Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. A non-political thread. As I watch Bobby Bonehead and Donna Dummy slam Scorsese and Coppola as has-been who dont "get it" I am in awe at not only the arrogance but the ongoing collapse of knowledge of art.

Superhero movies are great entertainment, often great special...

2...effects, usually strong storylines, and occasionally great scripts. But their problem, not one of their makers, is that they have sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. Great films - films, not movies - like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now would never be made today....

3...because, put simply, superheroes are better business. And business is dictating art. Just the other day, I heard from a director - a great director of great films - who said casually that the studios aren't interested in non-blockbusters, which is why so many great talents...

4...are moving to streaming services.

Just because something is popular does not mean it is the top of the artistic scale. I knew, while I was growing up in the 70s, that the popular music mid-to-late that decade was garbage. I *liked* it, but it was nothing compared....

5...to the Rolling Stones, et al. In the 80s, there was a regrowth with the emergence of punk and rap, which were clearly nascent art. Other music - great music - was building under the MTV stuff. I enjoyed both, but I could tell the difference.

Schwarzenegger movies in the...

6...late 80s early 90s were tons of fun, just like the disaster films of the late 70s were. But I know none of them would have the staying power of the great films of the time. Just like the Rolling Stones, Eminem, Tupac et al will last for decades, while high-electronic, voice..

7...modulated songs will not. I used to be able to check the nonfiction bestseller lists and find my list of books to read. And usually they were 500-700 paves long. Now we are loaded with celebrity biographies, "people who believe differently that you are stupid" books, and...

8..only some with staying power. When I wrote my first book, no one flinched at 600 pages. But I hear people now complain that books of 350 pages are "too long". The great books have to be scoured up, because the entertainment is burying them.

Is this bad? No. It is a...

9...reality we have seen over and over. AM music was pop-junk, FM was cool long-lasting.

What *is* different now: People my age, when we were young, knew the difference between art and entertainment. We did not have the arrogance to proclaim that...

10...geniuses of film, some of the greatest talents in the history of the medium, were laughable fogies who just don't "get it." No, folks: The ones who dont get it is you. You demand that superhero movies be recognized as art (which it sounds like Joker might be) while most...

11...are entertainment. And if you dont appreciate that future of great films is to no be released in the theater but to streaming, then you don't understand the difference between art and entertainment. I loved disaster films in the 70s - that decade/s superhero movies - but...

12...I knew they were not art. Just like I knew about disco, or short celebrity books, etc. They were fun, but they were, for the most part, not art.

Giants like Scorsese and Coppola have reason to look down on superhero movies: Business folk in suits are deciding art....

13...it is based on "what can make a billion dollars" not, "is this a great film?" Yes, there is little in that world for Scorsese and Coppola, or whatever film geniuses will emerge in the future. And you know how you can tell the difference? Superhero movies replace directors..

14...al the time. The idea that this would ever happen with a great film is absurd - like saying someone would replace da vinci in painting the Mona Lisa. And when the greats know that what they built their art on no longer exists because business has won, of course they will...

15...be mad. And if you disagree with this, go watch some great films. And if you refuse, you are demonstrating the difference between art and entertainment. Art can have entertainment, and entertainment can be art, but they dont have to be.

So, superhero movies get all the...

16...budgets and all the attention and all of the theater space. But if you demand that they also get praise as great art, you have gone too far and haven't been exposed to enough great cinema to know the difference. So, go watch Citizen Kane or The Godfather or Apocalypse Now...

17...or Vertigo or Casablanca or Taxi Drive or 2001 or Pulp Fiction or Raging Bull or Tokyo Story or City Lights or, yes, The Dark Knight, you will see the difference between great cinema and great, well-made entertainment. Dont insist there is none without watching the greats...

18...and dont expect the great directors of all time to bow down to superhero movies and proclaim them great cinema because they aren't. They are great movies. And there is a huge difference. And they have killed a lot of great cinema. Which is why Scorsese and Coppola are mad.