Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott (South Shields, November 30, 1937)

Son of Elizabeth and Colonel Francis Percy Scott, due to the  profession of his father, he was not very present in Scott’s childhood. After World War II, his family moves to Teeside

He studied at the Royal College of Art, where he helped establish the Film Department. He directed a short film in black and white entitled Boy and Bicycle, starring his younger brother Tony Scott and his father. In 1963 he got a job as a set designer in the BBC and worked in the series Out of the Unknown. In 1968, together with his brother Tony, he founded Ridley Scott Associates, with which they produce the TV seriesThe Hunger. During the seventies he directs television ads and participates with Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson and Hugh Johnson.

10 famous movies of Ridley Scott

1. The Duellists (1977)

The Opera Prima, which puts its name in the cinematographic environment. A story set in the beginnins  of the 19th century in Europe, which tells how a matter of honor between soldiers, who still maintained a romantic vision of this value among knights, can lead to a history of rivalry for decades.

It triumphed at the Cannes festival. The movie is the adaptation of a work by Joseph Conrad.

2. Alien (1979)

A masterpiece of science fiction films, with touches of Gothic terror that manages to recreate a tense atmosphere throughout the film. It would give rise to a whole saga, which would go through directors like James Cameron or David Fincher.

3. Blade Runner (1982)

With this movie he would continue in the field of science fiction that had given his worldwide recognition, directing another work considered as fundamental in this genre. His aesthetic has made him, according to some critics, a precursor of cyberpunk. It is developed in a very popular storyline, that of dystopian futures. It also contains dose of police thriller, being a mixture of genres.

4. Black Rain (1989)

In this film, Scott opts for an action thriller, a so called Buddy movie, in which two policemen with very different methods are forced to work together. It acquires a somehow different approach since it also shows us the clash between two culturally different worlds, the oriental and the western.

5. Thelma and Louise (1991)

On this occasion he tries to provide a different vision, a road movie where the main protagonists, contrary to the usual, will be two women. Something that used to happen only in choral films, with a greater emotional charge, where the roles of the protagonists responded in most cases were conditioned by clichés.

This time the protagonists do not run to seek the help of a hero if they are in danger, but defend themselves by their own means. The final scene also generated some controversy.

The movie won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

6. Gladiator (2000)

Possibly his best-known film so far in S. XXI and first participation with Russell Crowe, with which he has currently shot 5 films.

Set in the Rome of Marco Aurelio conceived as an epic drama, with a relative historical rigor, it is more a story of revenge, although it is used also to speak about the end of the Empire.

Russell Crowe won the Oscar for Best Main Actor, and the movie got the Best Movie award.

7. American Gangster (2007)

This time Scott travels to the 70s with the Vietnam War in the background, to tell the story of a criminal incarnated by Denzel Washington who faces a policeman who plays Russell Crowe.

Agile film, shot with an amazing rhythm and chemistry between the two protagonists.

8. Robin Hood (2010)

Another version of one of the mythical characters in the world of cinema, with Crowe again as the protagonist, accompanied by an actress with a great interpretive force: Cate Blanchett.

It gives the story a somewhat different interpretation than the classic one, since Robin will not be an English nobleman, but rather a soldier posing as one of the Knights of the Crusades. Nor in this case does the historical framework that Scott wants to endow the story shine for its precision.

9. The Martian (2015)

Back to science fiction, this time from a very different perspective to the saga of Alien, this movie is more a story of survival of a man alone in an unknown and inhospitable environment. A kind of Robinson Crusoe, but on Mars.

10. All the Money in the World (2018)

His latest film released to date, also part of real events for the storytelling.

It has also been very famous for the controversy of the change of actor. After accusations of abuse against Kevin Spacey, who played one of the lead roles, he was literally erased from the film, and Scott  filmed all his scenes with Christopher Plummer.