Director Spotlight

RIDLEY SCOTT

Ridley Scott is not necessarily underrated.  He is, often times, a forgotten genius.  When you ask someone who knows the basics of film and film history who their favorite director is, the names that are mentioned are Spielberg, Scorcese, Michael Bay (God help us), The Coen Brothers, Tim Burton, and sometimes these days an occasional Chris Nolan.  But, for some reason, Ridley Scott is farther down the list, if he is on the proverbial list at all. 

The truth is, Ridley Scott is one of the most important directors of the last thirty years.  His films are among the most memorable, if not the most skillfully filmed and produced.  Something about a Ridley Scott film feels perfect in a sense, and every scene feels natural in the most perfect of ways.  Something special about Scott outside of the staple films in his career, are the smaller, sneakier, often times effective films that are not surrounded by Oscar buzz or Box Office Records.  The range of Scott’s films may be what makes him obscure to the casual film fan.  He does not have, in the most basic sense, a trait or a signature auteur move, or perhaps that recognizeable camera shot.  His films stretch across a range of themes and are on a broad scope.  The end result is, more often than not, powerful. 

After traveling around as a director of TV shows, English-born director Ridley Scott directed his first feature film, The Duelists.  Two years later, Scott was given his break, and took the reigns of one of the biggest science-fiction franchises of all time.  The film was Alien and, like Scott, the film is often overlooked for its predecessor, James Cameron’s action-heavy Aliens.  But where Scott’s original exceeds the sequel is in its subtlety, the creepy, crawly way the action and the events unfold.  It is Hitchcock on a spaceship, and it is the genesis of a frightening monster.  With Alien, Scott also flipped the common conception of the male-as-hero, as Sigourney Weaver’s resourceful heroine, Ellen Ripley, made it okay for the woman to save the day.  Alien was and still is a frightening and effective thriller.  Scott’s next film, while dealing with science fiction, has become something bigger than the film itself.

Blade Runner, an adaptation of a Phillip K. Dick short story, was the first future noir, a bleak futuristic thriller that created one of the most memorable, most visually arresting films in the history of film.  The film was not distracted by explosions and shoot outs, but it bothered to develop a story that is captivating, and a script that brings into question our very existence.  Superbly shot and superbly realized, Scott’s Blade Runner would become one of those films that generates reimaginings and pretenders for years to come.  This is one of the most prominent, memorable one two punches by a director in the modern era.

 

Scott followed Blade Runner with Legend, a fantasy film starring Tom Cruise that never found an audience in the theaters, but has turned into somewhat of a minor cult classic over the years.  After Legend was Someone to Watch Over Me, an eighties police drama that was outshined by films like Fatal Attraction.  This was the first of Scott’s films that really came and went, a misstep and a forgettable movie.  But Scott redeemed himself with another police drama, Black Rain.  This film, starring Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia tracking a Japanese Mafioso from New York to Japan, brought the culture of Tokyo to America, and was also a thrilling eighties actioneer that, like Scott, is often overlooked.

After Black Rain, Ridley Scott hit the jackpot again with Thelma and Louise.  The film, about two women on the run from the law, did what Scott did with Sigourney Weaver on an even grander scale.  While Scott created the female-as-hero persona with Weaver, he developed the female-as-powerful persona in Thelma and Louise, Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis burned into our consciousness memorable female roles, and along with Scott created one of the best films of the nineties.  Who doesn’t want to, from time to time, see that car stop right before it gets to the ledge. 

After Thelma and Louise, Scott hit a three-picture min slump with the misdirected 1492, the little-seen White Squall, and the publicity stunt that was G.I. Jane.  But three years after G.I. Jane, Scott would craft one of his most magnificent masterpieces, the fully-realized, epic adventure, Gladiator.  The film, about a disgraced Roman general seeking revenge, earned Academy Award nominations all over the place, and brought home the statue for Best Picture and Director, as well as a Best Actor statue for Russell Crowe.  Gladiator seemed to solidify Scott’s place in film history, despite the solid career he had developed to that point.

 

After Gladiator, Scott tackled the Hannibal Lector franchise with a sequel to the psychological thriller Silence of the Lambs.  The film, while nowhere near the impact of the original, mainly due to the fact that Jodie Foster did not return, was a box office success.  After Hannibal, Scott released Black Hawk Down, the story of a platoon of soldiers under fire in Somalia.  The film inadvertently rode on the coattails of the tragedies of 9/11, and became yet another critical and box office success, mainly due to the overwhelming patriotism of the country at that time. 

Scott went small after a slew of big-budget, big time films, with a clever little caper film, Matchstick Men.  Starring Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell as conmen, the film was subtle and engrossing, and still holds on to one of the best twists in recent film history.  It is unfortunate the film was so overlooked at the box office.  After Matchstick Men, Scott went big again with Kingdom of Heaven, a Gladiator-esque film about the Crusades.  The film, tragically, was so cut up by the studio (who else but FOX) that the theatrical release came and went without much to do.  It was only until after Scott released the Director’s Cut that his vision could be seen, and the result of his cut was much more powerful and engrossing than the theatrical release.  It is amazing that Scott did not have final cut.

Scott’s next wide release was the gross miscalculation that is A Good Year, a poor attempt of Scott to tap into the romantic comedy/drama realm.  Russell Crowe was passable, but the film itself lacked anything beyond pretty scenery to be memorable.  However, the next year, Scott was back in his wheelhouse once again.  This time, the film was American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington as self-made gangster Frank Lucas, and Russell Crowe as the police officer that pursued him.  The film had the gritty realism of Sidney Lumet from the seventies, and was an epic, sprawling film that you might categorize as a minor masterpiece. 

Scott’s next film, out in two weeks, teams him up with Russell Crowe once again.  This time it is Body of Lies, also starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and it appears to be in Scott’s comfort zone.  However, when you observe Scott’s body of work, it is hard to corner him into a zone so to speak.  As long as he does not fall into romantic purgatory, Scott is destined to churn out powerful, important films that have littered the American film landscape with memorable cinematic mater pieces.