Ridley Scott is not entertained — at least, not by modern cinema.
The legendary director of Alien, Gladiator and Blade Runner says films today are so hopelessly mediocre he’s taken to re-watching some of his old movies instead.
As reported by UK Yahoo News, the British director was speaking at the BFI Southbank about how he tends to watch plenty of films and TV shows, especially to find new talent to cast in his projects (he spotted Gladiator II‘s Paul Mescal, for example, from watching the BBC miniseries Normal People).
Only lately, watching the latest titles has become a bit of a grind for the 87-year-old filmmaker.
“Well, right now I’m finding mediocrity, we’re drowning in mediocrity,” Scott said. “The quantity of movies that are made today, literally globally, millions. There’s not thousands, there’s millions, and most of it is shit — 80-60 percent ‘eh,’ 40 percent is the rest, and 25 percent of that 40 is not bad, and 10 percent is pretty good, and the top 5 percent is great.”
Scott acknowledged that his math might not be perfect. “I’m not sure about the portion of what I’ve just said,” he added. “But in the 1940s, when there were perhaps 300 movies made, 70 percent of them were similar, for example. I think a lot of films today are saved, and made more expensive by digital effects. Because what they haven’t got is a great [script] on paper first. Get it on paper.”
But you know what is worth watching, and re-watching? Scott’s own movies. Even for Scott.
“So what I do — and it’s a horrible thing — but I’ve started to watch my own movies, and actually they’re really good,” Scott said. “And also, they don’t age … I watched Black Hawk Down the other night and I thought, ‘How the hell did I do that?’ But I think that occasionally there’s a good one that will happen, it’s like a relief that there’s somebody out there who’s doing a good movie.”
Scott is correct about many of his movies — particularly his historical and sci-fi titles — having a timeless quality. Scott’s 1979 Alien, for example, with its reliance on practically special effects, visually holds up better than most of the film’s sequels.
“[It] was pretty fraught doing Alien, actually,” Scott added about that classic title. “Between my producers, everyone had an opinion, and I was not used to opinions. I’d been on my own boss for years. I had to literally draw the line in the sand and say, ‘Back off. Watch me do this, okay?’ And so it was not a good experience.”