Ridley Scott is a director that over the course of an almost 50-year career has had a hand in almost every genre imaginable, and has often redefined some of them along the way. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Action, Epic, Crime, Drama, Thriller, and Comedy, the helmer has done it all. With his iconic visuals and gifts for storytelling, Ridley has proven to be a remarkable force behind the camera.
In June of 2012, Ridley Scott will re-enter the sci-fi genre with Prometheus - a film that is shrouded in secrecy but is rumoured to be a prequel of some fashion to his suspense busting 1979 film Alien. Science-fiction and Fantasy is where the cinematic visionary truly made his mark in the early stages of his career, leaving a handful of significant movies that redefined the genres.
A Gasp-Inducing Breakthrough
Ridley Scott began his directorial career by dabbling in television during the 1960's and made his feature film debut with 1977's Napoleonic period piece The Duellists, starring Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine. But the film that would unquestionably break the creative filmmaker out among industry tongues was his slow-burning sci-fi/horror masterpiece simply titled Alien, a project he entered after original Director Walter Hill pulled out.
Set in a far future, a mining ship is called into a mysterious investigative mission when it picks up a signal on a remote planet. As the crew touches down and finds a derelict spacecraft as the source, they inadvertently come into contact with an alien life form that grafts itself to one of their own. What ensues is a terror tale like no other as another creature is spawned from the infected host and begins to systematically wipe out the crew aboard the ship one-by-one.
Alien has been long considered a suspense masterpiece, and for good reason. The film is methodically paced and searingly breathtaking with suspense as it takes it's time playing with its audience. There is one sequence in particular that shocked viewers in a way that had not been done since 1973's The Exorcist, when the alien creature breaks through the chest of its first victim without warning during a dinner scene. Scott performed all of the hand-held camera work himself on the set for the entire movie and was able to get the initial budget doubled on the strength of his gifted storyboards.
The film also set-up a recurring theme of resilient and tough lead female-heroines in his films, with Sigourney Weaver's Lt. Ripley struggling as the last crewmember to survive. The film was so successful that it spawned three sequels (five counting shared screen time with the Predator series) to become a bonafide franchise that would go on to mold other filmmaking careers with the likes of James Cameron and David Fincher.
From Aliens to Human Replicants
Although the Alien shoot was tough, Scott endured much more conflict and friction with his sci-fi follow-up Blade Runner in 1982. Scott came on board this project after seeing a revised script and his involvement with another sci-fi epic, Dune, had stalled. Runner refers to a cop that specifically handles terminating human 'replicants' - clones with fixed lifespans who work outside of Earth, but seek to escape and hide among the human population in the year 2019. Harrsion Ford plays Rick Deckard, a blade runner forced to come out of retirement for an assignment.
Although it failed to make its mark at the box-office, Blade Runner slowly generated a cult status as a great sci-fi film over the years thanks to Scott's Director's Cut version of the movie that was released on video. During shooting, Scott and Ford developed a rocky working relationship and the studio ultimately stepped in and made changes to the ending of the film - which included a wonky closing narration by Ford's character. This led to a trend among many of Scott's films to receive expanded cuts on home video including Alien, Legend, Kingdom Of Heaven, Robin Hood, and Gladiator.
From Sci-Fi to Pure Fantasy
Scott would follow up Blade Runner by working with another major star on the rise in Tom Cruise with 1985's Legend, an almost purely fantasy film about a forest-dwelling scrapper who must save a princess from an evil horned figure known as The Lord Of Darkness who is bent on creating eternal night by eradicating all the unicorns in the land.
Scott was inspired to create Legend by viewing films like 1946's Beauty & The Beast and Disney animated classics like Fantasia. Filming originally began in 1982 and production went through many trials including nearby set fires that prevented its release for three years in 1985. With lush cinematography and fantastical make-up effects, Scott created a mystical world on film that would pave the way for other projects like The Lord Of The Rings and make them reputable.
After so many projects with vast imagery and creative concepts, Scott then made the decision to change gears in his career and explore other genres of interest, beginning with hard-boiled crime fiction.
Sources:
- Alien. Dir. Ridley Scott. Perf. Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, John Hurt. 20th Century Fox. 1979. Running Time: 117 mins.
- Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. Perf. Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah. Warner Bros. 1982. Running Time: 117 mins.
- Legend. Dir. Ridley Scott. Perf. Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry. Universal Pictures. 1985. Running Time: 94 mins
Ryan Young - Ryan Young is a Film and Sports article/review writer, based in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada.
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