SCOTT, Ridley

(1939-)

   UK film-maker who has worked mostly in the USA. After making a name with a series of stylish, inventive tv commercials, RS made his feature debut with The Duellists (1977), a period film adapted from a story by Joseph CONRAD. He then went on to direct 2 of the most influential and important sf films of the last 15 years: ALIEN (1979) and BLADE RUNNER (1982), the latter an adaption of Philip K. DICK's DoAndroids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968). RS is a visionary, at least in terms of production design, and both his sf films conjure up a detailed and utterly convincing future (whose style RS later recycled in tv advertisements for a bank); Blade Runner is particularly powerful in its design, and proved an influence on the CYBERPUNK movement. However, after these films RS vanished into the (comparatively well publicized) limbo of Legend (1985), a fairy tale resembling a feature-length advertisement forhairspray. He made a tentative commercial comeback with Someone to Watch Over Me (1987) and Black Rain (1989), both policiers whose content wasmore conventional than their style. RS's films are mostly underconceived on a script and character level, and thus can appear cold. He had a big, if controversial, success, however, with the effective and satisfying Thelma and Louise (1991), a female road movie about two women escapingroutine and put-upon lives and revenging themselves against various forms of sexism; it and the 2 sf films are RS's best work.RS's brother Tony Scott has directed one borderline-sf film about vampires - The Hunger(1983) - whose exotic visual qualities fail to eclipse its narrative failings, rather as in RS's own lesser films.

KN/PN

   See also: CINEMA; HORROR IN SF; MONSTER MOVIES.