i wondered if it might not be something like this :’(
Yeah, that makes more sense (if that even makes sense to say) :( Still, a sad day and a sad time for his family.
Yeah, my first thought when I heard about it was something along those lines.
Richard Kelly, who wrote the screenplay for Scott’s Domino:
”Working with Tony Scott was like a glorious road trip to Vegas on desert back roads, a wild man behind the wheel, grinning . .. I felt safe. "
Duncan Jones: "Just heard about Tony Scott news. Horrible … Tony was a truly lovely man who took me under his wing & ignited my passion to make films. "
I can’t believe there won’t be another Tony Scott movie. :P
Evidently, some reports are saying that he might have had inoperable brain cancer. It doesn’t make it any better for his family and the fans.
Compared to the newer crop of slam bang action guys, Tony Scott was the master. Getting better actors like Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman was a tribute to his abilities.
This in no way makes it less tragic, but I understand now why he did this. If I were diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer, I’d take my own life as well rather than continue suffering and eventually die an agonizing death from what is possibly the worst form of cancer. Since Tony Scott directed some of the biggest action movies, I suppose he wanted to go out with a bang, which would explain the method of suicide he chose. I wish he were alive and healthy, but I’m glad he doesn’t have to suffer with the cancer anymore.
Compared to the newer crop of slam bang action guys, Tony Scott was the master. Getting better actors like Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman was a tribute to his abilities.
Why should Michael Bay hire name actors who’ll want more money (and points) when he can blow it on a few more bombs blowing cars full of jet fuel into the air and send a few more shots of hyperkinetic CGI to the render farms?
Tony Scott did more with a moving train than Bay has done since “The Rock”.
The Hunger is still one of the best vampire films ever made. If he had only made that one film it would still merit our respect. Too bad the critics did not like The Hunger, if it had gotten better reviews may be he would had made other kind of films. Beverly Hills Cop 2 is also a much better movie than it deserved to be thanks to him.
The fact that he has been fighting with a disease has made this much sadder. Makes me think about Claude Jutra realizing that he had Alzheimer’s
Who wants to die, not only in pain, but with awareness of failing faculties?
And people keep mentioning flicks he made that I was either unaware or had forgotten that he had done.
It’s interesting with Scott, he pretty much created the Bruckenheimer/Simpson product (after a little R&D by Paul Schrader, Michael Mann, &Adrian Lyne), sustained and developed it for about a decade, then eventually transcended it altogether.
Sad news whenever someone commits suicide.
I’ve seen one film of his I can stand, and that is True Romance.
I’m sorry, but I cannot lie about the fact that I feel everything else I’ve seen by him is shit.
It’s just like when that guy from Milli Vanilli committed suicide. It’s tragic, but that doesn’t change how I feel about the person’s artistic talent or lack thereof.
I wrote something about Scott tonight for my website. I don’t want to be trolling for hits, so I’ll just post the piece here.
I have no idea what to say in this situation. Last night, I came home from a fun night on the town and logged into Twitter, completely unprepared for the awful news I was about to receive. Tony Scott, the 68-year-old director of such blockbusters as Top Gun, True Romance, and Crimson Tide, committed suicide by leaping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California.
Scott managed to avoiding getting caught in the shadow of his brother, Alien helmer Ridley Scott, by crafting his own recognizable style. His work had a polarizing reception among critics, but he was beloved by audiences for his slick, aggressive, and immediately recognizable directorial style that became massively influential to a generation of filmmakers. Filmmakers such as Joe Carnahan (The Grey) and Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), both of whom took to Twitter last night to share poignant and highly personal memories of Scott.
“After Tony saw ‘The Grey‘ I got this call, that familiar rasp. ‘Joe, It’s Tone, fuckin’ movie’s great man, don’t let ‘em fuck it up, yeah?’ Carnahan tweeted, one of a series of memories the director shared. “Tony GAVE me my commercial career at a time when when the marquee should’ve said: “Films by Tony Scott, John Woo & Who The Fuck Is That Guy.”
“Working with Tony Scott was like a glorious road trip to Vegas on desert back roads, a wild man behind the wheel, grinning. I felt safe,” said Kelly. Scott directed Kelly’s screenplay Domino, starring Keira Knightley, which has garnered a cult following since its initial release.
My favorite Tony Scott film is True Romance. It’s an insanely witty, violent, noirish love story written by a young Quentin Tarantino and enhanced by Scott’s direction and liberal use of rapid cuts. It was one of the first serious movies I discovered at age 14 as a budding cinephile, and movies don’t come any more purely enjoyable film. One could easily argue that it made Brad Pitt a star for his now iconic portrayal of comic relief stoner Floyd, just as Top Gun made Tom Cruise an international A-list celebrity.
