Few directors have managed to have as much of an impact on action films as the late, great Tony Scott. The filmmaker behind classics like “Top Gun,” “True Romance” and “Crimson Tide” (and younger brother to Ridley Scott) is largely responsible for many of the stylistic traits now associated with Hollywood action blockbusters — the roving camera, the frenetic editing, the bone-crunching fight sequences. And while Scott was not alone in pioneering the genre — nor did he ever manage to reach the heights of some of his contemporaries — he, without a doubt, remained an exciting director throughout his career, churning out grounded, character-driven movies that were as idiosyncratic as they were exhilarating all the way up to his last feature, “Unstoppable.”
READ MORE: The Essentials: The Five Best Tony Scott Films
In essence, according to the fitting new video essay by Rossatron, Tony Scott was a trailblazer of the gonzo, adrenaline-infused, pure cinema that has since been appropriated by the unfortunate likes of Michael Bay, Zack Snyder and their ilk — the sort of all-out, no-holds-barred filmmaking that shamelessly throws everything up onto the screen. And while nuance was not his forte, Scott consistently kept his films focused on people. Sure, the spectacle was given the forefront, but Scott never failed to ground his films in startlingly compelling characters (certainly compared to Bay and Snyder). Not to mention — again — that where many of his successors fell prey to the destruction-porn epidemic of the summer tentpole, Scott kept his films firmly tethered to a strong semblance of realism (“Déjà Vu” notwithstanding), albeit one with plenty of shootouts and car chases.
And, above all, Scott was a director who, for better or worse, made all of his choices with clear, articulated reason. So, whether or not you could get on board with the absolutely batshit editing of some of his work (we’re looking at you, “Domino”), the man could at least justify his thinking and prove that everything was in service of character and story. All of which leaves us, four years on from his untimely death, looking back at everything he did, and wondering just what he might have had up his sleeve next.
So, while Scott might have been a divisive filmmaker, missing the mark as often as he hit, he was nonetheless a singular artist who greatly influenced a genre as we know it. Check out Rossatron’s “Tony Scott: An Artist Of Pure Cinema” above for a much-appreciated, in-depth look at the director and weigh in with your favorite Tony Scott film in the comments.