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Ridley Scott

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Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields) is an influential British film director and producer.

Career

Background

Scott initially studied, until 1958, at the West Hartlepool College of Art. He was to progress to a photography course at London's Royal College of Art for the 1960s. There, he was to contribute to the college magazine ARK and help to establish its film department. For his final show he made a black and white short film 'The Boy on the Bicycle' starring his brother Tony Scott. The film's main visual elements would become features of Scott's later work. After graduation he secured a traineeship as a set designer with the BBC leading him to work on the popular television series Z-Cars. He was also assigned to design the second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks, which would have entailed realising the famous alien creatures. However, shortly before he was due to start work a schedule conflict meant that he was replaced on the serial by Raymond Cusick.

Early work

Along with Sir Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson, Hugh Johnson and his younger brother Tony, he established an advertising company. Having cut his teeth on UK television commercials in the 1970s—most notably the 1974 Hovis advert "Bike Round" (New World Symphony) filmed in Shaftesbury—he graduated to Hollywood, where he produced and directed a number of top boxoffice films. His first feature, The Duellists, was produced in Europe and made limited impact in the US.

Alien

Scott had originally planned to next adapt an opera, but after seeing Star Wars, he became convinced of the potential of large scale effects driven films. He thus accepted the job of directing Alien, the 1979 ground-breaking horror/science fiction film which would give him international recognition. While he would not direct the following three sequels, the female action hero Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) which he created in the first film, would become a cinematic icon.

Blade Runner

After a year working on the film adaptation of Dune, Scott signed to direct the film version of Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, (which would be retitled as Blade Runner for the film) even though he was reluctant to follow up with another science-fiction film. Blade Runner was initially a flop when released to theaters in 1982, and was pulled shortly after its release. However, it would eventually achieve cult status through re-release on television and through home video. Scott released a director's cut of the film to theaters in 1991 which removed the original voice overs and modified the ending. Some consider the director's cut a vast improvement over the original version released in theaters; however, others feel the original with Harrison Ford's narration and an alternative ending was the better film. Today Blade Runner is considered one of the most important science fiction films of the 20th century and is usually discussed along with William Gibson's novel Neuromancer as initiating the cyberpunk genre.

"1984" Apple Macintosh commercial

In 1984, Apple Computer launched the Macintosh. It's debut was announced by a single broadcast of the now famous $1.5 million commercial, based on George Orwell's novel 1984, and directed by Rideley Scott (due to his work on Blade Runner). The commercial was broadcast during the 1984 Super Bowl XVIII. Steve Jobs' intention with the ad was to equate Big Brother with the IBM PC and a nameless female action hero, portrayed by Anya Major, with the Macintosh.

The commercial is consistently ranked #1 in ad lists. TV Guide ranked it as the greatest commercial of all time.

Thelma and Louise

Thelma and Louise was released in 1991 and stars Geena Davis as Thelma, Susan Sarandon as Louise, and Harvey Keitel as a sympathetic detective trying to solve crimes that the two women find easier and easier to commit. The movie proved to be a success and revived Scott's reputation as a film maker, earning his first Oscar nomination. Scotts next proyect was the independent movie 1492:Conquest of Paradise, a visually striking take on the story of Christopher Columbus, yet considered as his most slow and boring movie.

Production company

In 1995 Scott, together with his brother Tony, formed the film and television production company Scott Free Productions in Los Angeles. All of his subsequent feature films, starting with White Squall, have been produced under the Scott Free banner.

File:Gladiator(Triumph).jpg
2000: A scene from the movie Gladiator.

Gladiator

The huge success of Scott's film Gladiator (2000) has been credited with the revival of the nearly defunct genre of the "sword and sandal" historical epic. In 2005, Scott attempted to follow it up with the less successful Kingdom of Heaven, a movie about the Crusades that consciously sought to connect history to current events. While on location in Morocco during the filming Scott reported receiving death threats from Islamist extremists. [1] It was reported that the Moroccan government sent hundreds of soldiers to protect the set and crew. However, the Moroccan cavalry were actually on hand as extras in the epic battle-scenes.

Current work

Scott is teaming up again with actor Russell Crowe, directing the movie A Good Year, which is based on the best selling book. The movie is in post-production status and awaiting release.

Future proyects include Shadow Divers for 2007 and the often rumoured Penetration. Scott is currently in talks for yet another teaming up with actor Russell Crowe for the movie American Gangster, if signed, Scott would work for the first time with actor Denzel Washington.

Currently 5 members of the Scott family are directors, all working for RSA.

Style

His striking visual style, incorporating a detailed approach to production design and innovative, atmospheric lighting, has been tremendously influential on an entire subsequent generation of filmmakers — many of whom have simply imitated him outright. Scott commonly uses very slow pacing until the action, where he then does very rapid editing. A prime example of that is Alien and Blade Runner. A critic once went so far as to call it 'Blade Crawler, because it's so damn slow'. Another trademark of his is sound or music, used normally to build tension - as seen in Alien with hissing steam, beeping computers and the sounds of the machinery in the space ship.

Awards

Scott has been nominated for 3 Academy Awards for Directing. He was knighted in the 2003 New Year Honours.

Criticism

Although some of his films have been highly praised, others have been less successful with audiences and critics. G.I. Jane and Hannibal are the two major works most often attacked by critics, while 1492: Conquest of Paradise was a major commercial failure. Legend (1985) was, like Blade Runner three years before, an initial box-office disaster, but it too has since found cult status thanks to Jerry Goldsmith's critically acclaimed (but rarely heard) score, a 2002 revised "director's cut" that is closer to Scott's original vision, and its close resemblence to the popular video game series The Legend of Zelda.

Trademarks

Although Scott is often known for the striking visuals appearing on his films, other trademarks on his behalf are:

  • Strong female characters featured often in his movies. Some speculate that him being raised by his mother could be the cause.
  • Extensive use of the two camera "V" set-up, allowing actors to perform more fluidly.
  • Casts Giannina Facio, his partner in life, in all his movies since Gladiator.
  • Gets involved personally in the casting and preffers a more personal casting (just him and the casting director).
  • Likes to work with actors who have a strong theater background and/or drama school graduates.
  • Like Stanley Kubrick, Scott is known for repeating the takes by the double digits (Scott is also known to have Kubricks' work in high regard). This was more evident on Blade Runner, the crew nick-named the movie "Blood Runner" because of this.
  • Extensive use of fans and fanlike objects (in Blade Runner and Black Rain), fans are used in Hannibal also, but for symbolism purposes.
  • Extensive use of smoke (in Alien, Blade Runner and Black Rain)
  • Frequently uses music by either Jerry Goldsmith (Alien / Legend), Vangelis (Blade Runner/ 1492: Conquest of Paradise) or Hans Zimmer (Black Rain/ Thelma & Louise/Gladiator/ Hannibal / Black Hawk Down / Matchstick Men).
  • Actors who have worked with Scott often consider that he spends more time with the sets than with the actors, among such actors is Harrison Ford, who complained that his relationship with Scott left a lot to desire. Writer Paul M. Sammon, known for his work on Future Noir, commented about this, stating that Scott's relationship with his actors has improved considerably over the years.

Filmography

Upcoming films

Released films

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