Advertisement

Terry Gilliam tears into 'Black Panther', calling Marvel movie's message 'bulls**t'

Director Terry Gilliam poses for photographers during a photo call for the film 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote' at the 71st international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 19, 2018. (Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP)
Terry Gilliam (Credit: Arthur Mola/Invision/AP)

Terry Gilliam has torn into Black Panther, saying he hated the movie, slating its message of positivity and questioning whether the filmmakers even went to Africa.

The director and former Monty Python member took the Marvel movie to task in an interview with Indiewire, saying that watching it 'made my blood boil'.

Read more: Bob Iger on Scorsese’s ‘nasty’ Marvel comments

“I hated Black Panther. It makes me crazy,” he said.

“It gives young black kids the idea that this is something to believe in. Bullsh*t. It’s utter bullsh*t. I think the people who made it have never been to Africa.

“They went and got some stylist for some African pattern fabrics and things. But I just I hated that movie, partly because the media were going on about the importance of bullshit.”

Ryan Coogler’s movie, which found Chadwick Boseman as the prince - and then king - of the fictional African country of Wakanda, was a smash at the worldwide box office, making $1.3 billion, and landing seven Oscar nominations.

Black Panther (Credit: Marvel)
Black Panther (Credit: Marvel)

And it's not just that – he hates that big budget movies are now making smaller budget movies almost impossible to make.

“There isn’t room or money for a greater range of films,” he went on. “You make a film for over $150 million or less than $10 [million]. Where’s all this other stuff? It doesn’t exist anymore.

“I make films where I’m trying to make people think. I mean, I try to entertain them enough that they don’t fall asleep on me, and they’re there to make you think and look at the world in a different way, hopefully, and consider possibilities. Those films don’t do that.”

Read more: Scorsese’s next movie set for March, 2020

Gilliam joins other directors of an old school persuasion to have taken issue with the pervasive nature of the Marvel movies this year.

Martin Scorsese famously said that the movies were 'not cinema', to his mind, likening them to theme park rides.

Francis Ford Coppola also weighed in on the side of Scorsese.