Raw L. The Ridley Scott Encyclopedia

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

which the ends of cinema, mapping and globalization are

shown interrelated.”

Other critics have tried to place Gladiator within the

tradition of Hollywood representations of Ancient Rome,

stretching back to the early years of the twentieth century.

Sandra R. Joshel, Margaret Mahmud, and Maria Wyke’s

introduction to the collection Imperial Projections (2001)

argues that such representations are so pervasive that “most

Americans and Europeans . . . receive their principal contact

with the ancient world through popular culture . . . televi-

sion programs purporting to present the ‘real’ Rome use

clips from Hollywood’s historical epics to bring ancient

Rome to life.” Such films are usually profitable at the box

office: James Russell argues that “Gladiator was an example

of the profit-oriented, collaborative filmmaking [using his-

torical subjects] that tends to dominate mainstream film

production in Hollywood.” Audiences responded favorably

to the kind of material showing “an idealistic, politically

motivated entertainer [i.e., Scott] bending the confines of

his chosen medium in an attempt to affect the lives of audi-

ences . . . Gladiator seemed to argue that historical epics were

desperately needed in contemporary film culture, despite

perceived economic risks attached to the form.”

The film Gladiator has been the subject of a parody by

Cleolinda Jones in her book Movies in Fifteen Minutes.

References

Kathleen M. Coleman, “The Pedant Goes to Hollywood: The Role

of the Historical Consultant,” in Gladiator: Film and History,ed.

Martin M. Winkler (Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell Publish-

ing Ltd., 2004), 52; Tom Conley, Cartographic Cinema (Minneapo-

lis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 206; Monica S. Cyrino,

“Gladiator and Contemporary American Society,” in Gladiator:

Film and History, 148; Arthur M. Eckstein, “Commodus and the

Limits of the Roman Empire,” in Gladiator: Film and History, 72;

Leslie Felperin, “Decline and Brawl,” Sight and Sound, June 2000,

35; David Franzoni,“Gladiator: First Draft (revised 4 April 1998),”

www.hundland.com/scripts/Gladiator_FirstDraft.txt (accessed 28

July 2008); David Franzoni,“Gladiator: Second Draft (revised 22

October 1998), www.hundland.com/scripts/Gladiator_Second-

Draft.txt (accessed 28 July 2008); “Gladiator by David Franzoni,

revised by John Logan, Transcribed from the film,” http://

sfy.ru/sfy/html?script=gladiator_ts (accessed 29 November 2008);

Cleolinda Jones, Movies in Fifteen Minutes (London: Gollancz,

2005); Sandra R. Joshel, Margaret Mahmud and Maria Wyke,

“Introduction,” in Imperial Projections: Ancient Rome in Modern

Popular Culture, ed. Sandra M. Joshel, Margaret Mahmud, and

Donald T. McGuire Jr. (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins

University Press, 2001), 1–22; James R. Keller, Queer (Un)friendly

Film and Television (Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland and

Co.[Publishers], 2002), 95–96; Sean Macaulay, “Gladiator,” The

Times, 8 May 2000, 20–21; Andrew O’Hagan, “Move Over, Ben

Hur,” Daily Telegraph, 12 May 2000, 21; Arthur J. Pomeroy, “The

Vision of a Fascist Rome in Gladiator,” in Gladiator: Film and His-

tory, 123; Peter W. Rose, “The Politics of Gladiator,” in Gladiator:

Film and History, 172; David S. Potter, “Gladiators and Blood

Sport,” in Gladiator: Film and History, 86; “The Reaper,”“Sacred

Cows: Gladiator,” Uncut 62 (July 2002): 24; Richard Rushton,“Nar-

rative and Spectacle in Gladiator,” CineAction 56 (September 2001):

40; James Russell, The Historical Epic and Contemporary Hollywood:

From Dances With Wolves to Gladiator (New York and London: The

Continuum International Publishing Group Inc., 2007), 180–81;

Ridley Scott, “Director’s Commentary” to the Extended Special

Edition of Gladiator (Los Angeles: Universal Studios, 2005); Rid-

ley Scott, quoted in Diana Landau, ed., Gladiator: The Making of

the Ridley Scott Epic (Basingstoke and London: Boxtree, 2000), 26,

28, 50; Alexander Walker, “Thumbs Up for Russell,” Evening Stan-

dard, 11 May 2000, 29–30; Allen M. Ward,“Gladiator in Historical

Perspective,” in Gladiator: Film and History, 31–45; Martin M. Win-

kler, “Gladiator and the Traditions of Historical Cinema,” in Glad-

iator: Film and History, 16–31; Aylish Wood, “Timescapes in

Particular Cinema: Crossing the Great Divide of Spectacle Versus

Narrative,” Screen 43, no.4 (Winter 2002): 378–79.

