Are Jordan Peele and Daniel Kaluuya the new Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro?
Jordan Peele’s directorial debut was one of the most impressive of 21st-century filmmaking. Get Out, released in 2017, is a psychological horror with a hard-hitting social message at its core. The plot follows a young Black man (Daniel Kaluuya) who uncovers shocking secrets when he meets the family of his white girlfriend.
A number of critics have cited Get Out as one of the best movies of the 21st century, and it has appeared in multiple lists regarding the greatest movies of the decade. To compound its success, Get Out boasts one of the most impressive screenplays of the 21st century, even ranked as the very best by the Writer’s Guild of America in 2021.
Heavy praise has been lumped on the film’s script, direction, acting, and social critique. With a gross of $255 million worldwide on a budget of $4.5million and a net profit of $124.8 million, Get Out was the tenth-most profitable film of 2017. Since its release, social critical horror has been one of the genre’s crazes and is still analysed and discussed among fans. Its chilling commentary on life as a Black person in America and around liberals resonated with the Black community due to its simply brilliant execution. Overall, Get Out showed horror’s potential as intelligent visual storytelling.
Kaluuya’s performance was heavily lauded, as expected when looking at his earlier roles. The Black Mirror episode ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ led to Kaluuya’s casting in Get Out, with Peele was taken back by the actor’s range and magnetism.
Five years after Get Out, Kaluuya, accompanied by multi-talented Keke Palmer, worked again with Peele again for the sci-fi thriller Nope. Despite a mixed reaction to the script, critics agree the cast is one of the film’s strengths, pointing to the Peele-Kaluuya companionship as a significant factor.
Kaluuya, reflecting on his career to date, described his second time working under Peele’s direction as more “ambitious” than the first, showing praise for the director’s skill as he always takes his work to the next level. When sharing the bond he shared with his star, Peele revealed, “Daniel is my favourite actor in the world,” and even wrote the Nope role specifically for Kaluuya. “We do have a bond. The first big movie he was a lead in, and my directorial debut was Get Out,” he said, showing their artistic relationship.
Peele also shared a moment of realisation that took place during Get Out’s shooting: “It’s so funny, but by the point, I was in the middle of [shooting] Get Out, that’s what I was telling him. I was like, ‘You’re my De Niro, man. You’re my De Niro”. But what’s the context behind such a statement?
Since 1973, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro have collaborated on nine feature films and one short. Many of the projects are often ranked among the greatest movies of all time, such as Raging Bull and Goodfellas. It was Carrie director Brian De Palma who first introduced Scorsese to the young actor Robert De Niro and so is responsible for one of cinemas greatest duos.
It all started in the early 1970s. Scorsese and De Niro’s first collaboration was the 1973 gangster film Mean Streets. The film was critically and commercially praised, with most attention going towards De Niro despite his supporting role.
However, one of their most beloved collaborations is the 1976 film Taxi Driver. Hugely popular, the movie starred De Niro as veteran Travis Bickle, a performance that earned him several accolades and status within the industry. Despite the controversy surrounding the child prostitute character and graphic violence, the movie had a huge cultural impact. Bickle’s line, “You talkin’ to me?” has become one of the most famous lines in film history and pop culture. Speaking on Taxi Driver in 2020, De Niro shared how “doing this film was so special for all of us no matter what happened”. When reflecting on his career as an actor, he feels “very lucky to have that long of a relationship with [Scorsese],” so much so that he wouldn’t want to picture a life without the director by his side.
Scorsese returns this admiration and gratitude for De Niro, stating: “I’m very happy to have found a collaborator like him. We’ve been very lucky over the years, and also it turned out people change over 20 or 30 years”. The director revealed it’s impossible for the two to stay away from each other as artists: “Yeah. We changed, and then came back together and I would call that a highly fortuitous situation”.
The two collaborations clearly echo one another in terms of reciprocated praise and acclaim for their work. Peele’s classification of Kaluuya as his De Niro is an interesting comparison that sparked discussion among film fans when the article was released.
Some inspect both Peele and Kaluuya’s work compared to Scorsese and De Niro, concluding: “Well, he definitely has the potential but not there yet”. Some were harsher, nothing: “Nothing about Jordan Peele reeks anything remotely close to Scorsese. maybe his first film was decent but anyone who thinks Us was on par with a Goodfellas… is objectively clueless on the art of cinema”.
These reactions stem from the issue of time. Scorsese has been directing for over 50 years with 25 features to his name, alongside De Niro’s career being the same in length with countless award nominations and wins.
Peele and Kaluuya still have the potential to echo these golden careers, but a direct comparison should be kept at bay. Fans of both acknowledge their differences: “Nobody said Peele is Scorsese, and nobody said Kaluuya is De Niro,” one commented. Instead, people should consider that “they just liken their partnership to that of those two”. This implies that it is about the artistic bond the two share rather than achievements in careers. However, it can’t be denied that Get Out created a blueprint for future horror, similar to how Scorsese and De Niro created new conventions in crime dramas. This change in horror’s path is one that Kaluuya and Peele are carrying on within their collaborations, as every film they work on holds social commentary through its scares.
Other responses are eager to see this carry out, saying such a comparison is “good” as “that means we’ll get a lot more movies from the two”. Get Out‘s quality of filmmaking was supported by the hidden details that elevate the story and message. Peele’s passion for artistic filmmaking mirrors Scorsese’s in some ways, as he chooses to tell engaging critical stories rather than standard blockbusters. As a result of this, comparing Peele and Scorsese is one accepted with “no doubt” by some film fans because they have “the same level of creative genius”.
Overall, Peele and Kaluuya show clear potential and talent in their work, one that is unique to them. Peele has a skill at writing multi-layered and chilling horrors. Kaluuya is one of cinema’s most promising actors with an outstanding range, who considers it “such an honour” to be addressed as someone’s De Niro.
There is nothing holding them back from becoming one of film’s greatest duos. Rather than citing them as the “new Scorsese and De Niro”, it may make more sense to think of them as “Peele and Kaluuya”. Furthermore, Scorsese and De Niro are some of film’s greatest, yet both show nothing but a welcoming and encouraging attitude to the new generation of filmmakers and actors.