Among Scott’s most prominent collaborators was Denzel Washington. The Academy Award winning actor starred in five of the director’s films, including his swan song, the runaway train thriller Unstoppable, which received a highly positive critical response.
There has been some dispute regarding what exactly caused Tony Scott to jump from that bridge. Some have cited inoperable brain cancer; others have mentioned depression. At the moment, we don’t know. Frankly, the motive is irrelevant, because a great director is gone regardless. His life and the legacy he left behind is what matters. True Romance, Top Gun, and Man on Fire, along with his other work, are movies people will never stop watching. These films have been cherished by moviegoers for years, and this will continue.
Scott is survived by a wife, Donna, two sons, Max and Frank, and an older brother, Ridley.-—
http://thefilmgoersproject.com/?p=2284
I second Blue K’s opinion.
I simply don’t get why Tony Scott is all of a sudden hailed as some kind of master filmmaker. That he commited suicide is sad indeed, but it doesn’t make his films any better.
Oh, there are plenty of Tony Scott supporters on mubi. That they should come out and voice sadness at his death should be no surprise. No one here is asking everyone to love his movies; in fact, a few people have openly recognized the, uh, divisiveness of his work.
Scott made a certain kind of movie, and did it well, stylized, slam-bang action fests that is good to kill off a few hours.
The Hunger is the film that would be most accepted here on Mubi and showed he could do other things if he choose to, but he stuck to the action films and he did it well.
This is where the Mubi snobbery comes into play, the almost out and out rejection of action films.
I’m not gonna go out of my way to watch a Tony Scott movie, but I can acknowledge that when it came to action movies in the 80s and 90s, few did it as well as Scott did, and the style he developed is a giant signature on the action genre.
i figured it was either illness or a vindictive wife that threatened to leave him and take him to the cleaners!
glad it was the former.
there is no ‘sudden’ love for Scott here. doesnt anyone remember the thread on him that went for a million pages?&?!?
The Hunger is the film that would be most accepted here on Mubi and showed he could do other things if he choose to, but he stuck to the action films and he did it well.
The entire post was echoed some of my own thoughts.
Though there was a time that I would have gone out of my way to see a T. Scott film.
Actually illness hadn’t occured to me.
The other…
Personally I think the work Scott did from The Fan on was far more interesting than the work he did previous to that, The Hunger included.
“there is no ‘sudden’ love for Scott here. doesnt anyone remember the thread on him that went for a million pages?&?!?”
There’s a lot of new-ish people these days, so, for those who don’t, here are a couple:
anyone here thinks tony scott is better then ridley scott ?
. . . and Dan, I totally agree with you there.
I was in a bit of a mainstream mood the other day in spite of my ‘snobby’ tendencies, and I thought I’d say Spy Game, even if it’s a mediocre film, has the courage to display the the government and the CIA in particular as a dubious organization. I’ll give it that much.
Not to ruin the lovefest, but it’s not quite a unique or new thing to show the government and the CIA as dubious organizations. At least not since the 70s. We’ll have to look elsewhere for pioneering traits in Scott’s cinema.
Didn’t he and Shane Black do a movie about 9/11 before it happened?
With the CIA planning to “blow up 5,000 people for more funding”?
I’m not sure. I’ll ask Charlie Sheen.
The Fan was mediocre imo but it is true that in the 00s his films became more formally interesting.
whether they were better or not is a matter of opinion. Man On Fire, taking of pelham and Unstoppable were all quite enjoyable films and fun to watch.
making a film about a runaway train is bloody corny in this day and age but Scott totally pulled it off.
And pulled it off without the benefit of CGI.
As a Mexican, I find Man on Fire offensive… sorry. If I made horrible racist films like that man maybe… maybe I’ll save this comment. Que descanse en paz.
Ignatiy has written a big piece on Scott for the Notebook, Smearing the Senses: Tony Scott, Action Painter, which will have to do for our coverage while we work on a bigger project on filmmaker.
which will have to do for our coverage while we work on a bigger project on filmmaker
Are you doing anything for Chris Marker? Or do I have to read a proper film journal for some coverage on the death of such an innovative, influential legend of cinema?
Our writing comes from our contributors, it’s a matter of what interests them. I’d love to do something on Marker, and some discussion is percolating, but nothing specific as of yet. What was actually the biggest surprise, for me, was how many people love him but how little of his work is seen. This is also, of course, an issue of access.
Matt Parks
Reported Scott had been diagnosed with an inoperable form of brain cancer.