Ridley Scott

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

Career

Background

Scott grew up in an Army family meaning that for most of his early life his father — an officer in the Royal Engineering Corps — was absent. Ridley's older brother, Frank, joined the Merchant Navy when he was still young and the pair had little contact. After the war the Scott family moved to the north-east of England and then settled in Teesside. He studied there, from 1954 to 1958, at the West Hartlepool College of Art, graduating with a Diploma in Design. He was to progress to an M.A. in graphic design at London's Royal College of Art from 1960 to 1962. 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, Boy and Bicycle, starring his younger brother, Tony Scott, and his father. The film's main visual elements would become features of Scott's later work. After graduation in 1963 he secured a traineeship as a set designer with the BBC, leading him to work on the popular television police series Z-Cars and the science fiction series Out of the Unknown. 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. At the BBC, Scott was placed into a directing training programme and before he left the corporation had directed episodes of Z-Cars, its spin-off, Softly Softly and Adam Adamant Lives.

Early work

Scott quit the BBC in 1968 and established an advertising company, Ridley Scott Associates, working with Sir Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson, Hugh Johnson and employing his younger brother, Tony. Having cut his teeth on UK television commercials in the 1970s — most notably the 1974 Hovis advert, "Bike Round" (New World Symphony), which was filmed in Shaftesbury — he graduated to Hollywood, where he produced and directed a number of top box office films. His first feature, The Duellists, was produced in Europe and won a jury medal at the Cannes Film Festival but made limited impact in the US.

Alien

Scott's disappointment with The Duellists was compounded by the success being enjoyed by Alan Parker with American-backed films — admitting he was "ill for a week" with envy. Scott had originally planned to next adapt an opera, Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Iseult) but after seeing A New Hope, 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 that would give him international recognition. It has become widely accepted that the latter, along with his other sci-fi achievement, Blade Runner, are considered among some of the finest movies ever made in the genre. While Ridley Scott would not direct the three Alien sequels, the female action hero Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), whom he depicted in the first film, would become a cinematic icon. Scott was involved in the 2003 restoration and re-release of the film including media interviews for its promotion. At this time Scott indicated that he had been in discussions to make the fifth and final film in the Alien franchise.

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), following the sudden death of his brother Frank. Starring Harrison Ford and featuring an acclaimed soundtrack by Vangelis, Blade Runner was a flop when released to theatres in 1982, and was pulled shortly thereafter. However, it would eventually achieve cult status through re-issue on television and through home video. Scott's notes were used by Warner Brothers to create a rushed director's cut in 1991 which removed the voiceovers and modified the ending. Some believe this to be a vast improvement — however, others feel the original is 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. Scott personally supervised a digitally restored Blade Runner and approved the Final Cut to be released in 2007.

"1984" Apple Macintosh commercial

In 1984, Apple Computer launched the Macintosh. Its debut was announced by a single broadcast of the now famous (television commercial)|$1.5 million commercial" target="_blank" >^*, based on George Orwell's 1984, and directed by Ridley 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 & Louise

Thelma & 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. Scott's next project was the independent movie Conquest of Paradise, a visually striking take on the story of Christopher Columbus, yet usually considered to be his most slowly paced 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. Also in 1995, the two brothers purchased a controlling interest in Shepperton Studios that was later merged with Pinewood Studios.

Gladiator and beyond

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. Black Hawk Down (2001) further re-established Scott's position as both a critically and financially successful film maker and went on to earn two Oscars.

In 2005, the director made 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. 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. Unhappy with the theatrical version of the film (which he blamed on paying too much attention to the opinions of preview audiences), Scott has supervised a director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven, for release on DVD.^* In a recent interview, when asked if he was against the practice in general, Scott had this to say on the subject of previews:

"It depends who's in the driving seat. If you've got a lunatic doing my job, then you need to preview. But a good director should be experienced enough to judge what he thinks is the correct version to go out into the cinema."Total Film magazine, July 2006: 'Three hours, eight minutes. It's beautiful.' (Interview to promote Kingdom of Heaven: The Director's Cut)

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 film is in post-production status and awaiting release.

Future projects include Shadow Divers for 2007 and the often rumoured Penetration (production notes about it are still unknown). Scott is currently in talks for yet another teaming up with Russell Crowe for the movie American Gangster. If signed, Scott would work for the first time with actor Denzel Washington.

