Why did he have to make such a big splash in the end? Using MMY's phrase, the
director made a mistake of the intellect.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> The news that director Tony Scott took himself out in full action movie
> style, by leaping from an L.A. area bridge, will be undoubtedly be
> followed by eulogies in the press, most of them mentioning and focusing
> on the movie blockbusters of his career. You know, films like "Top Gun"
> and "Beverly Hills Cop II" and "Days Of Thunder" and "True Romance."
> Friends and coworkers will tell stories about him and say "We never saw
> this coming" and compare him to his more famous brother Ridley and do
> all those things that people do after a Hollywood legend dies.
>
> Me, I don't feel like doing that. I only met the man once, and then only
> long enough to shake his hand after being introduced to him by a friend
> who had starred in one of his movies. "He had a firm handshake" is all
> that I can remember or come up with on the personal eulogy front.
>
> So, while others are focusing on his more famous films, I'm going to rap
> for a few moments about the two films of his that are my favorites. I've
> seen each of them multiple times, and like the other movies, books, and
> TV shows that I call my "favorites," they just keep getting better and
> better with each viewing.
>
> The first is a farily unregarded buddy flick called "The Last Boy
> Scout." It paired Bruce Willis with Damon Wayans, and gave them both
> some of the funniest, snappiest, and wittiest dialogue I've ever seen in
> a movie. Although I don't consider this a great movie by any means, I
> keep coming back to it because of the dialogue, written by Shane Black,
> who has a real talent for that sort of thing ("Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," the
> "Lethal Weapon" movies). I doubt very seriously whether this movie made
> a lot of money for Tony Scott, and it certainly didn't win him any
> awards, but I thank him for making it because it's just such a hoot.
>
> The second I do consider a great film, and one that is almost criminally
> overlooked. I was turned on to it by an employee at my neighborhood DVD
> rental store in Paris, back when I lived there. He was young and I was
> an old fart, but he had obviously developed an appreciation of my taste
> in movies by watching what I rented from him. So one day I was in the
> store, scanning the shelves, finding nothing that interested me, and was
> about to walk out when he stopped me and said, "Have you seen 'Spy
> Game'?"
>
> I hadn't. He said, giving me the disk, which he already had in his hand,
> "Take it home and watch it. If you don't like it, I won't charge you
> anything for the rental."
>
> THAT got my attention. And later that evening, so did the movie. I
> watched it three times in a row before returning it to him, and gladly
> paid him for the rental. This review is to some extent me "paying it
> forward" by turning other people on to the movie.
>
> "Spy Game" is in my opinion the best movie Tony Scott ever made. It just
> *works* on so many levels that it transcends his other, more popular
> stuff. It contains what will almost certainly be regarded as Robert
> Redford's last great film performance when it comes time for *his*
> eulogy, and that performance is matched step-by-step and
> nuance-by-nuance by Brad Pitt's.
>
> The casting is nothing short of brilliant. Redford plays Cold War spy
> master Nathan Muir, on what is supposed to be the last day of his career
> at the CIA. He's retiring at the end of the day, and going off to live
> in the not-quite-paradise-but-good-enough-for-an-old-spy beach house
> he's managed to scrimp and save for in the islands. He's one of the
> rarest of the rare -- an Old School Spy who managed to survive long
> enough to retire.
>
> And then the phone call comes. A younger former colleague -- who Nathan
> would refer to in spy-speak as an "asset," not a friend, or even a
> surrogate son -- has been arrested in China trying to break another
> former colleague out of prison. He's due to be executed for this.
>
> Nathan is called into a tribunal of the people who now run the CIA, who
> demand that he tell them everything he knows about this rogue agent who
> has now embarrassed the Agency so thoroughly. Redford -- and Scott -- do
> so through a series of flashbacks, starting with Tom Bishop's (Pitt)
> recruitment, and going forward from there. To us in the audience it
> quickly becomes clear that no matter how much Nathan may say that the
> first rule of being a spy master is to "never risk anything for an
> asset," Tom Bishop is not just any old asset. What makes the casting of
> this film so perfect is that -- as Tony Scott clearly recognized -- Brad
> Pitt could *easily* be Robert Redford's real-life son. The resemblance
> is uncanny.
>
> The questioning of Nathan Muir continues, on many levels. On one level
> there are the smug assholes who are glad to see him go, leaving them in
> charge of the Agency. They think he's over the hill, and just can't get
> him out of the building fast enough, and are resentful that they've got
> to rely on his information to figure out what to do about either trying
> to rescue Tom Bishop, or just abandon him and allow him to be executed.
>
> On another level, there is Nathan Muir, completely in charge, like a
> chess Grand Master playing simultaneous games with 50 different
> opponents, and never having to break a sweat in any of them. I will hint
> no further at how this chess game turns out, allowing those who haven't
> seen the film to enjoy it for themselves.
>
> What I will say is that what makes this movie so great for me and that
> makes me remember Tony Scott fondly is that it's a film about ethics.
> Quiet ethics. The kind that lay low and don't advertise themselves, and
> may even be characterized by the ethical character denying that he has
> any ethics at all. Redford just ROCKS at this kind of nuanced
> performance, and in my opinion he should have gotten a second Best Actor
> nomination (his first was for "The Sting") for it.
>
> Give "Spy Game" a try. I think you'll like it.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_EbWbr0HDs
> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_EbWbr0HDs>
>
