Scenes I Love: Spy Game (R.I.P. Tony Scott)

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Arleigh

[SPOILERS]

The world of cinema lost one of it’s own with the death of British filmmaker Tony Scott (brother of filmmaker Ridley Scott). The circumstances of Tony Scott’s death has now been confirmed and could be found and read easily on most on-line news site.

This post is not to focus on Tony Scott’s death but on the life he lived and how his contribution to the art of filmmaking. Tony Scott has been a major influenc on me and those who grew up during the 80’s and 90’s. His films were huge commercial successes but also unique in that he tried to advance the genre of action filmmaking beyond the bullet point steps on how to make them that other filmmakers could never get beyond.

Tony Scott experimented and innovated with the action genre these last ten or so years to mixed results, but no one could ever say that his visual style was ever boring. Just like his brother Ridley, Tony Scott was a visual director first and foremost, but he also had a way in getting the most out of the cast he was given. It didn’t matter whether they were award-winning veterans like Denzel Washington or up-and-coming stars like Keira Knightley and Chris Pine. His action films weren’t just all about the visual and auditory overload his contemporaries only focused on. Tony Scott used his actors and got from them good to great performances which raised what would’ve been your typical action film to something more.

One of my favorite scenes Tony Scott ever did was also from one of his films I consider one of his best. It’s the last main sequence for his 2001 spy thriller, Spy Game, which starred Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. It was a film that was the passing of the torch from one blue-eyed star of Hollywood’s yesteryear to the current blue-eyed star. This film could’ve been all about action and explosions and techno-spy babble, but it instead became a great exercise in how to create an action-thriller that allowed for dialogue to become the engine that moved the action.

This scene is a favorite because it was the culmination of the machinations and secret plannings of Redford’s aging spymaster, Nathan Muir, to try and save his wayward protege in Brad Pitt’s Tom Bishop. While it would be best for people to watch this scene having watched the rest of the film beforehand, even just watching Redford take control of the room is a clue to how well Tony Scott allowed his actors to work the scene instead of forcing them to do it his way. It’s no wonder that Denzel Washington, considered to be the best actor of his generation, kept working with Tony over and over for the past decade.

6 Trailers Beyond Imagination

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, Lisa Marie here! I apologize for taking last week off but have no fear and let not your heart be troubled — I have returned and I’ve brought with me another edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film trailers! (And I’ve also returned with a few trailer kitties, as well…)

1) The Hunger (1983)

Tony Scott, R.I.P.

2) Aenigma (1987)

From director Lucio Fulci comes a film about psychic powers and killer slugs. Agck!

3) Dolly Dearest (1991)

This is what happens when you build a toy factory next door to Satan’s grave.

4) Godmonster of Indian Flats (1973)

Killer sheep!

5) Rattlers (1976)

If it’s not the sheep, it’s the snakes…

6) The Lollipop Girls In Hard Candy (1976)

In 3-D!

What do you think, trailer kitties?

A Quickie With Lisa Marie: Unstoppable (dir. by Tony Scott)

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is going to be a quick review because Unstoppable is a quick movie. That’s not meant to be an insult because Unstoppable is one of those, race-against-time type films that has to move quickly to be succesful.

Unstoppable’s plot is amazingly simple. There’s a runaway train that could derail at any seconds. Since the train is being used to transport dangerous and toxic chemicals, this could potentially lead to the destruction of a small portion of Pennsylvania. However, there’s another train on the tracks. The train is being steered by Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. Washington’s a grizzled veteran type. Pine’s a callow, headstrong youth type. Can they put aside their difference and work together to save Pennsylvania? Does the sun rise in the … wait, which side of the Earth does the sun rise on?

I have to admit that I was prepared to dislike Unstoppable. For one thing, its set in Pennsylvania and right now, I’ve got some issues with that state. For several years, I liked Pennsylvania because I associated the state with The Office. But then a few months ago, that damn Levi’s Jeans commercial started up with that “Heigh Ho” song playing over grainy black-and-white images of Braddock, Pennsylvania and John Fetterman (the town’s mayor, who looks like a serial rapist) saying something about half the town being in a landfill. And those commercials made me dislike Pennsylvania because, seriously, Fetterman, you’re not fooling anyone.

(Quick disclaimer: Fetterman, to my knowledge, has never been accused, arrested, indicted, or convincted of rape. Also, Braddock has a really inspiring story that all you rich kids who know nothing about poverty can go swoon over.)

But anyway, back to Unstoppable. It’s actually a fairly entertaining movie. Scott’s direction keeps the action pretty tight and both Washington and Pine give pretty good performances even if they are playing stereotypes. Both of them have to deliver a lot of technical, “train” dialogue and they both deliver it with such confidence that it really didn’t matter that I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about most of the time.

The real star of the film, obviously, is that runway train and — roaring across the tracks and shattering through various barrier — the train does not disappoint. Give it the Oscar for Best Supporting Performance By A Machine.

In the end, watching Unstoppable is kinda like wrapping yourself up in your favorite blanket. It’s warm and familiar and it serves its purpose.