He is a great director, he's been around for a long while too. "alien" was a great scare-show, but done with originality and finesse that i don't think many people have topped, at least in that genre. He seems to have a knack or great epics, "gladiator", "black hawk down" was really good. i thorougly enjoyed "matchstick men". it's highly underrated i think. "thelma and Liouse" showed a softer(but not that soft) side or Ridley not shown in his other works. anyways, i just wanted to see if there's anyone else out there who enjoys his films like i do.

Ever since I first saw Alien in 1979 that became my second most favorite science fiction movie after 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 and sixth favorite movie of all time, I have had a particular fondness for Scott Ridley. In terms of direction, it was Alien that really caught my attention so much so that I've probably watched this movie more than any other, just because of the how the movie was directed and performed.

The clincher, however, was after seeing Blade Runner (1982), my eighth most favorite movie of all time and then reading Future Noir The Making of Blade Runner written by Paul M. Sammon, 1996 that I gained a immense admiration for Ridley Scott as a director and his attention to detail and his composition and layered density he brought to the screen.

I wasn't immensely impressed with Legend (1986) even his Gladiator (2000) and I can't say I really remember much from Black Rain (1989). Even his Hannibal (2001) didn't register, especially when my measuring standard for Thomas Harris novels turned movies is Manhunter (1986), my second most favorite movie of all time that starred William Petersen from television's C.S.I. and directed by Michael Mann who has compiled a few great movies for himself, most recently Collateral (2004).

I skipped his 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) and White Squall (1996).

However, I was one of the few that really enjoyed an appreciated his G.I. Jane (1997).

Of course he scored with Thelma & Lousie (1991).

His latest movies Black Hawk Down (2001) and Matchstick Men (2003) were both intense and captivating. Nicholas Cage and the twisted ending was a fantastic qualitative, substantive climax that I've rarely felt before in Matchstick Men.

I missed his Kingdom of Heaven this year, having been pretty much worn out by such epics the past two years. Overall, though, Sir Ridley Scott is known as a heavy-weight in the industry but just his creation of Blade Runner and what he accomplished and how he accomplished it would make him a remarkable director.

He's the Scott brother with the talent. Tony is a hack while Ridley is an interesting director.

ALIEN has to be one of the most influential horror films of all time. Every post ALIEN film that has a monster steals from the monster in ALIEN.

BLACK HAWK DOWN is one of my all time favorite films. I didn't care or 1492, but it did look good, as all Scott's films do, on the big screen. WHITE SQUALL isn't Scott's best film, but it is worth seeing.

I do agree with you that GI JANE is a good film and one of the better movies Demi Moore has made, though that could be construed as damning the movie with faint praise.

BLADE RUNNER is fascinating because that film kind of came and went when first released back in '82. People didn't like it. Then, over time, its reputation grew and now it has a full blown cult reputation and is widely viewed as a classic, if for the look of the film if nothing else.

Enough said.

I was reading a collection of Jim Hoberman's film reviews (he's chief film critic of the "Village Voice") and never knew that Ridley Scott was the original director of the DUNE.

I knew David Lynch wasn't the original director, but I didn't know that Scott was the guy who was originally attached to the project.

According to Paul Sammon in his book Future Noir The Making of Blade Runner (1996), initially turned down a Blade Runner script in April 1979 due, in part, to his commitment "to producer Dino DeLaurentiis to do an adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel Dune. You must remember that, with Alien I'd just finished a science fiction picture. And here Hapton and Michael were offering me another one of those: it was time to move on to something else." Sammon continued, "Scott had alredy been laboring on Dune for a period of approximately seven months, until screenwriter Rudolph Wurlitzer...turned in his first draft screenplay, at which point something curious happened: Scott abruptly bailed out of the DeLaurentiis project." Ridley Scott said, "I'd worked on Dune for over half a year. Previous to that I'd brought a writer over to London whom I considered pretty good, Rudy Wurlitzer, to work with me. In a seven-month period he'd come up with a first draft script which I felt was a decent distillation of Frank Herbert's book. But I also realized Dune was going to take more work. A lot more work. And I just didn't have the heart to attack that work. Because...well, I'll tell you what really happened. My older brother died. Frankly, that freaked me out. I felt I couldn't sit around for another two and a half years on Dune, which is how long I thought it was going to take, preparing and waiting on this think. I needed immediate activity, needed to get my mind off my brother's death. So I went and told Dino I had to depart Dune and that the script was his" a few months into 1980. Ironically, however, Ridley accepted the latest screenplay of Blade Runner, in part, he thought it would be something that would be an immediate go and he knew the producer Michael Deeley, but in the end, it took another "bloody" year before Ridley would be able to begin shooting (pp. 47-49).

