The last boy scout: Top 5 Tony Scott moments
It was weird to see some of the online comments after director Tony Scott died last week from an apparent suicide leap off an LA bridge. Some messages were along the lines of “I love his camp classic The Hunger,” or “I’m a closet fan of Top Gun!”
Ouch. Why the shame? Where’s the respect? There’s nothing wrong with admitting you loved Tony Scott films. Though I never cared for Top Gun, there were at least half a dozen almost criminally entertaining films under Scott’s belt, and about a dozen classic movie scenes. Tony Scott, like brother Ridley, used his commercial advertising background to craft slick Hollywood images, and Tony’s visual style was no less arresting that Ridley’s. He had a mad pop artist’s eye, evident even in flops like 2005’s underrated Domino (with Keira Knightley and Mickey Rourke) based on a true story about a female bounty hunter.
Plus Tony Scott was almost singlehandedly responsible for creating the Simpson-Bruckheimer “look” of ‘80s Hollywood: movies with a gauzy, backlit quality that was the decade’s coked-up equivalent to ‘40s noir lighting. Daylight shoots through Venetian blinds into scuzzy, darkened rooms, and seasoned character actors play it all like it’s The Godfather, even though the dialogue’s usually nowhere near as artistic. Movies like Days of Thunder, The Fan and Enemies of the State were largely techno-male fantasies, seductive style over substance, but there were some gems among the Hollywood machinery.
A film like 1993’s True Romance may have failed at the box office, but it’s a cult classic and you can parse every scene for some interesting, quirky energy: Christian Slater staring down dreadlocked pimp Gary Oldman as the techno music pounds; young Mafioso James Gandolfini in a motel death match with young Patricia Arquette; Brad Pitt as a lethargic stoner occupying a couch, mumbling priceless one-liners.
No wonder the most common and most honest tweets about Scott’s death were not hidden behind shame or qualified praise: “Sad day. No more Tony Scott movies,” tweeted director Ron Howard.
Here are my top five Tony Scott moments.
“I’m robbing you!” Gilbert Gottfried shows why Tony Scott’s movies had such character. 5. Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). Best scene might be Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) and his partners Judge Reinhold and John Ashton shaking information out of Hollywood agent Sidney Bernstein (Gilbert Gottfried) by threatening him with unpaid parking tickets. Bernstein: “Is there, say, something that I have in this office that I could hand to you… that could make you kind of forget that you’re holding those little pink tickets there…?” It shows Tony Scott’s great gift for minor character casting. (And notice Murphy’s excellent turn as the straight man here.) “Ouch! I’m robbing you!”
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXf_eaQcSdM)
“Bruce Willis motormouths everyone in sight in The Last Boy Scout.4. The Last Boy Scout (1991). Actually an entertaining exercise in stumblebum macho style, Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans try — and fail — to protect stripper Cory (Halle Berry in early pole-hugging glory) from gangsters. A lot of visual fun, from the opening football shooting sequence to the increasingly beat-up Willis’s one-liners. No other action star could disable bad guys with a series of “Yo mama” jokes. (Thug with gun: “All right, you want it in the chest, or the head?” Bruce Willis: “Yeah, that’s what your wife said.”) He’s the Rodney Dangerfield of tough private eyes.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQeotKWa2kA)
3. The Hunger (1983). The opening six minutes of Scott’s first film are essentially a music video for goth band Bauhaus’ Bela Lugosi’s Dead. But what a great video! Here you are introduced to Tony Scott’s mood-lighting style from frame one, not to mention a (then-new) notion of cruising vampires that would eventually wear out its pop cultural welcome. The brooding look of The Hunger owes a lot to brother Ridley’s noir ‘40s design of Blade Runner. But still.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L852uDRskQg)
2. Crimson Tide (1995). The first Tony Scott flick to cast Denzel Washington as the “good guy against the system” (he would also appear in Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, Taking of Pelham 123 and Unstoppable). Best scene might be his showdown with war freak Captain Ramsey (Gene Hackman) over whether to launch nuclear missiles from the sub. His first lieutenant, Hunter (Washington), suggests they verify the launch code first. Hackman goes ballistic: “We have rules that are not open to intuition, personal interpretation, hairs on the back of your neck, little devils and angels on your shoulder, Mr. Hunter… I’m made a decision, I’m captain of this boat, NOW SHUT THE F#@K UP!” It’s a rare thriller where the verbal sparks outgun the action scenes.
Mutiny or sanity? Denzel Washington takes command from Gene Hackman in techno-thriller Crimson Tide.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-k3U3qiqjI)
1. True Romance (1993). Sicilian capo Christopher Walken tries to get retired cop Dennis Hopper to spill his son’s whereabouts in a trailer home. What follows is a classic showdown of tough guy bravado: Walken talks about “the pantomime,” and the 17 ways to tell if someone’s lying; Hopper race-baits Walken by pointing out that Sicilians carry Moorish blood. You know how it will end, and that’s what makes the acting in this scene such a master class in tension, resignation and cajones. Tarantino may have wrote the words, but Tony Scott got such a great moment from these two actors — a ‘70s-worthy moment, and it came as late as 1993!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C02RL6B1nM)
