Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been an avid fan of the movies for the majority of his life. Every year, the NBA champion writes a newsletter describing movies he felt deserved the Oscar nominations and ones that did not. With great passion and enthusiasm, the player details the film like a critic and does a fantastic job at it. Recently, Abdul-Jabbar released his latest newsletter on January 12th and had some words for one of his favourite directors – Martin Scorsese.
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In 2023, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone and directed by Martin Scorsese was released. The film had all the makings of a blockbuster with love, betrayal, crime, and drama crossing paths in a 1920 Western setting. However, according to the NBA legend, the film underperformed his expectations starting from its run-time.
“At 3 hours and 26 minutes, it’s 2 hours too long. Yes, it’s gorgeous to look at, and it has its heart in the right place in exposing atrocities committed against the Osage Nation. But a good heart doesn’t make the film less boring.”
Kareem’s word for DiCaprio seems like the Oscar-winning actor failed to impress the NBA legend in his latest venture, “The biggest problem is that the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio is so dumb and venal that any time we spend with him is annoying.”
The Scorsese-DiCaprio pairing has given us some breathtaking performances in movies like – The Aviator, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed, and Shutter Island. However, this time around Kareem felt that the character’s corrupt showing was annoying to watch.
The player also talked about the female lead played by – Lily Gladstone. He says, “Rather than pay homage to the Osage, the character of DiCaprio’s love interest, played exquisitely by Lily Gladstone, is written to be so relentlessly dense that she picks a murdering cad to marry and have children with, all the time ignoring the giant red flags of all her family dying “mysteriously.”
Abdul-Jabbar believed that the film did not do a good job of making him believe in the undying love shown between the two protagonists. Instead, he felt that the character displayed stupidity in risking the life of her family.
Reading through his views on the film, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was visibly disappointed by the filmmakers. He wrote, “I went into the theatre wanting to love it because of its subject matter and the filmmaker’s legacy. But I came out angry that a whole lot of talented people didn’t realize just how bad their creative choices were.”
That being said, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ has still been nominated for the most coveted honours in filmmaking, and it will be interesting to see if the Academy Awards jury feels the same way as the NBA Hall of Famer.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s performances on the big screen
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been a film fanatic, and his stature as a legendary NBA player gave way to some amazing cameos on the big screen. In 1980, the player posed as himself impersonating an airline pilot in the comedy film – ‘Airplane!’. The scene has him exchange words with a kid who recognizes him as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar while the latter is wearing a pilot uniform in the Airplane’s cockpit.
That was not the only showing of the six-time NBA MVP. In 1978, the player got a chance to act alongside the one and only – Bruce Lee.
The movie was called – Game of Death, and it involved a fight sequence between Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The 1978 movie had a five-minute fight sequence between the 7ft 2in Abdul-Jabbar and the 5ft 7in Lee. Though the NBA player got his butt kicked by the legendary actor, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for any fan.
