Intensified Research of Ridley Scott
Intensified Research on Ridley Scott
There have only been a handful of filmmakers who had been able to stand out from the crowd of great film personalities that ever flourished in Hollywood. These filmmakers may not be the ones who made the most popular film in the world or the ones who made the most critically acclaimed or commercially successful films yet. Instead, these people are the pioneers that proved how significant movies can become for popular culture by influencing almost a couple of decades of filmmaking and/or lifestyle choices. Works of this handful of filmmakers, hailed as classics or cult classics, has become the most followed or idolized movies since then. It is really remarkable that most of these works are still alive and readily influencing our conversations, actions, or pop culture references (such as The Godfather). But even fewer of those are still influencing modern cinemas and filmmakers. With his film noir experimentations (Blade Runner) and peculiar visual style, Ridley Scott has earned his spot among this class of directors by influencing the way modern filmmakers venturing into this genre.
Ranging from widely acclaimed popular movies such as The Martian and Gladiator to multi-genre neo noir films such as Blade Runner and Alien, the works of Ridley Scott belongs to a class of its own. Even though some of his works did not achieve the attention that one had initially hoped for (Blade Runner), unlike many movies that even received high accolades and commercial success at the time of its release, the significance of his movies did not fade away with time. That is, perhaps, the reason why Ridley Scott had found a special place in the heart of his critics and fanatics alike. His Blade Runner, which was at the time a box office failure and a subject of dissidence from critics, later went on to influence popular culture in a way that would go on to define film noir genre (usually attributed to 1940s to 1950s) in Hollywood. The densely layered imagining of a futuristic city in Blade Runner received wide accolades and appreciations worldwide . This film is currently considered a cult classic, whose critics and fanatics alike uphold the significance of its position as one of the landmark movies of the 80s.
But the director Ridley Scott did not ensure his run to become one of the greatest filmmakers of his time by just one movie. A series of movies that he made later (most recent one being The Martian) made significant revelations in both box office and in popular culture. His creative efforts in filmmaking have earned him the crown of being the crucial example of auteur theory in modern world. Auteur Theory was one of the most influential film theories that originated in 1950s, where its supporters believed that a film reflects the creativity of its director (who is assumed as the sole author of the film) than anyone else. Even though many scholars and critics that followed claimed that this view (a director being the sole author of a film) is erroneous and notwithstanding the modern studio culture, directors such as Ridley Scott have significantly strengthened the argument of Auteur Theory supporters.
The purpose of this work shall be to prove how Auteur Theory can be easily used to explain the level of creativity and visual aesthetics that the movies of Ridley Scott boast. To further prove this claim, we shall be looking farther into his classics such as Blade Runner and how he was able to influence the neo noir genre with this work. The brilliance with which he balanced the critical as well as commercial appeal in his movies such as The Martian and Gladiator shall also become a part of this study. But a complete analysis of Ridley Scott cannot be done by excluding his movies that did appeal well to the audiences or critics (Exodus: Gods and Kings). This is why a special analysis of what caused movies such as this fail in both box office and with the critics shall be analyzed too.
Literature Review
The first article reviewed was a journal entry by on Auteur Theory that was published in the International Journal of Advancements in Research and Technology. It highlights the principles that determine the class of art works that can be explained using this theory. The idea behind auteur theory is that the works of certain eminent creative artists often emanate a form of uniqueness caused by the characteristics of that particular artist. This is where the Auteur theory, wherein the author of a film is considered to be that one eminent artist, becomes significant. This theory got its basis from assessing the works of champions like Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, etc. They are often considered to be the sole author of their films. All of their movies reflect a particular view or taste of the filmmaker.
The report by on Blade Runner and its significance to the film noir genre is rather important in understanding how far the films of Ridley Scott have come to influence modern cinema. The characteristics that make a film belong to the film noir genre are given in detail in this report. They used the multi-generic construct approach to offer the spectators a viable structure with which they can review their primary focus, Blade Runner. It had helped this study in understanding the importance of Blade Runner in influencing modern age neo noir films.
The work by assumes that films are a work of art. The author ventures into a handful of movies, of which Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is an integral part, to understand the artists behind these art works. His concept is clearly chasing the roots of auteur theory. The idea that each work of art shall need a creative and talented artist behind it, which is the central theme of this work, is clearly in line with the concept of Auteur theory. But this report is not trying to support the postulates of Auteur theory. It is clearly trying to dispute the idea that a director is the sole author of a film. But he confirms that examples like the films of Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) are the reason why it is very hard to dispute the identity of its author and also auteur theory.
