When film was first invented, it was primarily used for cheap entertainment. What would attract people to see film was the same reason people went to the circus – film was dominated by the vaudeville performers, silent film comedians and stars, looking to get a quick laugh or display some technical achievement, like what George Méliès was doing at the time. It wasn’t until a few years into the 20th century that people started to really take film seriously as a competitive artform – helped by the work of early film theorists like Germaine Dulac or Ricciotto Canudo, and of course by early filmmakers such as DW Griffith and Lois Weber. Film became known as the “seventh art,” proving itself unique from the great theatre works that have come before it, and cerebral enough to be more than a circus act. Today, we see an interesting reversal of this phenomenon of early film history. In the same way that early film valued spectacle over story, superhero films of today seem to do the same. This is not to disparage Marvel or superhero fans – but there’s something to be said for this phenomenon. Martin Scorsese got flack from comic book fans for calling those movies “amusement park rides” in an interview, eventually clarifying his comments politely in a Washington Post opinion editorial, and recently furthering his claim in a Harper’s article on the importance of believing in art as opposed to content, and treating the spectator as a human being as opposed to a mindless consumer.
But this theme is not only salient for superhero movies. Within the last decade, for example, acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan has reached astounding success, with a major criticism of his recent films being that they value spectacle over story. According to some reports, he fought hard for the summer 2020 release of Tenet during the pandemic, to mixed to positive reviews, with exactly the sort of minority criticism that has given his films bad press over the years. One would think that as we are progressing as a species in the 21st century, our art or entertainment would get more complex – leading to fresher and more exciting pieces of media. Yet, the pieces of art that Nolan or that Marvel produce haven’t freshened up the landscape of new film and entertainment – although the rumors prior to Tenet’s release hinted at the film acting as a reset button for film. The recent slate of Super Bowl commercials tried very hard to revert to old tactics, with very few acknowledging the hectic political environment or raging coronavirus pandemic that have claimed millions of lives and jobs. Commercials such as one for Rocket Mortgage, which utilized Tracy Morgan and B-level action-movie effects to mirror the stream of milquetoast intensity that recent Marvel movies offer, could have been made any time between, say, 2005 and today.
It's the tired old debate of commerce versus art, but it appears that our creativity has run dry as money is what dominates what films get made today. There are certainly still options for young independent filmmakers and established auteurs to make their films, or even studios to make a product both for monetary and artistic value, but judging the 2021 Golden Globes nominations, it appears that these options for innovative filmmakers to succeed are getting more and more limited.