Bibliography

David Bigorgne, “De L’Histoire de la Fable: Gladiator ou le Retour

du Péplum-Opéra,” CinémAction 112 (June 2004): 50–65; Rory

Carroll, “Better Than the Real Thing,”

The Guardian,

5 May 2000,

10–11; Julian Champkin,“The Gladiator Fights Again,” Daily Mail

Weekend, 6 May 2000, 18–20; Vilashini Cooppan, “The Ruins of

Empire: The National Politics of America’s Return to Rome,” in

Postcolonial Studies and Beyond, ed. Ania Loomba, Suvir Kaul, Matti

Bunzl, Antoinette Burton, and Jed Esty (Durham and London:

Duke University Press, 2005), 80–100; Monica Silveira Cyrino, Big-

Screen Rome (Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,

2005), 207–57; Brant Drewery, “Veni, Vidi, VT,” Creation (June

2000): 12–15; Martin Fradley, “Maximus Melodramaticus: Mas-

culinity, Masochism and White Male Paranoia in Contemporary

Hollywood Cinema,” in Action and Adventure Cinema, ed. Yvonne

Tasker (London and New York: Routledge, 2004), 235–51; Debra

Kaufman,“Wam!net Eases Transatlantic Production,” American

Cinematographer 81, no.5 (May 2000): 40; Alex Lewin, “Rome Wasn’t

Filmed in a Day,” Premiere 13, no.8 (May 2000): 43–46; Kevin H.

Martin, “A Cut Above,” Cinefex 82 (July 2000): 14–31; John Millar,

“Blade Runner,” Film Review 594 (June 2000): 62–67; John Millar,

“Gladiator,” Film Review Special #51 (2004): 6065; Mark Morris,

“Empire Strikes Back,” Observer Screen 23 (April 2000): 2–3; Garth

Pearce, “A Barbaric World …” Total Film 41 (June 2000): 46–55;

Hilary Radner, “Hollywood Redux: All About My Mother and

Gladiator,” in The End of Cinema as We Know It: American Film in

the Nineties, ed. Jon Lewis (New York and London: New York Uni-

versity Press, 2001), 72–83; Stephen Rebello, “The Real Fight Club,”

Movieline 11, no.8 (May 2000): 68–73; Damian Sutton,“Inside the

‘Black Box:’ From Jacques-Louis David to Ridley Scott,” in Screen

140

■

GLADIATOR

Methods: Comparative Readings in Film Studies, ed. Jacqueline

Furby and Karen Randall (London and New York: Wallflower Press,

2005), 72–83; T. P. Wiseman, “Gladiator and the Myths of Rome,”

History Today 55, no.4 (April 2005): 37–43.

GLADIATOR: EXTENDED SPECIAL EDITION

US 2005 r/t 164 min col. A rerelease of the original 2000 film,

including seventeen minutes of extra material (which hith-

erto had only been available on previous DVD releases as

deleted scenes). The extra material includes the following:

after the battle scene at the beginning of the film, Maximus

(RUSSELL CROWE) walks through the Roman camp survey-

ing his wounded troops; Proximo (OLIVER REED) instructs

Maximus not to kill the other gladiators so quickly and to

provide entertainment for the crowd; Lucilla (CONNIE

NIELSEN) meets with several members of the Senate in secret

at Gracchus’s (DEREK JACOBI’s) residence as they complain

about Commodus’s (JOAQUIN PHOENIX’s) poor leader-

ship; after learning that Maximus is alive, Commodus goes to

a dark room filled with busts of previous Roman leaders. He

picks up a sword and begins to strike his father’s bust before

tearfully hugging and kissing it; Commodus presides over the

execution of two Praetorian guards who have been accused of

withholding information from Commodus about Max-

imus’s whereabouts; as Proximo drinks some wine, two spies

are seen in the background (they have been employed by

Commodus to discover the possible plot to overthrow him).

GLADIATOR—A HERO WILL RISE

Novelization of the screenplay written by DAVID FRAN-

ZONI and JOHN LOGAN for GLADIATOR, written by

Dewey Gram and published by Onyx in the US and Penguin

Books (in Great Britain) in 2000.

The novel follows the basic outline of the screenplay,

even down to the characters’ speeches. It is advertised thus:

“Fighting for his life and his honour, Maximus soon

becomes one of the most feared gladiators in the empire. But

when his enemy Commodus orders a great gladiator spec-

tacle in Rome, Maximus’s struggle for survival becomes a

fight for revenge ...revealing that the one power stronger

than that of the emperor is the will of the people.” Penguin

Books also published a 1,700-word adaptation of the novel

(by Annette Keen), designed for learners of English.

