“I lived and breathed”: the one type of movie Ridley Scott is desperate to make
Despite the fact that the film business is catering more and more to younger audiences, some of the greats from the 1970s and 1980s are thankfully still in the spotlight. Directors that never seem to slow down include Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese. At 86 years old, Scott is still at the top. He is now riding the wave of success from his production of Alien: Romulus and getting ready for the much-awaited Gladiator II. It’s obvious that he will keep captivating audiences for years to come with mind-bogglingly expensive blockbusters.
As a particularly outspoken member of the global film community, having made his feelings known about Marvel, the decline of cinema, and other hot topics in recent years, many would assume that Scott has been able to do everything he has wanted to do for his entire career—but that isn’t strictly true. From humble beginnings in Teeside, Scott always had an affinity for westerns, which he has not had the chance to be involved with directly yet.
Scott, who began his career with ‘designer’ credits on productions like Tonight on the BBC, was greatly inspired by science fiction as a child, reading books and watching films like Them! and The Day the Earth Stood Still by H.G. Wells. With 1977’s The Duellists, the director made his feature picture directing debut before going on to helm classics like Blade Runner and Gladiator. The rest is history.
Of course, this sent Scott on a path to greatness, particularly in the sci-fi realm, but during an interview with Rolling Stone, he admitted that there’s one genre he still hasn’t mastered. He said emphatically: “Western – western, western, western. I lived and breathed westerns as a kid. I adored, you know, fuckin’ Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and then Rawhide with Clint Eastwood.”
Never without some form of criticism for the current cinematic landscape, though, Scott continued: “Now it’s procedural detectives and fuckin’ vampires and fuckin’ zombies.” No less is expected from Scott, to be honest. While audiences seem content with “procedural detectives and vampires and zombies”, the director raises a valid point—where have all the westerns gone?
Tarantino’s contributions to the genre, such as The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained, come to mind, but other modern westerns have been few and far between. Notable exceptions include Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and the iconic True Grit and No Country for Old Men, though the latter two might not meet Scott’s criteria for a classic gunslinging western. With that in mind, there’s hope that Ridley Scott will take on the challenge and deliver a good old-fashioned western to cinemas soon.
