Culture

Ridley Scott Is Blaming Millennials And Their Phones For His Latest Movie Bombing

This just in: millennials don't like history unless we're "told on the cellphone".

by Merryana Salem  23 November 2021
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Hot on the heels of proclaiming superhero films are boring, director Ridley Scott is blaming millennials for his latest film’s poor performance at the box office.

It’s been a while since millennials were unfairly blamed for a mass social phenomenon they couldn’t possibly be solely responsible for, but now it seems they’re the reason Ridley Scott’s latest film, The Last Duel, is bombing at the box office.

Starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver, and Jodie Comer, The Last Duel is a historical war epic set in medieval France. The film follows a knight (Matt Damon) who challenges his squire (Adam Driver) to a trial by combat after the knight’s wife (Jodie Comer) accuses the squire of raping her. So far, the film has only made $20 million of its $100 million+ budget.

Yes, it’s a mystery as to why a two and a half-hour long epic centred on the rape of a young woman isn’t drawing folks to the cinemas in droves. Ridley Scott’s reasoning, however? It’s all because of cell phones.

“I think what it boils down to — what we’ve got today [are] the audiences who were brought up on these fucking cell phones. The millennian [sic] do not ever want to be taught anything unless you are told it on the cell phone,” Scott told Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.

“This is a broad stroke, but I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook,” he continued. “There is a misdirection that has happened where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think.”

Sure, Ridley! I guess, it could be that Facebook and smartphones have turned young-ish “millennian” against historical epics. Though, it’s just a little doubtful given that the highest-grossing film internationally in 2021 is The Battle at Lake Changjin, a Korean war epic that’s beat out No Time To Die for the top spot. But hey, a generational disinterest in history is a hell of a theory.

It should be pointed out that Scott also said, “I’ve never had one regret on any movie I’ve ever made. Nothing. I learned very early on to be your own critic.” A borderline hilarious statement from a director who put infamously Christian Bale in brown-face to play Moses in 2014 and justified the decision by saying, “I can’t mount a film of this budget and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such.”

But yes, the cell phones are to blame.