Ridley Scott names the defining moment of his career: “We had the magic”
It goes without saying that filmmaking isn’t like most professions, but the fact Ridley Scott has maintained his unstoppable work ethic and prolific output even into his late 80s is nothing short of incredible.
While many auteurs of a similar age emerged at the same time and are still working – Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Paul Schrader, Francis Ford Coppola, and Michael Mann among them – Scott is older than all of them, with the exception of Clint Eastwood, who’s the only one who could be called a genuine point of comparison.
Eastwood has directed 19 features since the turn of the millennium, an identical number to Scott. However, the difference is that they make completely different kinds of films. Whereas the former favours mid-budget, character-based dramas that can be made quickly and efficiently, Scott has specialised in blockbuster epics that cost a small fortune, which he somehow also manages to make quickly and efficiently.
Where he continues to get that energy from is anybody’s guess, with Scott seemingly always thinking two or three projects ahead. He’s never been one to look back on his career with regrets or wistfulness, apart from Pauline Kael’s scathing review of Blade Runner, which he’s made a point of bringing up without hesitation anytime the opportunity presents itself for more than 40 years. That’s why the moment he picked out as the defining one of his professional life makes so much sense.
Scott was 40 by the time he made his directorial debut on 1977’s The Duellists, but he may well have been the most experienced rookie in cinema. He’d helmed thousands of commercials before he upgraded to the movie business, which helped foster the rapid pace he’d make his trademark in the decades to come.
His first dabble in longer-form storytelling came in the early 1960s, when he wrote, produced, and directed the 27-minute short film Boy and Bicycle, starring his brother Tony. Created while he was a photography student at London’s Royal College of Art, it delivers exactly what was promised by following the younger Scott’s taking in the sights of County Durham on his bike.
The college loaned him £65 and a camera to shoot it, and he called in a favour from his father to ferry himself and his sibling around. It was a simpler time, which is why he remembers it so fondly. “Boy and Bicycle,” he answered without hesitation when Paul Mescal asked Scott to name the definitive moment of his career.
“I thought, my god, suddenly my dad’s driving the car, and I’m in the trunk with the Bolex [camera], and my brother’s to the side on a bicycle,” he said. “We drive underneath the bridge. Tony could have been a good actor. We had the magic.”
Scott has accomplished more than most in the 60 years since Boy and Bicycle, but it’ll never be dislodged as his most cherished filmmaking memory.
