Category Archives: Blade Runner

Top 5: Ridley Scott Movies

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“Okay, Russell just don’t sing anymore.”
Ridley Scott has had one of the longest, most successful, and diverse careers of any modern director. He can hop between genres and themes with absolutely no problem. He takes his time between films so every time one comes out, it feels like an event, even if it turns out to be terrible (I’m looking at you, “Robin Hood”). 

“The Counselor,” directed by Scott and penned by Cormac McCarthy, comes out today. Reviews have been mixed so far, but I still look forward to seeing it. Basically, I will see any movie that has a third act filled with monologues as well as Javier Bardem dressed like Hunter S. Thompson.

After the jump, check out my five favorite Ridley Scott movies:


5. Gladiator

So far, this is the only film by Ridley Scott to win Best Picture. Unfortunately, it did not come with a Best Director prize as well. People like to rip on “Gladiator” nowadays. In fact, Roger Ebert called it the worst Best Picture winner ever. I will not join the hate party. “Gladiator” is a perfectly good sword-and-sandals epic, filled with as many terrific battle scenes as there are historical inaccuracies. This is sincerely the best acting work Russell Crowe has done, “Les Mis” singing notwithstanding. “Gladiator” is something of a minor classic now. Yelling “are you not entertained?” at humans and animals is still fun.

4. American Gangster

“American Gangster” doesn’t get the credit it deserves. It’s a great portrait of corruption, racial identity, and 1970s America. Scott gets some nearly flawless acting out of the likes of Denzel Washington and Josh Brolin, who are both than I ever could have imagined at playing villains. Play close attention to the ending: its a really memorable one.

3. Thelma & Louise

Ridley Scott is known more for handling epics. While there are many car chases in “Thelma & Louise,” you’d be surprised at what a human film it is. It’s a fine slice of Americana from an English director, with great performances from Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. Then comes the end, where you can’t help but feel both dread and exhilaration: no matter what, you just know the two of them can’t make it out in one piece. Never has doom felt so entertaining.


2. Blade Runner

It was a long, hard path for “Blade Runner” to raise to prominence, but it has truly earned its title as a cult masterpiece. Nearly every modern futuristic film can point to “Blade Runner” as a source of influence, whether or not those films based on Philip K. Dick novels as well. “Blade Runner” is a visual tour-de-force, Atari billboards notwithstanding. It is also Ridley Scott’s most thoughtful and philosophical film; Rutger Hauer’s final monologue (which was completely improvised) will haunt you for days. It only took about three different cuts (the original version is almost unwatchable) for “Blade Runner” to reach perfection.


1. Alien

“Alien” put Ridley Scott on the map, and its still his best film to date. Being alone in space is scary enough (a certain other film this year played off this idea), but then add in an alien that grows at an exponential rate. It hasn’t lost its touch after all of these years; “Alien” still has the power to scare the living crap out of me. Everything from Sigourney Weaver’s performance to the alien itself are now the stuff of cinematic legend. Plus, it spurned one of the greatest sequels of all time (“Aliens”). Without “Alien,” how would we know what it looks like when a baby alien bursts out of a man’s stomach? It’s gross, and adorable!

Runner Up: Prometheus

Minimalism: The New Way to Market a Movie

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Today, I want to talk not about a movie, but about a poster. Well actually, many posters.

The art form known as Minimalism has become a phenomenon on the interweb. It’s not new; artists have been using it for years. However, it’s been given a new use: movie posters.
The idea behind Minimalism is to create a work of art that takes a concept and strips it down to its most basic form. When something is stripped down to its most basic element, there is something strangely deeper that can be found in it. It would basically be saying so much by showing so little.
Some of the posters make a lot of sense. A lot of them involve a great knowledge of the film involved to truly understand. Take for example, one poster for “Inception.” It simply shows an outline of four of the main characters’ faces and their totem placed inside each of them. It is simple and effective. It also shows how each totem is psychologically linked to each character, objects of how their brains work.
Others are confusing, yet portray something so important to the movie. One of my favorites is the one for “The Deer Hunter.” It shows six circles. Five are empty, and one is shaded red. Even people who love the movie will be confused at first. Think. Think very hard. Yes, it is portraying a gun with one bullet in it, loaded for Russian Roulette. With this image, such a deep and complex film is boiled down to its most basic, yet most important idea. Who needs an image of helicopters flying through Vietnam when you can just have a picture of the barrel of a gun?
There are others in the spirit of the “Inception” poster. The “Blade Runner” poster has no epic image of futuristic Los Angeles. All it has is that little origami unicorn. The poster for “Inglourious Basterds” shows two hands holding up three fingers in different ways. It’s the German three and the English three. It’s yet another small detail that made a very big difference in this movie.
Some posters are even more thought provoking and even more creative. The pattern on “The Shining” poster is the carpeting of The Overlook Hotel. The “Titanic” poster is not just a white triangle, it’s that deadly iceberg. Some add on to certain movies as well. “The Godfather” poster shows the rest of the horse’s body without the head. That is, if you really wanted to know what a headless horse looked like.
At the moment, Minimalist posters are fan art. They are made by and for people who truly appreciate movies. Yet, I feel like this new art form has a bigger potential. Why not actually use Minimalist posters to market movies? They’re better and more original than most of the generic crap passed off as posters nowadays. As a marketing tool, movie posters should draw people into a movie with a curiosity factor. If someone sees a “Kill Bill” poster with nothing but footsteps, they might wonder, where do those footsteps lead?
But posters shouldn’t just be for marketing. A movie poster should serve the same purpose as an album cover. They should converse with the art, and emphasize a central purpose behind it. A poster of the incredible futuristic Los Angeles from “Blade Runner” might draw more attention, but that unicorn is much more important to the story. You could compare that to the cover of “London Calling.” It could’ve just been an image of London being caught in the middle of the apocalypse. While the simple image of Joe Strummer smashing a guitar may seem out of place, it’s really there to show the raw, unbridled power of true rock and roll that the album is partially a metaphor for.
That simple image of a mythical creature, or the inside of a gun are not the first things you’d expect to see on a good movie poster. But like that album cover, they show the strange, mesmerizing magic of truly amazing cinema. The poster is meant to encapsulate an entire film in one image. In so simple an image, so much more can be said.
I couldn’t find the “Inception” poster I was referring to earlier, but here is another cool one.