The films of Ridley Scott
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The films of Ridley Scott
Let's have an intelligent discussion. What are your favorites? What did you hate? What gets a bad rap? Should he have won the Oscar for "Gladiator"?
I was looking at his IMDB I was surprised that for such a proflific, well known director - arguably one of the few that the public knows by name - he hasn't made that many classic movies - basically Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma and Louise are his only iconic films. He's also made a lot of forgettable films (A Good Year, Body of Lies, Matchstick Men) and some better-if-forgotten ones (Hannibal, GI Jane, Kingdom of Heaven).
by Anonymous
Gladiator would have been better if Meg Ryan had been in it.
by Anonymous
reply 1
04/13/2012
Love Thelma & Louise to death (I'm a gay male for what it's worth) but I have a feeling it's his "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" i.e. the odd "women" picture in their director's filmography. I liked Alien and Blade Runner and, as it happens Matchstick Men (the only film where I can stand Cage). Hated Hannibal. Could hardly care less about "Gladiator" either way but definitely not the best of his career.
by Anonymous
04/13/2012
His last strong film IMO was BLACK HAWK DOWN.
Other than that, I only like ALIEN (the best of the series still, I think) and THELMA & LOUISE.  Never got the love for BLADE RUNNER - the look of the film was impressive, but I found the film rather dreary and dull.
by Anonymous
reply 3
04/13/2012
I never miss his films, even when they are frightenly generic efforts like "Body of Lies" or "American Gangster". His sense of composition is flawless and he always has the best casts involved. Personally, I really enjoyed not only the classics like "Alien" and "Blade Runner", but I also have a soft spot for "Legend" and "Black Hawk Down".
by Anonymous
Gladiator is my favorite. Love it and watch it everytime it's on.
by Anonymous
reply 11
04/13/2012
Alien and Gladiator are in my top 6 movies. Blade Runner is good, but I didn't get the hype. I'd put it in my top 20.
Thelma and Louise is for the lesbians so I bow out of that one.
I have Kingdom of Heaven and will have to watch it again. Apparently for me it was forgettable.
The rest, meh.
I'd like to thank R7 for showing me a pic of old man ass in granny bloomers. *SLAP*
by Anonymous
reply 12
04/13/2012
'Kingdom of Heaven' is a decent film, and Orlando Bloom does okay in the central role, despite the desire of some queens on DL to pretend otherwise.
by Anonymous
reply 13
04/13/2012
A personal favorite is The Duellists, even if the casting is a bit off-kilter. Alien and Thelma & Louise are masterful films; parts of Gladiator and Black Hawk Down are damn close. Never got the love for Blade Runner.
by Anonymous
reply 27
04/15/2012
[quote]There are some of us who might say it was all downhill after The Duellists - simply an astounding debut film.
Don't be pretentious. Yes, the Duellists is a great film (many of us has seen it too), but Scott has excelled in different genres; it would be unfair to dismiss that quality he has as a director.
by Anonymous
04/15/2012
Absolutely love Thelma and Luise and Alien, also Legend.
He is pretty hit or miss. I couldn't stand Gladiator, not to mention The Good Year. Robin Hood was no masterpiece either. Basically he needs to stop making movies with Russel Crowe and I need to stop watching them.
by Anonymous
Legend always gets a bad rap.  It's a visually stunning film.
by Anonymous
reply 32
04/15/2012
If you're in the Dallas area, The Magnolia theater is having a Ridley Scott special in the lead-up to the release of "Prometheus"; already scheduled are "Legend" (5/22) and "Thelma & Louise" (5/29), with "Blade Runner" and "Alien" in the pipeline (they're hoping to show "Alien" the Tuesday before "Prometheus" opens).
(Also, before that, they're showing "Dr. No" (4/24), "Manhattan" (5/1), "Midnight Cowboy" (5/8) and "West Side Story" (5/15).)
by Anonymous
reply 33
04/17/2012
Agree, [R10], the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven is vastly superior to the cinema version. It allows it the grandeur it deserves. Even if Orlando Bloom still underwhelms.
by Anonymous
"Like the man he portrays, Bloom definitely carries his weight."
Leonard Maltin's review of 'Kingdom of Heaven'
by Anonymous
reply 35
04/18/2012
I couldnt watch much of Kingdom of Heaven, it was CGI's to death, as was Gladiator - no depth or substance at all, unlike those "real" epics of the 50s and 60s.
