This article will be the first of a two-parter exploring the incomparable work of director Tony Scott, who for me is actually one of the unsung heroes of the action/thriller genre. Although an abundance of people openly love Top Gun and lots of people love the six films we’re going to talk about over this fortnight, I find that not many people actually connect up the dots and notice that they’re all directed by the same brilliant artist. There is a certain snobbery around the film-maker that makes and constructs an excellent action film. It was the same sort of snobbery that led to Hitchcock being snubbed for so many years. I’m not saying that Scott is an artist of comparative quality to Hitchcock, but I do certainly hope that in years to come, people take note of the breadth of this incredible career and the devastating loss to the action genre and film itself, when Scott unfortunately passed.
I won’t be talking
about Top Gun here, nor his excellent
and superior sequel Beverly Hills Cop 2 (mainly because I feel a Tony Scott 80's article would be fun).
I will instead be talking about six films, broken down into two categories, with one major over-lapper. This week we will look at his two films with iconoclast
actor Gene Hackman, and next exploring the other four films Scott made with
Denzel Washington – one of the most underrated film pairings of actor and director
in recent memory. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and delve into the
over-lapper, starring Washington and Hackman and naturally directed by Scott.
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There are certain circles where 1995’s Crimson Tide isn’t underrated in the slightest and is rightly heralded as one of the great thrillers of our time, however these circles are nowhere near as expansive as one would hope, especially when you are dealing with a film of such pristine quality as we are today. The film follows a mutiny on a submarine tasked with launching nuclear missiles in the event of a possible Russian holoquast and ultimately third world war. Our Captain is portrayed by Gene Hackman going up against his executive officer of Denzel Washington, and as we will see with our next film, the chemistry of the old guard going toe to toe with new kids is a fascinatingly thrilling thing to bear witness to and with what Hackman and Washington are delivering to us scene to scene, it make for some of the best face to face arguments and debates of any film of its ilk. Tide is a very odd film to declare as perfect, and I mean that with no reference to its genre, director or actors, more so from the fact of its multiple screenwriters, credited and un-credited. The film as we know it today has one of the most note perfect thriller and drama scripts of its day, without a single line of dialogue not having immense purpose or being dull in any way and also without a single wasted scene or second to spare – this is chief in the film’s second half, which takes place in real time with our crew fighting against a literal ticking clock of an hour. And yet the film, despite solely being credited to Michael Schiffer, who didn’t really go on to much else, has uncredited work from three of the great screenwriters of the past hundred years, with Tarantino adding pop culture specifically and Tony Gilroy and Robert Towne punching up unspecified scenes respectively.
All this leads to a devastatingly dramatic and perfectly toned piece with an immense amount of tension under the surface and many exciting scenes where that tension boils up and leads to a shouting match, but even the shouting in the hands of Washington and Hackman is filled with such a pristine anger that there characters are wholly justified and the film plays more out like a morality play, with the audience desperately caught in the middle of a debate with two rather reasonable sides. Scott not only delivers some of his trademark excellent action, but also imbues this tension into many dramatic scenes and gives us, in my opinion, some of the best scenes of his career. These are scenes without fighter jets or bullets shed, but rather simply two men arguing face to face and Scott makes this just as thrilling, if not more so than the epic set pieces of this film and his many others. The film has an absolute murderer’s row of supporting talent, as we will see again with our next film, but here I feel that Scott really lent into the 12 Angry Men-esque feel of a chamber piece with a crew of double digit actors set up like chess pieces on each side of the board, all with their own moments and justifications for their actions. Standouts include a very good and very young Viggo Mortensen delivering the most torn character in the film, with an excellent evil James Gandolfini leading him into the darkness. Steve Zahn, George Dzundza and Lilli Brancato also offer great support and ultimately lead the film to be the marvellous ensemble thriller that it is.
BRIEF SPOLIER COMMENT ON THE END OF THE FILM: There is a part of me that considers whether or not the film would be better or would have more of an impact if the ending wasn’t on Washington’s side and whether blind ignorance could win. I know this is a wholly different film entirely, but it is a more thought-provoking climax than the one we got and would make me very interested to see it.
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Scott and Hackman paired again, unfortunately for the last time with 1998’s Enemy of the State, a film with lots of subtle similarities to Tide, but with a big Hackman change. The film follows Will Smith as a lawyer caught up by chance in a government conspiracy ultimately leading him on the run, attempting to save his life and his family’s up against a very ominous and very dangerous foe in the NSA, with a stoic and relentlessly restrained Jon Voight as their leader. The Hackman change is to make the actor like the shark in Jaws, appearing only at the 50 minute mark for his first appearance and as soon as he is on board the film takes off and doesn’t relent it’s pace for the next hour and 12 minutes. If one were to point a flaw out with the film it would be that the film takes it’s time to reach its relentless second half, but in the current glut of terrible blockbusters, it was immensely refreshing to return to a time where a 15 certificate film was filled with stars and was as huge as this was, and took it’s time as much as this film did. To talk about the film’s cast is to list some of the greatest talent the cinema’s ever known, and then is to list some of the great emerging comedians of the time, and then is to list a few more. With Oscar winner Jason Robards showing up for just about five minutes, as he did for the end of Tide. Voight, Hackman and Robards highlight a veteran’s group of top tier talent that elevates the ‘man on the run’ come conspiracy thriller from a standard and fine film to a thriller classic. Barry Pepper, Jake Bussy, Jack Black, Jamie Kennedy, Jason Lee and Gabriel Byrne are not given much more than a scene here and a line there, but all of those moments are greatly made better by these top class actors giving us great performances in tiny parts, leading us to really get the faith that one has in Scott and the film itself. Tom Sizemore shows up for a couple of crazy scenes, including the climax which is a little odd in its nature as it quite literally is a mirror of the ending of True Romance from 5 years earlier, which of course was directed by Scott again and starred Sizemore again. All in all the film is a non-stop ride that further cements Scott as a supreme talent and takes Hackman to another level in my appreciation for him, taking this film to the territory that it stands in now solely down to his elevation of it.
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As aforementioned, next week we will delve into four more Scott classics, all continuing his collaboration with Washington and although none reach the absolute masterpiece territory of Crimson Tide, not one of them ever falters to deliver pure adrenaline and great drama. I’ll see you then.
-Thomas Carruthers
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