinematic spectacle, special effects, explosions, whatever, are what some movies are all about. What’s wrong with that? Why isn’t that cinema? Why does cinema have to be only one kind of thing, or limited to only certain things?

At the moment of me writing this, Sunday night, Scorsese hasn’t elaborated on his opinion. Superhero movies, chock full of spectacle and whatnot, just aren’t cinema. And, again, that opinion is just wrong. Is the original King Kong not cinema? The movies that Ray Harryhausen worked on aren’t real movies? The Ten Commandments with big Chuck Heston isn’t cinema?

Now, if Scorsese is “really” talking about how the big movie studios now only want to make insanely expensive, “tent pole” movies based on well-known comic book properties and that smaller/mid-budget movies based on “original” ideas are becoming fewer and fewer, I don’t think anyone would have disagreed with that. Writers and directors and critics and movie fans have been complaining about that trend for years. And if that is what “Marty” is really talking about, he probably just should have said that. He shouldn’t have made such a blanket statement, declaring outright that movies he doesn’t like/care for are somehow not movies.

But will people be talking about how great the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in thirty years in the same way people still talk about Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, which is now over four decades old? No one knows. They might be. I doubt anyone, including Scorsese, thought Taxi Driver would be a timeless classic that’s still quoted to this day, even by people who have never even seen it, while making it. Scorsese, like all movie directors, likely just wanted to make a good movie and then, maybe afterwards, make another one. No one really knows what audiences will like/care about and what movies will be truly great and loved forever.

And, shit, when it comes to Scorsese, everyone talks about, and rightly so, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and Casino, but how many people, right this second, are talking about After Hours, Kundun, or Bringing Out the Dead? Not many. But did Scorsese put his heart and soul into all of them? Did he think he was making something worthwhile that audiences would show up for and watch and love? I’m sure that was always the hope, but he, and no one else, knew, unequivocally, whether or not any of those movies would be timeless and loved by audiences or just movies he made.

We all love you, man, but you’re just wrong here. Just wrong.

And, yes, I know, Martin Scorsese is a truly great movie director loved the world over and I am just some guy on the internets who often writes about B-movies.

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And now for this week’s honorable mentions…

-Dumpster Fire Hall of Famer, 2018 Dumpster Fire of the Year, and (Jesus Christ) 45th President of the United States Donald Trump, for wanting China to investigate the Bidens . Because that announcement makes sense in light of the ongoing impeachment inquiry, where the President withheld military aide for Ukraine unless the Ukrainian government agreed to investigate former Vice-President and 2020 Democratic Presidential hopeful Joe Biden. I mean, yeah, in the big scheme of things it doesn’t matter since the Republicans are ruthless, soulless, power hungry scumbags and are never going to vote big Don out of office, even if the evidence of his criminality is overwhelming ( and it is), but wouldn’t it be nice if we had a President who didn’t shoot his mouth off daily, openly call for foreign interference in an American election, and who didn’t enjoy being a thief, a liar, and a conman?

This guy is going to be re-elected.

-Former Mayor of New York City and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, for his ongoing TV meltdown while serving as President Trump’s personal lawyer and spouting off insane, bullshit filled conspiracy theories. And that’s what it is. A fucking public meltdown. And even if it is all calculated so he can impress his client and make the “owning the libs” crowd foam their pants, it’s still disgraceful. And can anyone follow any of these conspiracy theories? They’re just nonsense.

Some people really do have no shame, do they? Jesus Christ.

–Ron Johnson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, for for his recent appearance on Meet the Press. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a politician freak the fuck out on national television because he was scared to death that someone might send out a tweet against him. Because that’s what happened. And it’s pathetic. Go ahead, watch the segment at the link. It’s just terrible.

-Pro wrestler Jeff Hardy, for for his latest DWI arrest. Just go ahead and read the story at the link and, I guess, hope that Hardy can get his life figured out soon so he doesn’t put himself and his family through this again. The guy clearly needs help.

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