Spielberg vs Scorsese

[Drz]

How on earth is Spielberg winning?!

 

[weezerspider]

How on earth is Spielberg winning?!

Because the average person wants to feel good and fuzzy when they watch a film which Spielberg made his whole career on. I'm sure that can come off condescending, but I don't mean it to be. It's just true. He's the ultimate crowd pleaser. Even his tough material like Schindler's List and Saving Private have sentimental value in it that make you very emotional, whereas Martin Scorsese in an interview in the late 1990's doing press for Bringin' Out The Dead even admited all of his films could basically be boiled down to the concept of orignal sin and the fallen man. Basically, we're all terrible....and his films show humans doing terrible things, yet most of his characters are more real than anything from Spielberg. Travis Bickle is not a good person, but he may be the most real character in American Cinema. We walk past Travis Bickle's everyday. We have a Travis Bickle currently in the media right now due to the Charelston issue. Marty deals with the real world which makes his films more significant art, where Spielberg focuses on escapism. It's no surprise the majority prefer one over the other. I personally love both, but Scorsese really is alone in his class as far as American Cinema goes.

Also, I'm surprised people are giving up this new era of TV so easily. Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game Of Thrones, True Detective ect. have all made it clear they wouldn't have existed without The Sopranos and The Sopranos creators have made it clear that there is no way in hell that it would have existed without Goodfellas. So no Marty, none of your favorite shows.

 

[Assassin32]

I always love the 'most people' argument. It's easy to dish out and can't really be proven at all. Maybe YOU didn't like it but that's another story altogether. Judging purely from the critics(which I know, doesn't prove anything either) it seems that most people liked it.

When we're talking about greatness, we must consider the consensus. Influence and re-watchability are probably the strongest measures of a film's greatness. No one is trying to make the next Lincoln, and few sat through its 150-minute runtime more than once. It is not considered a great film. "Great" is not a term that should be so readily applied.

But I think you know this, though you did not say it outright, because you destroyed your own argument by offering the opinions of popular critics while simultaneously dismissing them.

 

[Black Narcissus]

I wonder how many in this thread have watched Scorsese work. I am not just talking the more popular ones. Stuff like Age of Innocence, After Hours, The King of Comedy, etc. His range is unparalleled. Even his documentaries are fantastic. I love Spielberg, but there is Marty and then there is everyone else.

I have seen every one of is films, which is why this was an easy decision for me.

 

[Ivan Drago]

Sorry for the necro bump, but after stumbling across this thread, I decided to do a Scorsese and Spielberg rewatch.

It's a toughie. Scorsese is the better filmmaker if you're looking for artistic merit, but Spielberg pretty much trademarked the magic of cinema. Scorsese has some impressive highs with Mean Streets, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas.

Both directors have underrated movies, with Scorsese there's After Hours, the King of Comedy, and The Color Money. Spielberg's underrated works are Empire of the Sun, A.I, and War of the Worlds.

Spielberg and Scorsese both have duds, the former being 1941 and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and the latter being Boxcar Bertha and New York, New York (what a slog).

Ultimately, I think the post-2000 period pushes Spielberg ahead for me. Scorsese has gotten into a mode where he makes these fat overlong movies that have some brilliant stretches, but never fully satisfy (Silence and Wolf of Wall Street come to mind). I don't think any of them are on the level of Munich or Minority Report, as fun as Catch Me If You Can, as interesting as A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Even Spielberg's semi-biopics are better, I'll watch Lincoln over The Aviator again any day of the week. The only Scorsese movie I love from this century is Hugo, and maybe The Departed.

Also, unpopular opinion alert, while Taxi Driver is a good film it's the most overrated Scorsese film of all-time. All praise to Marty and De Niro for trying their best to overcome Schrader's obnoxious screenplay that's far too interested in siding with Bickle. There's nothing here about 70s pre-Giuliani New York or the codes and conducts of violent masculinity that Mean Streets didn't already do better. And its ending is awful.

And Spielberg has Jaws, which is the greatest movie of all-time. So ya know, there's that too.

I also admit I'm a bit bias because I love Spielberg's schmaltz, and I'm willing to rewatch his movies more often than Scorsese.

 

[scarlet-witch]

Why is this poll locked? Scorcese all the way!

 

[The Endless]

I find it hard to choose between the two. They are probably the best American directors of all time.

Seems like a lot of people overlook the likes of Munich, which is an incredibly powerful film. Spielberg has range too. Not all his films are schmaltzy escapism.

But then Scorsese has overlooked gems like Bringing out the Dead.

So yea I can't choose between the two.