Quentin Tarantino: Marvel Directors Are “Hired Hands”

Quentin Tarantino is not a fan of the MCU. Not a big surprise. Variety reports (via the Los Angeles Times) that, on the press tour for his new book, Tarantino had some none-too-pleasing words for directors who work with Marvel.

“You have to be a hired hand to do those things. I’m not a hired hand. I’m not looking for a job.” Tarantino recently stated that he and other filmmakers “can’t wait for the day” superhero movies stop being popular, comparing its future demise to that of movie musicals in the 1960s.

Are Marvel directors hired hands? You bet they are. They don’t have carte blanche to make the movie they truly envision. Their hands are guided by the higher-ups such as Kevin Feige who himself is guided by his superior. It’s a commercial product, a brand that needs to base its “creativity” on algorithms to make the big bucks.

One can of course enjoy a Marvel movie, but it’s not necessarily art. It’s branding. I’ve liked a few of them over the years (“Avengers: Endgame,” “Iron Man,” “The Winter Soldier”), but you feel dirty when the deed is done. It’s akin to eating a Big Mac, you savour the moment, but afterwards you feel like shit.

You knew this was coming. Let’s add Tarantino’s name to the very impressive list of anti-Marvel filmmakers, they include Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Denis Villeneuve, Bong Joon-ho, Lucrecia Martel, David Cronenberg, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, David Fincher, Paul Verehoeven, Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott, James Gray, Jane Campion, James Mangold, Martin McDonagh, Luc Besson, William Friedkin, Ken Loach, James Cameron, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and John Woo.

I’ve just ordered my copy of Tarantino’s upcoming book titled “Cinema Speculation.”