Ridley Scott was born in Northumberland England in 1937. His father was a Military officer in the Royal Engineers and his family traveled with him throughout England and Europe. When he was older Ridley wanted to join the Army but was encouraged by his father to attend West Hartlepool College of Art and the London's Royal College of Art. He later joined the BBC in 1962 where he got his first directing job on the British show Z Cars. After he was unhappy with his earnings at BBC he formed his own advertising agency with his brother Tony Scott where he would spend the next 10 years making British tv ads. Ridley Scott’s worldwide fame came after he was inspired by Star Wars and directed the low budget sci fi horror movie Alien in 1979. Ridley Scott then continued with the sci-fi genre directing Blade Runner “arguably the greatest science fiction film of all-time, and even the most influential, and not just of the last thirty years” (Thirty Years Later – Blade Runner). After watching Blade Runner (1982), Gladiator (2000), and Black Hawk Down (2001) I observed that Ridley Scott’s important signature elements were the use of info text at the beginning of his films the use of classical and emotional music as well as his stunning use of visuals all of which he personally envisioned by sketching most of his own storyboards.
In all three films, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Blade Runner, Ridley Scott uses info text in their openings. In the first scene of Gladiator we read onscreen about how vast the Roman empire was at its height and then about how the emperor’s campaign against the Germanic Tribes was drawing to a close. In Black Hawk Down, Scott opens the film with a quote from Plato reading “only the dead have seen the end of war...
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...rector Spotlight #7.12: Ridley Scott's Gladiator. Web. 18 May 2014. .
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Thomson, David. New Biographical Dictionary of Film. Knopf Doubleday Group, 2014. Print
Steven Spielberg, the only child of Leah and Arnold Spielberg, was born on December 18, 1946 at the beginning of the Baby Boom years in Cincinnati, Ohio. It does not take a great stretch of the imagination to see that Steven’s film influences were derived from his father’s experience as a World War II veteran and computer technician and his mother’s past profession as a concert pianist. The love and amount of technology, history, and music within Steven’s films can all be traced back to his early life with his family.
Regardless of their financial successes, both novels and their respective film adaptations are held in high esteem by many. They both utilize unique visual techniques to immerse their audience in the worlds of Philip K. Dick, but differ on their strictness of plot and characterization. In the end, however, the departures from the original source material of Blade Runner are executed so well that they come across on par with the literal A Scanner Darkly. Both movies play tribute to genius of Philip K. Dick’s writing by being complete, well-rounded works.
As a conclusion, it must be said that the generic marker ‘The visual surface of Science Fiction presents us with a confrontation between those images to which we respond as “alien” and those we know to be familiar’ can be applied to Blade Runner when judging the movie from an aesthetic point of view as well as from an ideological point of view. As it was mentioned earlier in the essay, the film is constructed from images which society nowadays find as alien (such as images of the city, interiors and social interactions) and also from more familiar images
Context leading to being critically acclaimed now. Blade Runner was a box-office failure compared to Ridley Scott’s other films. Their messages transcended context-breaking boundaries of their time. Yet issues explored are still relevant and permanent today.
Blade Runner became a cult classic. “The film may have survived long enough to benefit from a renewed taste for darker, more violent sci-fi. It’s appeal has less to do with a fascination for outer space (which does not feature beyond reference in a few lines of dialogue) than with a vision of earth and humankind in the near future” (Roberts and Wallis Pg 157-8). Both films have a timeless quality to it, as they are representative of the future of our planet earth. I find it so interesting that even though these films were made in different times their ideas about the futuristic city and society are almost identical.
Dred Scott was a slave and social activist who served several masters before he had sued for his own freedom. He made history in America by launching a legal battle to gain his freedom. His case worked its way to the Supreme Court prior to the American Civil War. Dred Scott had a significant impact on American life during the Civil War Era because he fought for what he believed was right, and did what he could to abolish slavery(“DS BIO”).
"I saw the novel...was becoming subordinated to a mechanical...art...I had a hunch that the talkies would make even the best selling novelist as archaic as silent pictures." (Mizener 165) F. Scott Fitzgerald was keenly aware of the shift in the public's interest from novels to movies. This change made Hollywood stand alone for Fitzgerald as the sole means for expressing his talent and for gaining appropriate recognition, as well as the new way to make money. For F. Scott Fitzgerald, the combination of celebrity and financial benefits made Hollywood an alluring scene.
gladiator fell he was hauled out of the arena by a slave dressed as the Etruscan
Ridley Scott is considered one of the greatest directors of Hollywood, and one of his masterpieces is Blade Runner, released in 1982. The movie is largely based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? A novel penned by Phillp K. Dick in 1968. This novel and the movie depict a future when human like robots work in outer worlds. And when they defy the orders or do not work properly they are sent back on earth to be destroyed by trained human beings known as “Blade Runners”. Apart from futuristic story and lavish sets and very strange costumes, we find best performances of the actors in this wonder full movies.
N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 25 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard The "Life of a Gladiator.
Both Frankenstein by Mary Shelly and Blade Runner by Ridley Scott were composed in differing contexts and due to this, they differ in their vehicle of representation. Frankenstein explores Romantic conventions, through the language, style and form of the text. The form of text reflects the context of Shelley’s time, with the use of a letter being the only means of communication throughout the post enlightenment period. The form being a novel illustrates writing and language techniques being the common formality of Mary Shelley’s era. In
Steven Spielberg was born on December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His parents were Arnold Spielberg and Leah Spielberg, who soon influenced the movies he would make. Surprisingly enough, Steven Spielberg was poor at school. Though, when it came to filmmaking, he was extremely talented. He would often become interested in new filmmaking techniques, just like his father, who would study techniques to get ahead in the field. Steven was Jewish growing up, which would soon help him make one of his best works. Many things, as he grew up, influenced his movies greatly, such as his fears or monsters he knew. His imagination was magnificent; he had many thought-provoking ideas. Steven’s beginning films were home movies that he would film with his $20, 8 mm camera. He would experiment with the camera, such as different lighting, different angles, and other techniques. It was like he was born to film! He soon had an obsession for making movies, especially movies that had the World War 2 theme to it. He even spent most of his free time and his allowance to satisfy his obsession for movies.
Gladiator (2000) is an action drama about a Roman general that is betrayed by his country and is forced to fight in the Colosseum. This particular scene, which runs for approximately 5 minutes, is the aftermath of the fight scene between Maximus, the betrayed general, and Commodus, the jealous emperor who betrayed him. This scene is not only significant because it is the concluding scene of the film, but also because it represents the end of Maximus’s enslavement and his coming to peace with dying.
Russell Crowe won the 2000 Best Actor Oscar for Gladiator, and in this movie, he doesn’t give anything less of a great performance. Crowe successfully buries his personality beneath Nash's, allowing the character to come alive and for the audience to see inside his mind. And, when it comes to the sequences showing Nash battling his demons, Crowe's performance is convincing. At the same time, Jennifer Connelly is wonderful as Alicia. She does well depicting a woman torn by love for and fear of the same man.
Le Guin, Ursula K. The Lathe of Heaven. EOS 1976. The Matrix. Dir. The Wackowski Bros. with Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburn. Warner Bros, 2001. DVD.