That is interesting and it looks, if I can Monday morning quarterback a bit, like Scott made the correct move. BLADE RUNNER is a certified cult classic, if not a classic, and DUNE is regarded as a stinker.

It looks like Lynch's association with DUNE didn't hurt his career either because Dino, because of his debt to Lynch for Lynch helming DUNE, funded a little film called BLUE VELVET, which like, BR, is certainly a cult classic, if not a bona fide classic.

quote:

ChrisFromAstoria posted:

BLADE RUNNER is a certified cult classic, if not a classic, and DUNE is regarded as a stinker.

While you are on solid ground as to how Dune (1984) was received and critically assessed, personally, I've felt it was much more convincing than the 2000 Cable remake and was actually an excellent sci fi adaptation of the movie considering the density of the source material. David Lynch captures well an off-world experience with a stylized set and costume design that really captured a human/alien atmosphere and epic/ancient kingdom mentality that Frank Herbert's novel provoked him my imagination.

The stylized evil was gorgeously and nausatingly fine (that were later copied in future movies). The richness of the regal court and the retro-appearance of the House of Atreides brought a sumptuous life the foreign/off-balance feeling of a completely different culture, time, and place. While I can understand why many critics have panned the script and dialogue, somewhere David Lynch's directing and the performances enabled the movie to rise above the sometimes mundane, stockiness of the scenes and strangely enough created a fantasy epic and seemed to fit the novel where I trully enjoyed this adapted version.

His brother is terrible... "Days of Thunder"

(goes to bathroom to vomit)

One-dimension strikes again, and with a vomit reflex??

True Romance.

How true... Your following me.

Ridley Scott is, along with David Fincher, the best A-List director to ever arise from the school of commercials/music videos, but he still suffers from the same limitations that almost all from that school possess...namely whatever his talents in creating look and mood (and in Scott's case they are truly immense) he is still at best just slightly above average with story.

My two biggest gripes with Scott, is like all commercial directors, he can't elevate a script (Hence the large number of clunkers Hannibal, Someone to Watch Over Me, Black Rain) and he can't direct action for s#^#%. Sure his action sequences are gritty, and epic looking, but go back and watch Gladiator, and watch how narratively empty the fight scenes are...just a bunch of flash and quick cuts, no narrative movement...then compare to the cheesier, far less gritty, but narratively superior Braveheart, or better, some of Speilbergs top efforts, like Saving Private Ryan, and watch how moment-to-moment engrossing those fight scenes are.

In response to Illiniq, I've really enjoyed some of Ridley's work, some of them brilliant in my mind. I did have a similar reaction though to Gladiator (2000) and Hannibal (2001) - I'm very biased towards the much superior Michael Mann's 1986 version entitled Manhunter. Yet it's hard to accept that some of his movies in terms of writing were not elevated by this direction including:

Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982) are considered two of the best science fiction movie of all time.

Thelma & Louise (1991) considered one of the most memorable female duo movie of all time - a break out movie.

Personally I thought G.I. Jane (1997) was a bold move and while it was panned by the critics and audience alike, it really did attempt I thought successfully to put women in the Marines on the map.

Black Hawk Down (2001) was totally riveting and one of the most impression war movies that I've seen.

Even his recent movie the 2003 Matchstick Men was a superlative crime drama with a great dramatically twisted ending.