The news just came in this morning that famed director Tony Scott died from an apparent suicide earlier this morning in California. Reports are saying that he had jumped off the Vincent Thomas Bridge after parking his car, climbing the 8- to 10-foot fence, and leaping off without hesitation.
Tony Scott, brother of director Ridley Scott ("Prometheus", "Gladiator"), was also survived by his wife Donna W. Scott and his twin sons.
Tony Scott was known for directing intelligent, pulse-pounding action movies that not only featured everything that action lovers pine over (namely guns and explosions), but scripts that critics and audiences could love.
The first movie I saw of his was, of course, "Top Gun", which featured a then-virtually-unknown Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan in 1986. He then went on to direct "Enemy of the State", "Spy Game", "Domino", and the Denzel Washington movies "Man on Fire", "Deja Vu", "Unstoppable", and the remake of "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3".
Scott was in the middle of making the long-awaited follow-up to "Top Gun" at the time of his death.
What makes Tony Scott's death a tragedy is because, unlike recent action films like "Battleship" and "The Expendables", Scott's films were clever, suspenseful, and overall wonderful. They didn't need any kitsch factor to them -- they stood on their own brilliantly. And even though "Top Gun 2" was getting maligned from the internet fanboys groaning about another unneeded sequel, I can almost guarantee it would have been an amazing movie as well.
Whatever caused Tony Scott to end his life so abruptly will more than likely be a mystery for some time (assuming they never publicly release the contents of the suicide note they found in his office). For now, let's just look at this for what it is -- a tragic loss of a brilliant filmmaker.
Godspeed, Tony Scott.
No comments:
Post a Comment