You may have heard the name (you better had if you’re on this site!), you more than likely will have seen at least one of his films. But do you know how extraordinary this man is? How much of a geek icon this man is? If no, then you’re about to get the education you need.
Ridley Scott’s career began in 1965, when he directed the short film “Boy and Bicycle” This was the first step into his incredible movie career. For the next four years, Scott directed TV, before returning to films with “The Troubleshooters” in 1969. Scott seemed to take a sabbatical from directing until 1977, when he directed “The Duellists” a wonderful example of what swashbuckling can do when it’s not being forced into green tights for another Robin Hood film. The Duellists earned Ridley Scott his first award at The Cannes Film Festival, with a unanimous vote for “Best First Work”, and earned him his second award the next year at the David di Donatello Awards, where he won “Best Director – Foreign Film” in a tie with Herbert Ross for “The Goodbye Girl”.
Ridley Scott’s next two films however, would prove to be the crown jewels in his career. 1977’s Alien, and 1982’s Blade Runner. Both films have been credited as two of the most influential science fiction films in history, as Doug Naylor (Red Dwarf) has often credited the films as being his main influence in set design etc.
Alien would go on to win Scott his first Oscar, as it won “Best Visual Effects”, admittedly, not the greatest award up for grabs at the Oscars, but it was a start, and as proven by the past, Sci-Fi and Fantasy films hardly ever win the awards they should win. But, Alien would still win Scott a “Best Director” award, as he won the Saturn Award for Best Director from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (USA).
Whilst Blade Runner is very often credited as being a lot of writer/director’s main influence, the film did poorly (awards wise). Some of this can be blamed on the lame “Hollywood, sunshine and lollipops” ending the studio forced Scott to add, as opposed to the darker, more grim ending he had favoured. Thankfully, we now have DVD, and the five disc special edition of Blade Runner with the original sucky ending, the various directors cuts, and the last and final definitive directors cut.
For the next 18 years, we weren’t to hear much from Ridley Scott, until 2000’s Gladiator, a somewhat highly story driven film, and (much ironically for a film named Gladiator), very little in ring gladiatorial combat. This made it (in my eyes at least) a bit of a disappointment, but it is far from a bad film. Scott’s next adventure would be Hannibal and the high regarded Black Hawk Down. Both films are highly intense films, which certainly mark out Ridley Scott as the directorial genius he is. Ridley Scott would disappear for some time from our cinema screens, until 2005’s frankly EPIC Kingdom Of Heaven, the story of a young knight (Orlando Bloom) leading the defence of Jerusalem against Saladin’s massive army. Sadly, as has often been the case in Scott’s career, despite the absolute genius and brilliance of Kingdom of Heaven, it gathered no wins at the awards ceremonies (Oscars, BAFTA‘s, Golden Globes).
