Alejandro Iñárritu responds to critics who bury Digger

The Mexican director takes responsibility for his film and claims to prefer the reviews to a “lukewarm reception!”

The least we can say is that Digger is not unanimous…

But Alejandro González Iñárritu is not a director who hides behind his little finger.

The Mexican filmmaker persists and signs, and accepts the very contrasting reactions around his film with Tom Cruise. For him, it is better to divide than to leave indifferent:

“The film is not perfect”, he admits in a response published yesterday in the New York Timeswhile defending his taste for “risk“. Alejandro González Iñárritu knew from the start that Digger would not please everyone. And obviously, it suits him very well. For him, a mixed reception is always better than a film that provokes nothing:

“I prefer that to a lukewarm reception!“

Moreover, the director does not seem particularly surprised by the reactions aroused by the film:

“I think it’s an unusual film, without a doubt. It’s a film that provokes. For me, that’s what a film is about: let’s start the conversation. Personally, I like films that try to tell me something in a different way…“

Iñárritu obviously knows that not all spectators necessarily want to be provoked by a film. Some prefer a more classic, more readable narration, which does not ask them to leave their comfort zone. And the director accepts it:

“There are people who want more certainty in the storytelling, and that’s great too. But a filmIt’s not ice cream. So yes, to be honest, we expected that!“

Behind the provocation, Iñárritu above all defends the ambition of his film. Digger is indeed a disaster film, but the filmmaker considers that his catastrophe is not an earthquake, a tsunami or an invasion from space. The real danger is human beings.

“This film is a disaster film, but the disaster is us.”

And he assures us: his words are ultimately much more optimistic than they seem. According to him, “the world is so beautiful and amazing. There are so many resources, and the balance of the ecosystem is absolutely crazy beautiful. If we can get in the same room, in the same reality, and understand where we are in the narrative, I think there is hope.“

The fact remains that, behind the critical debates, Digger must also face a much more brutal reality: that of the box office. The film only attracted $8 million in the United States for its first weekend, a far cry from the starts Tom Cruise has accustomed audiences to in recent years. And while the role of Digger was to finally offer him the Oscar for best actor, it now stands as the biggest flop of his career.