Ridley Scott, Underachiever Extraordinaire! (1 Viewer)

[AaronP]

ok, in the last 2 years, Ridley Scott has come out with

Gladiator

Hannibal

Black Hawk Down

IMO these were all very good movies, however, I think that all of em were not nearly as good as they could have been. It was like they were each missing something special, that magical intangible thing that differentiates a good movie from a great one. I can't put my finger on it exactly.

I guess a sports analogy would be best. Imagine Ridley Scott was the St. Louis Rams. He's had the best material to work with, and he's been very successful, however he should have been able to do more. I don't know, it's just a feeling I have.

What do you guys think?

 

[AaronP]

dyslexic AaronP! I meant to put Ridley Scott's name first in the title! WOW, I must be tired. My in my brain I had his name in front, but what I typed came out the other way!

 

[Josh_Hill]

Ridley Scott's da man! And thats all I got to say about that!

 

[AaronP]

thanks for the insightful reply bro!

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I think Ridley Scott's period of underachievment was between 1982 to 2000 (OK, I have a slight soft spot for Black Rain and Thelma & Louise, so my premise is a little shaky). He is on a rare hot streak career-wise, IMHO. Hannibal has been growing on me lately and even before, I always liked the parts of the film set in Italy. My only beef with his recent films is that his fondness for fast cutting coupled with high shutter speeds has made me feel ill during some of his action sequences.
Regards,

 

[Michael Reuben]

Aaron, I edited your header. I also took the liberty of correcting the spelling.
M.

 

[Josh_Hill]

thanks for the insightful reply bro!

No prob, anytime!

 

[Alex Spindler]

I have th opposite reaction. I think he's managed to take films that could well end up forgettable fluff and turned out some remarkable films. Heck, I liked all three of those films immensely. Considering how much people hated the source material for Hannibal, I would have to say that he turned in an beautiful film. And Gladiator did happen to get the Oscar. Now that isn't to say that it will be held in high regard years for now or instead lumped in with the "what was the Academy thinking?" category (and I'm sure some of you are saying that now ). But I think he's pretty well consistent in his ability to provide blockbusters with substance and style.

 

[Rain]

Since you asked, I personally think that Ridley Scott is an overrated hack.

While I didn't think that Gladiator was downright terrible, it was certainly nothing to write home about. Best Picture? Please, not by a long shot.

As for Hannibal, I consider it to be in the top 10 worst movies I've ever seen in my life. Absolute drivel.

I refuse to risk the price of a ticket on Black Hawk Down.

That being said, I greatly admire one (and only one) of Scott's films, that being Thelma and Louise. But that film is so uncharacteristic of Scott's typical work (characters are actually developed in more than one dimension and gross-out scenes are completely avoided) that I'm not sure I really believe he directed it.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Rain, if Ridley Scott had done nothing for the past 25 years, his place in cinema history would be assured on the strength of Alien and Blade Runner alone. The influence of each of those two films on the look and style of films that came afterward is undeniable.

M.

 

[Rain]

...his place in cinema history would be assured on the strength of Alien and Blade Runner alone...

Rarely have two films been as overrated as those two.

I don't think Alien has anything to boast about as far as trendsetting style. It's basically an old, old horror movie formula wherby the entire cast is picked off one at a time in the most gory fashion imaginable.

Blade Runner has always been a mystery to me. I don't quite understand what people see in this one. That being said, if you want to talk about a trendsetting look to the film, credit there probably belongs to more to the cinematographer and set designer than to Scott.

I have no argument that Scott surrounds himself with good technical people. Even Hannibal is a good looking film.

 

[Bill J]

I agree with Rain, Alien and Blade Runner are very overrated.

I have no argument that Scott surrounds himself with good technical people.

That is usually true, but I hated the visual effects and cinematography of Gladiator.

I still think that Ridley Scott is one of the most overrated filmmakers of all time. The only film I actually liked was Black Hawk Down.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Quote:

If you think that cinematographers and set designers just pull these things together without a director leading the way, you and I have a different understanding of filmmaking. And Scott is well-known, and acknowledged by the people who work with him, for providing a strong vision of how a film's visuals should be designed to tell the story.
M.

 

[Rain]

And Scott is well-known, and acknowledged by the people who work with him, for providing a strong vision of how a film's visuals should be designed to tell the story.

Perhaps he needs to spend more time paying attention to the performances and the scripts, since those are the areas in which his films are most lacking.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think a good case could be made that Ridley Scott is more of a style over substance director, but he's more subtle, than the more bombastic directors (Michael Bay), and since he's got the art background, the visual sense within his films are very well done. When you see a Ridley Scott film, you do get immersed in the universe which the film takes place. The stumbling comes from getting the emotional content conveyed to the viewer with most of the stories in his films. Perhaps he doesn't go far enough in peeling away the entire onion to get his point across.

But he's not a hack director.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Perhaps he needs to spend more time paying attention to the performances and the scripts, since those are the areas in which his films are most lacking.

Giving short shrift to performance has been a common criticism against Scott throughout his career. That being said, I can't find fault with the quality of acting in his most recent films. Even the early films have standout performances, e.g., Sigourney Weaver, whose performance in Alien made her a star.

As for choosing scripts, that's a much bigger issue, and one that affects every director.

M.

 

[Rain]

That being said, I can't find fault with the quality of acting in his most recent films.

So you thought Russell Crowe deserved the Oscar for Gladiator? You didn't find Joaquin Phoenix downright terrible? You didn't think that Hopkins was hamming it up beyond belief (and beyond being entertaining) in Hannibal? You didn't find Julianne Moore's performance in the same film to be the worst of her career and a glaring reminder of how good Foster was in The Silence of the Lambs?
Guess it's just me then.
I'll bring up Thelma and Louise again because I think the performances in that film are phenomenal. Did he really direct it?

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I'm not a huge Ridley fan, but with the notable exception of "Legend", I have not noticed a pattern of bad performances in his films. His biggest weakness I have observed is a tendency to overdesign and to seemingly trust his editorial crew more than his performers (paging Baz Luhrmann ), but I have liked his most recent films to varying degrees.
Regards,

 

[Andy Sheets]

I think a good case could be made that Ridley Scott is more of a style over substance director, but he's more subtle, than the more bombastic directors (Michael Bay), and since he's got the art background, the visual sense within his films are very well done. When you see a Ridley Scott film, you do get immersed in the universe which the film takes place.

That's pretty much my take on his movies. I'd go as far as to say that Scott is so exacting in how he constructs a particular world that the style transcends and becomes the substance of the film. I mean, Black Hawk Down isn't very complex but it feels so fargin' real that it's like a battering ram smashing into your guts, which is more than I can say for a lot of good war films.

 

[Jeff Ashforth]

If he's a hack, he's a self-admitted hack. He basically confessed to stealing the look of his "Gladiator" action sequences from "Saving Private Ryan" in the audio commentary for Gladiator.