The report by has a detailed list of various approaches that can be used to do research in the particular field of media and cultural studies. This work can give us an insight into viable techniques that can be used for our study of Ridley Scott and how Auteur Theory can be applied in his case. Various approaches for cultural analysis that this report lists are 1.Political Economy; wherein the analysis considers media or cultural productions as the product of an industry than a creative work 2.Texts and Textual analysis; wherein textual analysis are applied to a series of cultural works (such as video, audio, or printed) 3.Sociological or Ethnographic Approaches; interviewing and observation 4.Multiple methods; a combination of any of the above methods
The book by gives a deep insight into the concepts of Auteur theory, its origin and implications. The author gives us a clear concept of what an auteur really means and who can be considered to belong to this concept. There is a brief introduction about the origin of Auteur theory in film criticism and also how it changed over time. The author indicates that modern movies can seldom be analyzed with Auteur theory. With the help of this book we can finally complete the in-depth analysis of Ridley Scott and the significance of Auteur theory in his works.
Methodology
For this particular research problem we shall be using the mixed methods approach wherein the three different approaches (of doing research in media and cultural works) can be integrated to give the best possible outcomes. There is yet another reason why this method can be the best suited in completing our research question. As outlined in the report by films are both an outcome of a commercial industry as well as a creative attempt of an artist. For auteur theory to work we shall have to see how far Ridley Scott’s works can be classified as the work of an artist while still being a commercial product. Even though Textual analysis shall be the primary analysis tool, an integration of the other two (political economy and ethnographic approach) might bring an advantage for solving our research problem. The major issue with using just one of any of these research tools is that it will only cover a single aspect of an art form. As an art form, films can never be confined to a single conclusion. The aesthetics of visuals in films and their creative appeal may change with the perspectives of the observer. In a similar way, one research tool shall only provide a single minded analysis of movies. Textual analysis, though considered as the most elaborate analysis method, is also subject to this limitation.
Ridley Scott and Alien
The 1979 action horror movie Alien is often considered the breakthrough film of Ridley Scott. Though his first work The Duellist won wide accolades and established him as a creative filmmaker (but had only limited commercial impact) it was Alien that brought his name into mainstream cinema. This movie is considered to be a rare embodiment of both horror and action genres. Perhaps, Alien was the first movie that advertised the creative influence of Ridley Scott on both the visual aesthetics and screenplay of his movies. The visual narrative of this movie was in complete contrast with the adventurous space tales told by George Lucas through his movie Star Wars. Through this movie Ridley Scott showed his spectators an entirely new visualization of life on another planet. Most often the horror element in this movie stands out from the adventures that the female protagonist is taken through. We can keep this movie as the key point to assess how far the later works of Ridley Scott has come to follow the same visual or narrative tone (textual analysis). This is the most critical point in assessing Ridley Scott as an auteur.
Ridley Scott as an Auteur
Most often critics of Ridley Scott as an Auteur argues that the dark tone and style of this movie can be attributed to the skills of the writer Dan O’Bannon whose other works such as Dark Star (1973) and The Long Tomorrow (comic) also had similar patterns in them . In a similar concept, the graphic designer of The Long Tomorrow (comic), Moebius (Jean Giraud), whose works greatly influenced the visual style of Blade Runner, had also designed the space suits for the movie Alien. These facts are suffice to argue that the similarities between Alien and Blade Runner can also be attributed to the writers and designers who worked for these movies and not Ridley Scott alone.
But how far can the designers control the visual style or the writers control the narrative style of a movie? It can be seen from many different examples that Ridley Scott was the ultimate puppet master who controlled many elements of his movies that would later become the definition of Ridley Scott’s movies. The essay by has indicated a few of these examples. The best example to dispute the claim the writers have over the character sketch in Scott’s movies, as indicated by , is the strength of female leads in them.
If one were to analyze the works of Ridley Scott deeply, one will realize that it is not surprising to know one of Hollywood’s most illustrious female protagonists, Ellen Ripley, was born in his first attempt at commercial film, Alien. This character would go on to appear in three more of Alien films, each time displaying the same strength as in the previous one. The definition of the strength and presence of female roles (such as Ellen Ripley in Alien) had reappeared in many of his later movies; the best example of it being his comeback movie Thelma and Louis. The fight for freedom by women in a patriarchal society (of Thelma and Louis) is rather similar to the bold and adventurous Ripley in Alien.
Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner also had a similar take on women. Though not as obvious as Thelma and Louis, Blade Runner also displays the female dominance over male in a subtle way. In this movie, the climatic fight scene between the women is simply watched over from a distance by the male lead . This disputes the claim that the writers who wrote Ridley Scott’s movies were the sole reason for such recurring character sketches in his movies. Even though Dan O’Bannon had a part to do with the dark setting of Alien, Ridley Scott was the main reason why Ellen Ripley was stronger than any female protagonists that had appeared in movies up until then.
