Tony Scott's 16 masterpieces: The camera dances and glides!

Tony Scott. Just hearing the name makes you feel a tremendous wind pressure that will blow your body away. In his movies, people and vehicles always rush at high speed, and the camera also glides freely in all directions to capture them. In Hollywood in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, he always kept his sense of adventure and continued to depict dynamic situations and emotions that made the audience unable to stay still in their seats.

His life began on June 21, 1944 in North Shields, Tyne and Wear, northeast England. His older brother, seven years older than him, was Ridley Scott, known for his work on Alien(1979) and Gladiator (2000). The two, who both aspired to be artists, remained close throughout their lives, and it was Ridley who cast his 16-year-old brother in the lead role of his first short film, A Boy with a Bicycle (1965), and who asked his brother, who had The Graduate from the Royal College of Art, to help out with his production company.

Tony gradually built up a track record and established himself as a commercial director. However, around the same time, many British commercial directors, including his brother Ridley, began to turn to film direction. It was only natural that Tony had a strong desire to do the same someday. Then, in the 1980s, his Being There arrived. At the age of 39, Tony finally achieved his dream of joining the ranks of film directors.

His trademarks were his red cap and cigar. He was a friendly and energetic person. Although he was a master of action blockbusters, he always kept his artistic ideas and spirit, saying, "I'm a former painter." Below, we look back on the 16 masterpieces that Tony Scott made in the history of film during his 68 years of life.

Index

• A harsh introduction to the film world and a shift to dynamic direction
• No misses! The 1990s saw him solidify his status as a master with his solid direction
• His final decade was one of adventure and artistic spirit, exuding the dignity of a master.

A harsh introduction to the film world and a shift to dynamic direction

1. The Hunger(1983) 96 min.

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Tony Scott, who had been making commercials for a long time, was given the Being There to make his directorial debut with a feature film. He chose a story about vampires who have been living off human blood since ancient times. A female researcher steps into this world and a change of fate comes. Starring three internationally renowned actors, Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon, Tony himself used the Helmut Newton photo book as a reference and made full use of all the artistic sense and style he had cultivated in making commercials and music videos, but it was a poor critical and box office success, and it was a bitter baptism for his debut. Watching it again, it's not a bad film, and it's easy to understand why it was reevaluated in later years. However, with its heavy use of Smoke and sensual slow-motion direction, it gives the impression of watching the works of his brother Ridley Scott, and it's still surprising that it was a Tony film.

Read more: "The Hunger" Tony Scott's artistic vampire story debut

2. Top Gun(1986)

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After experiencing the nadir of disappointment with the box office failure of his debut film, producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer unexpectedly approached him to make this fighter jet action drama, a symbol of the 80s. At the time, the two were looking for new talent to shoot dynamic "aviation films," and when they saw Tony's commercial for SAAB, in which a fighter jet raced against a car, they were convinced that "he was the one!" During filming, Tony sometimes wavered toward artistic direction, and was on the verge of being dropped three times due to conflicts with the producer. By overcoming these obstacles and producing images loaded with extraordinary voltage and emotion, Tony quickly grew into a Hollywood royal road director with just one film. Despite a production budget of about $15 million, it recorded a box office revenue of $357 million worldwide. The social impact of this film was so great that the number of applicants to join the U.S. Navy increased sharply.

Read more: "Top Gun" is the first collaboration between Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott to bring "Star Wars" to Earth

3. Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

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The second installment of the hit series starring Eddie Murphy, the face of the 80s. Detective Axel of the Detroit Police Department once again heads to Beverly Hills! Together with his friends from the first film, he uncovers the evil schemes hidden in a series of robberies in a lively and light-hearted manner. Apparently, producers Simpson & Bruckheimer decided to entrust this film to Tony Scott after seeing his energetic work in Top Gun. Although comedy was an unknown territory for Tony and he was a little worried, he made up for that by throwing in a lot of his signature thrilling action. As a result, Eddie's talkativeness and Tony's unique qualities created a synergistic effect, making this a huge hit entertainment film around the world. Since Eddie was full of ad-libs and it was impossible to repeat the same performance, one scene was shot simultaneously with two cameras, one long shot and one close-up, which was rare for the time. I would like to draw your attention to Tony's skilled work, which condensed all the flavor without losing the sense of speed, realism, and motivation of the actors.

4. Revenge (1990)

Kevin Costner, who starred in this film, fell in love with the project and even seriously considered directing it himself. It is said that Costner learned a lot from watching Tony Scott's work in "Revenge," including how to lead the crew on set, and used that knowledge in his directorial debut, "Dances with Wolves" (released in the same year, but "Revenge" was made first). The protagonist, a US Navy fighter pilot, visits his friend's house in Mexico and has an affair with his wife, which angers her husband, knocking him to the bottom, and then he embarks on a brutal revenge. The bold violence and action are typical of Tony, but the melodramatic development takes away the sense of speed from the film, leaving it feeling a bit drawn-out. In 2007, Tony produced a director's cut that cut 20 minutes from the original version. It seems that he himself had some regrets about the results at the time.

5. Days of Thunder (1990)

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Hoping to repeat the huge success of "Top Gun," the producers (Simpson and Bruckheimer), Tom Cruise, and Tony Scott were exploring the possibility of planning a sequel, and they came up with a story about men who risk their lives in a heated racetrack. At the time, Tom Cruise was fascinated by car racing due to the influence of Paul Newman, and this film was unusual in that he also contributed to the original story. It was not well received by critics, with some mocking it as a "car racing version of Top Gun." There are certainly some overlaps in the content and story, but the racing scenes that the production team came up with after clashing opinions over the filming method are of extremely exciting quality. This is an important work that has once again updated the "Tony legend" that no one can match him when it comes to filming vehicles traveling at high speeds.

No misses! The 1990s saw him solidify his status as a master with his solid direction