Teen Movie Critic
Ridley Scott
July 8, 1996
Scott was born in Northumberland, England in 1939. He is known mainly for directing films that have a down-and-dirty quality. Not to mention fantastic visuals! In the 1960's, he worked as a set designer at the BBC (British Broadcasting Company). A great deal of his work with the BBC would influence his set design in his later films. The first feature he directed was the 1977 period piece, The Duellists. This film garnered the Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival. His next film was the influential horror film, Alien (1979). The movie gained amazing box-office, and made a star out of Sigourney Weaver.
He followed that up with the cult classic Blade Runner (1982). Based on a Philip K. Dick story, this is most likely Scott's most intense film to date. In the years after Blade Runner, he's followed up with a trio of visually stunning, but mostly uninteresting, film fare:
- Legend (1985), a weak story, centered around a fairy tale universe.
- Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), a finely acted but poorly scripted suspense thriller.
- Black Rain (1989), though it was Scott's biggest hit since Alien, it had a hideously bad storyline and a idiotic romantic subplot.
He bounced back with his highly controversial (and highly entertaining) Thelma and Louise (1991). This is probably his most commercially succesful film so far. He hasn't been so lucky with his overlong and boring 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), a tribute to the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' landing. His recent sea tale, White Squall (1996), also did poorly at the box office. It seems that, although Scott is perfect when it comes to the visual aspects of his movies, he still has to work on emphasizing characters and plots.
My rating on a scale of 1 to 10: 7
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