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In Reply to: England swings like a pendulum do - Brit directors posted by Harmonia on November 28, 2002 at 22:31:01:
Your analysis is pretty thorough, but you have missed some strong films that Ridley Scott made which include:Alien - One of the best horror/science fiction films of all time
Black Rain - very powerful film, well done
Thelma & Louise
Gladiator - super movie which I thought was fantastic from start to finish, have watched it several times. Like the sound bite used at the beginning from "Zulu" during opening battle scene, nice "tip-of-the-hat" to a great British film.
Black Hawk Down - incredible realismTo list only "The Duellists" & "Blade Runner" is not giving Ridley Scott the full credit he deserves.
Follow Ups:
I've seen them all. I didn't list them on purpose. Mentioning The Duellists and Blade Runner amongst the other director's films was praise indeed, and giving Scott more credit than many others here would.Ridley Scott makes very well crafted, highly popular commercial films. He has a strong visual style, acquired from his days as a commercial director/art director. Perhaps dues to this background, Scott tends to make glossy, good looking films, that are visually arresting and about as seep as a dime. The two I listed above are the closest he has gotten to "great" or "art" IMO.
I enjoyed Thelma and Louise a lot, Alien too (scared the heck outa me in theaters, a sci-fi classic fersher), even Gladiator (a one-time guilty pleasure). (I'm even looking forward, guardely, to Scott's new movie based on the Aubrey/Maturin series.) But "great", by any objective standard of film excellence, they are not. I love Blade Runner, but that doesn't put Scott into my list. It takes more than one or two films.
Black Rain, in fact, was dreadful. Black Hawk Down had me nearly leaving the theater.
I don't mind if you love Gladiator, we're all entitled to our own favorites. Just consider enlarging your horizons a bit if you're going to insist it's a "great" film.
"Entertaining" doesn't necessarily = "great". Some directors can do both, and more consistently. That's why they're in my list and Ridley Scott isn't.
He deserves complete oblivion... in my humble view, of course. :-)))))Of the bunch you mentined only the Duelists has some right for life, and even that due to two good performances, not directing.
Gladiator is at the TV soap level. To make such film in 2001 is travesty only justified by the desperate need to make money.
Unfortunately, most people can't stomach this self-obsessed stuff, what a director puts out when they think they're so good, everything they touch is gold. Same with most European movies, it's just not to North American taste. We need some action, we look to the future, don't wallow so much in our past personal experiences...sure it's trite, but at least it's not boring Euro-trite. [P.S. I'm not counting British directors as European...] I suppose this is obvious, since European films generally don't do well here. Deservedly so, IMO. Canadian films are too much like European films, as though it has to be weird to be "good". But then, I have never regarded film as art, strictly entertainment. It might have been art up until the '20's, but has been propaganda and entertainment ever since.
Those are all great movies, certainly IMO better than The Duellist (which I rate as about equal with Legend, the disc I just got to complete my RS collection). Talk about a versatile director re genres, much more so than some on "the list".
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