The three-hour period epic stars Matt Damon and Adam Driver as opposing forces in a feudal France, and failed to capture the interest of the public in a congested release schedule. Scott would say on the WTF podcast of Marc Maron “The audiences who were brought up of these fucking cellphones, the Millennials do not want to be taught anything.” The absurdity of such a statement is obvious, especially where other films released at a similar time, such as the continuously popular James Bond and the comparative runtime of ‘Dune,’ managed to do just fine in cinemas.
Scott would go on to say having access to everything on phones “has given the wrong kind of confidence to this youngest generation.” Arrogance for… not wanting to watch a 3-hour grey film about knights? Does Scott feel entitled to patronage after such a prolific and successful career? He has no self-awareness as he criticises a generation’s overconfidence for not going to see his movie which flopped.
It’s sad to see such a legend of film appear so bitter, fans worldwide will hope this is a blip, the reaction to which may cause Scott to wake up
This entitlement to a good box office performance is perhaps symbolic of a laziness that has befallen many of the biggest filmmakers and studios in recent years. They seem to feel as though they can put anything out and it will have earned millions by default, anyone who does not elect to pay to see it is labelled as having the “wrong kind of confidence.” Perhaps if Ridley Scott could take a step back and see how out of touch he appears to be with worldwide audiences, he would know why his movie would not succeed. We do not want him to bend to every whim and force himself to create whatever he thinks will do well, that is not how art is made, but that does not mean when it fails he can turn and blame others and their entitlement. It’s sad to see such a legend of film appear so bitter, fans worldwide will hope this is a blip, the reaction to which may cause Scott to wake up.