Terry Gilliam says he 'hated' Marvel's 'Black Panther': 'I think the people who made it have never been to Africa'
Terry Gilliam has torn into Black Panther, 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.”
“I hated Black Panther. It makes me crazy,” he said.
“It gives young black kids the idea that this is something to believe in. Bulls***. It’s utter bulls***. 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 bulls***.”
Ryan Coogler’s movie, which found Chadwick Boseman as the leader of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, was a smash at the worldwide box office, making $1.3 billion and landing seven Oscar nominations.
Gilliam, who directed films like Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, added that he hates that big-budget movies are now making it harder for other cinematic work.
“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.”
Gilliam, 79, joins other directors 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.
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