Currently five 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 an action sequence, which is characterised by many rapid edits. Prime examples of this technique are Alien and Blade Runner. The critic Sheila Benson went so far as to call the latter "Blade Crawler" in the LA Times, "because it's so damn slow." Another trademark is his use of sound or music to build tension, as seen in Alien with hissing steam, beeping computers and the noise of the machinery in the space ship.

Awards

Scott has been nominated for three 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 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, featured on a 2002 director's cut that is closer to Scott's original vision.

Actors who have worked with Scott often consider that he puts more emphasis on the sets or lining up shots than with them. Such criticisms have come from 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 in an interview with Brmovie.com, stating that Scott's relationship with his actors has improved considerably over the years.//www.brmovie.com/Articles/Sammon_Interview_11.htm

Trademarks

Although Scott is often known for his painterly directorial style, other trademarks include:

Strong female characters. Some speculate that his being raised by a single parent, his mother, could be the cause.
Military and officer classes as characters reflecting his father's career.
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 prefers a more streamlined approach (just him and the casting director).
Likes to work with actors who have a strong theatre background and/or drama school graduates.
An admirer of Stanley Kubrick from early in his development. For his entry for the BBC traineeship Scott remade Paths of Glory as a short film.
Like Stanley Kubrick, Scott is known for repeating the takes by the double digits. This was more evident on Blade Runner: the crew nicknamed the movie "Blood Runner" because of this.
Often makes notable use of classical music (the Hovis advertisements, Someone to Watch Over Me). Worked intermittently on the project of a film adaptation of the opera Tristan und Isolde beginning in 1976.
Extensive use of fans and fanlike objects (in Blade Runner and Black Rain). Fans are also used in Hannibal, but for the purposes of symbolism.
Extensive use of smoke (in Alien, Blade Runner and Black Rain), for visual aesthetic purposes: Scott sometimes takes hours to set up one scene.
Consistency in his choice of composers, using the late Jerry Goldsmith (Alien and Legend), Vangelis (Blade Runner and 1492: Conquest of Paradise) or Hans Zimmer (Black Rain, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down and Matchstick Men). Scott has also twice used songs by Sting during the film credits ("Valparaiso" for White Squall and "Someone to Watch Over Me" for the movie of the same title).
He is usually considered the "father" of the director's cut. Scott was one of the first to use the description for the 1992 re-release of Blade Runner (other such films existed, but were either small fan-oriented versions that carried the name "Special Edition" or were forcefully edited by the studio). The positive result of the Blade Runner DC has encouraged Scott to re-cut several of his movies that were flops at the time of their release (such as Legend and Kingdom of Heaven) with the same positive results. Today the practice is commonplace within the movie industry.

DVD

Scott is known for his enthusiasm for the DVD format, providing audio commentaries and interviews for all his films wherever possible. In the July 2006 issue of Total Film magazine, he stated:

"After all the work we go through, to have it run in the cinema and then disappear forever is a great pity. To give the film added life is really cool for both those who missed it and those who really loved it."

Trivia

Russell Crowe nicknamed Scott "The Admiral of the Fleet" during production of Gladiator. He still sometimes refers to the director as "The Admiral".
In contrast, he was nicknamed "Guvnor" in the famous t-shirt fight of the Blade Runner production. Several crew members started to wear t-shirts displaying "Yes Guvnor, my ass" and "Will Rogers never met Ridley Scott" mainly because of the way that Scott directed his first American crew, which was considered too harsh by its standards.

Filmography

Upcoming films

Shadow Divers (2007)
American Gangster (2007)
A Good Year (2006): finished, rumoured to be released in November for Oscar consideration.

Released films

All the Invisible Children (a.k.a. Take 7) (2006)
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Matchstick Men (2003)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Hannibal (2001)
Gladiator (2000)
G.I. Jane (1997)
White Squall (1996)
1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Black Rain (1989)
Someone to Watch Over Me (1987)
Legend (1985)
Blade Runner (1982)
Alien (1979)
The Duellists (1977)
Boy and Bicycle (1965)

External links

References

1937 births | Living people | British film directors | British film producers | Tyne and Wear

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