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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 9202712" data-attributes="member: 7023840">I'm going to quote my favorite source ... MYSELF!Two of the things I try to argue against here (with varying degrees of, um, lack of success) are-1. A failure to properly contextualize history.2. Reverse "snobbery" (aka, anti-intellectualism).I think that both of these tend to make me a little grouchy. Taking them in reverse order...Coming from a long line of geeks, I can remember a time when "geek culture" was marginalized. When the so-called "cool kids" hated anything that was considered intellectual, or smart, or what we would commonly associate with geek culture. Now, of course, geek culture is mainstream. And now that it is mainstream, we have seen the enemy, and he is us. So we have people saying how comic book movies are the greatest things EVAR, and that people who like other movies are all pretentious snobs. Which ... yeah, it's the same thing, different say. Except it's extra infuriating because it's our group that's now the "in group" and that's behind a lot of this. And for those reasons, I see a lot of dislike of Scorsese because he made the mistake of calling out (disliking) mainstream movies. Nothing to do with his talent, or his opinions- and it reminds me a lot of the old "NERDS!" put downs, except now it's the nerds doing it. There's something gravely wrong with the strain of anti-intellectualism that comes from "our side." Second, we often lose context of how revolutionary or important things were at the time. Citizen Kane is a perfect example- quite simply, a lot of modern cinema vocabulary was invented (or, at a minimum, synthesized) in that film. It can be hard to see now because we are all living in a post-CK world. Or, to use Bob Dylan ... from the vantage point of today, most people don't truly understand how revolutionary he was for the time, or, for that matter, why anyone would even care about the 1965 Newport Folk Festival (big deal, he used an electric guitar ... guys at my high school do that all the time). Take Scorsese- let's just forget about all the things he did in terms of the visual craft. Just think about the effect he had in terms of using music in movies; it's impossible to imagine a modern movie that doesn't pay homage to Scorsese's  use of music, starting with Mean Streets. Arguably, the entire idea of the "needle drop" in the visual medium is because of him. Now I'm not accusing you of either of those things, BTW. There are people that don't appreciate Kubrick. Or Tarantino. Or Renoir. Or Fellini. Or Kurosawa. Or Bresson. Or Bergman. But I find it difficult to call a director who is certainly in the Top 20 all time, easily, to be overrated (and certainly top 5 American Directors). Now, if you wanted to say, "I don't understand why Hollywood keeps giving him these giant budgets for movies that don't make much money," well, that I could certainly get behind.</blockquote>

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