The visual narrative of Ridley Scott can also be easily recognized from his later movies. Even though film noir did not reappear in his post millennial movies, they too had the peculiar wide angled shots and dark backgrounds that define the auteur in him; the best example being the box office epic, Gladiator. This movie also saw the re-emergence of historical dramas into mainstream cinema. One could easily note the darkness lurking throughout this movie even throughout the light of day. Ridley Scott utilizes shadows and wide shots that hinder light to give this dark appearance throughout. It can be easily noted from the fight scene in the arena where, even during the day, the shots are often shrouded in darkness as the cameras are rotating about to show us only this one single angle. Yet another significant example of this shrouding is seen in a shot of the training centre of Gladiators where the sun’s shadow completely covers the training arena and only reveals its edge and beyond where freedom awaits. All of these are closely in line with his previous movies where an excess of darkness was the usual identity of his films.
The article by on Ridley Scott’s usage of visual themes in his commercials as well as movies throws an insight into the similarity in the colours used in his movies and commercials. Scott’s biggest commercial of the 70s was a bicycle ad that was particularly noted for its conspicuous style. His movies had also emanated a similar obvious narrative style where the story does not offer any subtlety to the viewers. From the dark tone of his movies, the story, its outline, and core underlying theme, all are significantly obvious. This can be particularly observed in his latest commercial success, The Martian. The Martian has a similar trademark dark visual style of Scott’s visual style. But this movie is also disconcertingly simple.
It is said that Scott, because of his background in art direction, takes on the art department of his movies and micromanages the designs in his own way . He believed in his involvement with every aspect of filmmaking. During the set of Blade Runner, he would go into the art department, make suggestions or indicate his approval, without bothering for the proper hierarchy. Scott himself had said in a documentary that he will get what he want and if everyone is with him then great and otherwise it’s too bad. This is the best example of Scott treating his films as a director centric art form, proving the auteur in him.
Conclusion
Scott’s success in advertisements was attributed to his visual style and narrative. But the same attributes which made him a success in commercials, failed him many times as a filmmaker . His works usually were criticized for over emphasis on visual style than the story itself. Even the movies that found commercial success later lost their appeal due to this lacking. It has often been noted that Scott forgoes storyline to incorporate visual drama into his movies. This is one of the greatest flaws that Scott ever had. But it is safe to say that Scott belongs to the category of Auteur filmmakers that had found success in modern culture too. His visual style, narrative, strong female characters, and the composition of scenes are unique and peculiar to him only. Even though he hasn’t had a celebrated movie career as that of the other greats occupying high positions in the auteur chair, Ridley Scott is just as great in his uniqueness (art direction and visual styling) as these great filmmakers. He is definitely worthy to be called the auteur of his movies. And he is definitely the auteur of his movies.
References
Chaudhari, A., 2013. Auteur Theory and its Implications. International Journal of Advancements in Research and Technology, pp.77-89.
Doll, S., 2016. Ridley Scott. [Online] Available at: http://www.filmreference.com/Directors-Sc-St/Scott-Ridley.html [Accessed 5 May 2016].
Doll, S. & Faller, G., 2016. Blade Runner and Genre: Film Noir and Science Fiction. [Online] Available at: http://faculty.wiu.edu/D-Banash/eng395/bladerunner [Accessed 4 May 2016].
Kerman, J.B., 1997. Technology and Politics in Blade Runner Dystopia. In J.B. Kerman, ed. Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. 2nd ed. Blowling Green State University Press. pp.17-24.
King, P., 2001. Film as Artistless Art. [Online] Available at: https://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/presentations/Film-Art.pdf [Accessed 4 May 2016].
Lacey, N., 2012. Ridlely Scott as an Auteur. [Online] Available at: https://laceysfilms.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/ridley-scott-as-an-auteur/ [Accessed 4 May 2016].
Pickering, M., 2008. Research Methods for Cultural Studies. Research. Edinbergh: Edinbergh University Press Edinbergh University.
Razov, V., 2010. Connection Ridley Scott's Colour Schemes from his commercials to his films. [Online] Available at: www.ifc.com/2010/05/ridley-scott [Accessed 5 May 2016].
Stam, R., 2016. The Cult of the Auteur. In R. Stam, ed. Film Theory: An Introduction. New York: Blackwell Publications. pp.82-93.
Tregde, D., 2013. A Case Study on Film Authorship: Exploring the Theoretical and Practical Sides in Film Production. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 4(2), pp.5-15.