References

Annette Keen, Gladiator: A Hero Will Rise (London: Pearson Edu-

cation Ltd., 2000); Dewey Gram, Gladiator: A Hero Will Rise (Lon-

don: Penguin Books, 2000).

“GLADIATOR 2”

The screenplay for the as-yet-unproduced sequel to GLAD-

IATOR, written by Nick Cave. It was conceived as an anti-

war film, in which Maximus (RUSSELL CROWE) comes

back to life as the eternal warrior. The final scene takes place

in Vietnam. A detailed summary of the story is now acces-

sible online at http://goneelsewhere.wordpress.com/2008/04/

15/gladiator-2-script-review/.

GLEESON, BRENDAN (1955– )

Born in Dublin, Gleeson began his career as a teacher before

turning to acting and making his film debut in The Field

(1990). Cast as Reynald de Chatillon in KINGDOM OF

HEAVEN, Gleeson has a largely minor role as a bloodthirsty

Christian who admits that killing Muslims is “what [he]

do[es].” With his red hair and bushy red beard, he looks a

fearsome sight—the very epitome of an aggressive warrior.

He ultimately meets an untimely end as Saladin (GHASSAN

MASSOUD) slits his throat for daring to sip a glass of water

intended for Guy De Lusignan (MARTON CSOKAS). As

well as murdering innocent Muslim citizens, Reynald has

compounded his felony by committing a social faux pas. In

Saladin’s view he deserves to die. In KINGDOM OF

HEAVEN: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT Reynald meets an even

more grisly fate; he is decapitated.

Gleeson’s subsequent highlights include portraying WIN-

STON CHURCHILL in the recent film Into the Storm (2009),

the Scott-produced sequel to THE GATHERING STORM.

GOLDMAN, ALAIN (1961– )

Producer of 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE.Formerly

worked in the studio system, but worked hard to raise the

independent finances for the film by preselling the foreign

rights to different countries, as well as relying on finance

from the American studio Paramount Pictures and from the

French company Antenne 2. Paramount contributed 20 per-

cent of the total budget of $45 million in exchange for the

North American rights, thanks to Scott’s friendship with

STANLEY R. JAFFE; while Antenne 2 contributed just about

15 percent. According to Jean-Pierre Lavoignat and Laurent

Tirard, it was Goldman’s idea to raise finance this way so

that the production would be totally independent. Iceland

was one of the first, followed by France, then Great Britain,

and then America. The projected budget was set at $45 mil-

lion; Todd Coleman estimates that the eventual cost was

about $2 million more.

References

Todd Coleman,“How Columbus Discovered Europe,” Premiere (US

ed.), November 1992, 64; Jean-Pierre Lavoignat and Laurent Tirard,

“Christophe Colomb: Les Secrets,” Studio 66 (October 1992): 71–79.

Bibliography

Marie-Claude Arbaudie, “1492: Christophe Colomb,” Le Film

Français No. 2422 (2 October 1992): 9–10.

GOLDMAN, ALAIN (1961– )

■

141

GOLDSMITH, JERRY (1929–2004)

Goldsmith began his career in television with music for

series such as Gunsmoke, The Man from UNCLE and Dr. Kil-

dare. He subsequently worked on films such as ALIEN,for

which there were at least three different scores recorded: the

original score composed by Goldsmith himself; the music

track composed by TERRY RAWLINGS to give Scott flexi-

bility during the film’s editing difficulties; and the music

used by Scott for the film’s original release (1979). All three

versions of the score were included on the ALIEN

QUADRILOGY boxed set.

Goldsmith’s music reflects the film’s underlying mood

with its use of bleak orchestrations, most notably in the

higher woodwinds, oscillating string-textures and bizarre,

sometimes savage sounds, especially from the brass section,

which his arranger Arthur Morton built from the orchestral

palette with various modern compositional techniques.

Goldsmith also composed a main theme in the romantic

style that barely appears in the finished film. A short passage

from Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” plays during the

scene in which Dallas (TOM SKERRITT) spends some time

alone relaxing in the shuttle Narcissus. Scott and editor Terry

Rawlings became quite attached to several of the preexisting

cues that they had used for the temporary score while edit-

ing the film; as a result Goldsmith’s score was combined with

a temp score, and the final minutes of the first movement of

Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2 (“Romantic”), which

replaced Goldsmith’s music for the film’s concluding

moments of the film’s showdown.

