SCFZ

Polling the films of director Tony Scott

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Tony Scott films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Tuesday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: brian d, greennui, ofrene, kanafani, bure, greg x, oscarwerner, silga, dt, umbugbene, roscoe, rischka, wba, thoxans, mesnalty, caracortada, joks

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

Man on Fire
Unstoppable
Enemy of the State
True Romance
Crimson Tide

seen ten

Seen 12 apparently.

Deja Vu
Enemy of the State
Unstoppable
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Seen 16:

Spy Game (2001)
The Hunger (1983)
Crimson Tide (1995)
Domino (2005)
The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Domino

Deja Vu
Man on Fire
Taking of Pelham 123
Spy Game

I'm completely sold on Domino, close on Deja Vu, and the rest somewhere in-between for his middle to late period not so much his early stuff (the split happening at The Fan I think, but that's the one I haven't seen). Unlike Ridley, whose better films are tied to art direction, Tony's talent is more in the shooting, but unlike some of the other Vulgar Auteur faves, Tony also has some themes that seem to really resonate with him, maybe disturbingly so given his personal history, as he frequently seems to return to the idea of the hero erasing or negating his own actions and life as a path to some sense of completion. Reversing time, changing history, acting against the things he spent his life doing and so on. That Scott also repeatedly featured black actors as leads when that was still something unusual and had those characters matched against or with a white character in shifting mentor/foil relationships also is interesting, though hard to pin down for how much control Scott had over some of the elements involved.

THE HUNGER

Seen enough to rate more. Feh.

Seen a lot but

True Romance
The Last Boy Scout

only seen 3

crimson tide

Seen 6

Enemy of the State

Seen 16. Honestly not easy to pick top 5. Top 10 would be easy task. Ok, my votes go to:
1. True Romance (1993)
2. The Hunger (1983)
3. Domino (2005)
4. Man on Fire (2005)
5. Spy Game (2001)

Seen 8, though I don't consider any of them great. However, as it is not doing too well, I may just as well vote for True Romance, and throw in The Last Boy Scout too (liked that one a lot as a pre-teen):

1. True Romance
2. The Last Boy Scout

1. Deja Vu
2. Domino
3. Man on Fire
4. Enemy of the State

deja vu
enemy of the state
crimson tide
unstoppable
the hunger

*seen fifteen (i grew up watching t-scott’s movies, way before it was cool to appreciate him as this vulgar thing)

seen 10

1. Deja Vu
2. Crimson Tide
3. Unstoppable
4. Enemy of the State
5. The Hunger

Deja Vu? It's his most middlebrow late effort. Tries to be serious but can't be taken seriously (because it's too dumb). Some very interesting use of images cast on reflective surfaces though.

Seen all of his features.

1.True Romance (for the balance of elements)
2.Domino (his formal best and arguably the greatest studio trash piece since Natural Born Killers)
3.Unstoppable (for its elegant simplicity)
4.Crimson Tide (for the drama and conflict)
5.Man On Fire (the true beginning of late phase Scott but marred somewhat by overlength and reactionary politics)

Regarding Ridley, I like Alien and Blade Runner more than any of Tony's films, but I find Tony more interesting overall, esp in regards to shooting as Greg mentioned earlier, but not just that, also his color choices in late career. Tony never really got lazy like Ridley did.

Greg, there are recurring themes in his work, but I don't think anyone can argue with a straight face that they were really well explored. Auteurists tend to get carried away when making connections between films, but you are correct that he kept returning to the same themes often.

Scott was a stylist first and foremost. A visceral artist and sometimes even a sensualist, not a thinker.

Not really a big fan of Pelham. I much prefer the original, and I don't really care for most of his 80's work except for The Hunger and some parts of Beverly Hills Cop 2.

i've only seen one (the last boy scout). I don't remember it, I saw it about 9 years ago, but I gave it 1.5/5

Watched Domino fairly recently, and really could not stand its loud ugly stupidity.

Seen 9

1. Deja Vu
2. Man on Fire

Seen 9

1. True Romance

I've always wanted to see The Fan and Crimson Tide.

the fan isn't very good, but crimson tide is really really good. its use of close-ups, colors, and angles is spectacular. it's like the exact opposite of t-scott's late career style, which is obvs based so much on movement and editing, and yet it's also a clear foundation for that more frenetic approach

Seen 7.

1. Days of Thunder
2. Top Gun
3. Man on Fire

Seen 7

1. Unstoppable
2. Deja Vu
3. Man on Fire
4. Domino

1. Unstoppable
2. Top Gun
3. The Taking of Pelham 123
4. Man on Fire

Zulawski wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2019 6:57 pm Seen a lot

zulawski - you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

I'm traveling this weekend, so I think I'll wait until tuesday or wednesday to start the next poll.

Maybe someone can get Pabs and WBA votes if they still can't log in here?

flip wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2019 1:42 pm
zulawski - you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

Great! Let's try the Zeki. Second choice Paul Schrader.

we'd definitely need to check on zeki, since he's only directed 11 films in total (and 2 mini series which would count if anyone wants to vote for them, though going by imdb votes, they seem hard to find). so if anyone has seen 8+ zeki demirkubuz films, please post here! i've only seen one.

schrader is very likely to work as a fallback, not sure we need to bother confirming on him, i've seen 9.

I have 10 from zeki

I have 9 from Paul Schrader

11 Schrader, 1 Zeki