Anne Thompson: You’ve stirred up past controversy, from “Taxi Driver” to “The Last Temptation of Christ.” There’s been a torrent of responses to your new movie, defending and decrying it with equal passion. It’s touched a nerve. Martin Scorsese: It should touch a nerve! What would be the point of making a film that exposes corruption in the financial world, in a conventional way? It’s already been done!
That only makes us feel, as we watch the movie, anybody with any sense, it makes us feel better. It falls into a false system that’s put in place. It’s akin to euphemism–the language of political correctness, very much in the same way that a person who has problems with alcohol or drugs or whatever in Hollywood now, the process includes now rehab, then they get back out, hopefully don’t get involved again but they do. These would just feed into the system and trivializes the impact of what we’re trying to say. In other words, it anesthetizes, makes us feel like we’re watching news on TV.
It doesn’t mean anything, it’s not even entertainment. I’m talking about people with good hearts who are making some well-made pictures that make everybody agree with each other and nothing changes.
Nothing is going to change with this either! Well, timing seems to play a role here. I just made the movie. We were supposed to make the movie in 2006 or 2007.