Tag Archives: Christopher Walken

Tony Scott: The Last Boy Scout

20 Aug

Photo: REUTERS

Tony Scott was a maverick.  His films were frenetic and full of bristling kinetic energy and unbridled action.  Critical acclaim often eluded him despite directing genre defining classics such as Top Gun (one of my favourite films and the inspiration for this blog), True Romance and the brilliant The Last Boy Scout.

He blazed a trail for the action thriller and collaborated with some of the greatest names in cinematic history: brother Ridley, Robert Redford, Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman and famously five-time collaborator/muse Denzel Washington.  His films were raw, hectic, relentless and yes sometimes flawed, but they were undeniably Tony Scott films.

His influence is far reaching, he’s been oft imitated but rarely matched and it’s unlikely we’ll see his likes again.

For Maverick, Goose, Joe Hallenbeck & Jimmy Dix, Alabama Whitman and Drexel Spivey I salute you…

The Deer Hunter (1978)

3 Jul

You wanna play games? All right, I’ll play your fucking games.

Headhunters (2011)

9 Apr

Stieg Larsson’s phenomenally successful Millennium trilogy bought gritty Scandinavian thrillers to the world’s attention, which has undoubtedly benefited Norwegian novelist Jo Nesbø. Famed for his pitch-black Harry Hole crime-thriller series,  Nesbø is particularly skilled in crafting the flawed good-guy character (Hole, a brilliant detective, is also a heavy smoker and an alcoholic), an art that is clearly evident in Morten Tyldum’s adaptation of Nesbø’s 2008 stand-alone novel “Headhunters.”

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