Great Scott

I was a little shocked yesterday that we’ve lost one of my favorite movie directors, Tony Scott.  It’s kind of strange but I feel like I’ve lost a friend even though we never met.  Although his brother Ridley Scott is the more famous of the two I’ve always liked Tony a lot better because I always thought he understood movie audiences (us) better.  You knew going into a Scott action flick you were going on a thrill ride with a heart.  He left us somewhat dramatically, jumping from a bridge in Los Angeles.  I’ve never condoned or even understood suicide and I’ll defer judgment until I learn more.  I’ve heard unsubstantiated rumors that he had inoperable brain cancer but his demons were his own and I’ll leave it at that.  My thoughts are with his family who hopefully understand more than we deserve to, my prayers are with them.  As I went down the list of his movies I was astounded by the quality and how many of these movies were amongst my favorites.  Although he is best known for Top Gun, that film is not even in his top ten for me .  Here are my five favorite Tonty Scott films.  One of the best movies ever made, True Romance, is usually credited to the writer, Quentin Tarantino, but Scott directed it and it was his vision up on the screen.  In Man on Fire, Scott elicited what I believe to be Denzel Washington’s best screen performance as Creasy, and that’s saying a lot.  The Last Boy Scout allowed Bruce Willis to move beyond just the action personae although he certainly delivered that as well.  In Enemy of the State, a superb suspense/action film, he got Will Smith to believe enough in himself as an actor that he held his own with Gene Hackman, no small task.  Finally Revenge is amongst Costner’s absolutely best performances.  The scenes between him and Anthony Quinn just crackle.  All of these movies had superb action but allowed you into the minds of the heroes/heroines enough to understand their motivation.  That’s not easy but Scott accomplished it in all of his movies.  The world, especially that part consigned to movie geeks such as myself, is a lot poorer today; diminished.

His Resume:

His Best Work