Martin Scorsese defends 'The Wolf of Wall Street' amid continuing controversy

Last week, MStars reported that The Wolf of Wall Street star Leonardo DiCaprio defended the film in an interview as many fans have spoken out against what they perceive as a glorification of the excess of the white-collar crime portrayed in the movie. Now, director Martin Scorsese has also spoken out to defend his work.

In an interview with Deadline, Scorsese articulated that the values in America have changed in the last 30 years to the point where they "are only quite honestly about what makes money." So, in his mind:

"To present characters like this on the screen, have them reach some emotional crisis, and to see them punished for what they've done, all it does is make us feel better. And we're the victims, the people watching onscreen. So to do something that has an obvious moral message, where two characters sit in the film and hash it out, or where you have titles at the end of the film explaining the justice, the audience expects that. They've been inured to it."

This sort of controversy is nothing knew for the legendary director. He went through it with Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Mean Streets and especially Goodfellas. Scorsese is no stranger to diving into the psychology of the bad guys and portraying them as the central figures of his films, but The Wolf of Wall Street seems to have struck a chord with many moviegoers.

But perhaps that's a good thing, as Scorsese said he wanted to wake up the audience when he made the film:

"I didn't want them to be able to think 'problem solved,' and forget about it. I wanted them to feel like they'd been slapped into recognizing that this behavior has been encouraged in this country, and that it affects business and the world, and everything down to our children and how they're going to live, and their values in the future."

Check out the lengthy interview with Scorsese here to get even more of his thoughts on the subject.