The Duellists was terrific as was Alien, but he is not really a director of substance and is only as good as his material, he has a good eye for images based on his advertising past. He is not a John Boorman or Richard Lester or a Losey or a Schlesinger.
by Anonymous
reply 36
04/18/2012
I remeber thinking when I saw Black Rain when it came that Kate Capshaw was miscast. She probably got the part through her Hollywood connections.
by Anonymous
reply 37
04/18/2012
Both 1492 and Legend are spectacular accomplishments. However, both could have used better scripts.  Alien still stands as one of the scariest films ever made. If you have an attention span, that is.
by Anonymous
OP, I know I will be there on several days.
Hopefully you will enjoy some of these films as well.
by Anonymous
04/26/2012
The Duelists: Solid if uninteresting.
Alien: Masterpiece, one of the greatest movies ever made. All of Scott's positives and none of his negatives.
Blade Runner: Still gets by as a classic despite being pretty flawed. The script and story are a mess, definitely some lost potential.
Legend: Interesting failure, far from terrible, but ultimately not good. Last thing worth watching he's done.
The rest: forget about it.
by Anonymous
07/03/2013
One more rating while I'm at it:
Prometheus: A complete abomination. By far one of the worst movies ever made, no redeeming factors to it.
Ridley Scott was a great talent who sold out.
by Anonymous
reply 44
07/03/2013
Worst movie:  Prometheus by a million miles.  Horrible script, plotting, dialog, acting (except from Michael Fassbender, who did an excellent job with the crap he was given)... worst characters, plot, etc.
It was beautiful, even gorgeous to look at, but insultingly stupid and awful.
"Prometheus" is to Alien, as "The Phantom Menace" is to the original Star Wars.
Legend isn't good, but I'm hard-pressed to explain WHY it fails.  Still, it's a distant (way distant) second to the failure of Prometheus.
Alien, Thelma & Louise, White Squall, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down are his best, imho.
The rest are lost in a sea of "good enough I guess, but ultimately not that memorable".
I think his record proves him to be rather wildly uneven.
by Anonymous
Prometheus in 15 Minutes. Way better than the film.
by Anonymous
reply 46
07/03/2013
I disagree that Prometheus looked good. No artistic value whatsoever. None of the moody grittiness of Alien. Just slick, facile, artificial, generic, and cliched. Scott's commercial background sucks all of the soul from most of his movies(after the first batch of good ones where it was an asset).
Prometheus is a horribly unimaginative looking movie with bad cinematography, typical of modern movies. Cinematography is in the pits these day. Just because it's slick and professional doesn't mean it's good. Scott hasn't made a good movie in 30 years, someone needs to stop him(and the rest of Hollywood while they're at it).
by Anonymous
reply 47
07/03/2013
Scott is planning on ruining Blade Runner too with a sequel. And his girlfriend is hideous too.
by Anonymous
reply 51
07/03/2013
His top movies have been mentioned and I agree with many of you. Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator - all are in the canon for good reason.
However, I'm also fascinated with his many failures. I loved Someone To Watch Over Me with Lorraine Bracco and Tom Berenger as a kid. It was on cable all the time and I remember fantasizing as a little homo about being protected by a hot cop.
And I think Hannibal had moments of pure brilliance, cinematically.
I still listen to the Legend soundtrack and rewatch the dance scene over and over. It is so beautiful and somewhat chilling. Legend also has really crazy stuff going on in the background in certain scenes if you look closely.
The Duellists is exquisitely shot. It almost consumes you.
And GI Jane is actually really entertaining with an almost unhinged Demi Moore chewing up the scenery. "Suck my dick!"
He is a brilliant gun for hire. But there is a coldness to his style. I still think Thelma and Louise is the only movie of his that had any true, effective emotional resonance to it. A total anomaly.
Anyway. I think overall his films are fascinating, as is his prodigious output. I look at him as a latter day Michael Curtiz or Raoul Walsh.
by Anonymous
reply 52
07/03/2013
The problem and the reason why his work seems cold is that it looks and feels too much like a fancy commercial for a product(surprise surprise). And he really doesn't seem to care much about story at all. Bad judge of scripts. The only time this wasn't a problem was in Alien, which felt very natural.
Some of the acting in Blade Runner is just weird and corny, including Rutger Hauer's overrated performance to some extent. I think that Scott is to blame mostly  and didn't directed the actors much.
by Anonymous
reply 53
07/03/2013
Prometheus amounts to being a major human rights violation if you ask me. Ridley knows he is just a hack making trash, drop the pretense Ridley.
by Anonymous