Over the years several bootlegged copies of Goldsmith’s

score appeared on the market, among them a Spanish two-

CD release with all used and unused cues, including the

retained temp score, and an archive bootleg that also

included alternate takes from the recording sessions. On 15

November 2007 Intrada Records released the complete score

to the film with additional alternate score tracks and the

original LP-program in a two-CD set. In 1980 Goldsmith’s

film music for Alien received nominations for the Golden

Globe Award (Best Original Film Score).

On the strength of Goldsmith’s contribution to Alien,he

was asked to provide an eighty-minute score for LEGEND,a

work the composer later described as “one of the best sound-

tracks I’ve ever done.” However, Goldsmith’s score was

replaced by a more modern-sounding track from the Ger-

man synthesizer band TANGERINE DREAM after MCA’s

chief executive Sidney Sheinberg demanded that the film

should be rendered more commercial prior to its American

release. Goldsmith was particularly incensed by the change

and never worked with Ridley Scott again. Goldsmith’s score

(restored to the film in LEGEND: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT)

was naturalistic in style, designed to complement the fairy-

tale elements of the story. He made use of a full symphony

orchestra, which resulted in a score that combined well with

Scott’s memorable use of images. If Scott was inspired by

French filmmakers such as Truffaut (L’ENFANT SAUVAGE),

so Goldsmith was moved by composers such as Debussy and

Ravel. Goldsmith acknowledged that the waltz accompany-

ing Lily’s (MIA SARA’s) seduction by Darkness (TIM

CURRY) was definitely influenced by Ravel’s “La Valse.” The

score contained character motifs—for example an erratic

sound cutting in and out at the beginning signaling Blix’s

(ALICE PLAYTEN’s) entrance. Andy Dursin wrote that the

Goldsmith score “gives Legend a lyrical sense of grandeur that

was completely missing from the Tangerine Dream score.”

References

Andy Dursin, “Legend Resurrected,” Film Score Monthly 7, no.4

(May/June 2002): 14; Jerry Goldsmith, quoted in Matthew Aitken,

“LEGEND: Ridley Scott (The Remnants of a Masterpiece),”

http://www.figmentfly.com/legend/different4i.html (accessed 25

April 2008).

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

US 2006 r/t 167 min col. Production Companies: Universal

Pictures, Morgan Creek Productions, Tribeca Productions

and American Zoetrope. Producers: Robert de Niro, James

G. Robinson and Jane Rosenthal. Director: Robert de Niro.

Writer: Eric Roth. Director of Photography: Robert Richard-

son. Production Designer: Jeannine Oppewall. Music:Bruce

Fowler and Marcelo Zarvos. Cast: Matt Damon (Edward

Wilson), Angelina Jolie (Margaret “Clover” Russell), Alec

Baldwin (Sam Murach), Billy Crudup (Arch Cummings),

Robert de Niro (Bill Sullivan), Michael Gambon (Dr. Fred-

ericks), William Hurt (Philip Allen).

The tumultuous early history of the CIA as viewed

through one man’s life. Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) is a

morally upright young man who values honor and discre-

tion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in

the organization. While working there, his ideals gradually

turn to suspicion, influenced by the Cold War paranoia pres-

ent within the office. Eventually, he becomes an influential

veteran operative, while his distrust of everyone around him

increases.

The subject of this film is very similar to that of the Rid-

ley Scott-produced miniseries THE COMPANY, released a

year later. Damon’s character is a fictionalized portrait of

James Jesus Angleton, played by MICHAEL KEATON in the

miniseries.

A GOOD YEAR

USA/GB 2006 r/t 118 min col. Production Companies:Fox

2000 Pictures and Scott Free. Producer/Director: Ridley Scott.

Writer: Marc Klein, based on the book by Peter Mayle. Direc-

tor of Photography: Philippe Le Sourd. Production Designer:

142

■

GOLDSMITH, JERRY (1929–2004)

Sonja Klaus. Music: Marc Streitenfeld. Cast: Russell Crowe

(Max Skinner), Albert Finney (Uncle Henry), Marion Cotil-

lard (Fanny Chenal), Abbie Cornish (Christie Roberts),

Didier Bourdon (Francis Duflot, Tom Hollander (Charlie

Wills), Freddie Highmore (Young Max).

The film (and the book by PETER MAYLE that pre-

ceded it) was inspired by a story published in The Times of

Hugh Ryman, a young British entrepreneur who moved to

FRANCE when his father sold the family stationery busi-

ness. He had studied winemaking in Bordeaux and in the

centers of Yquem and Latour. With a combination of sheer

energy and the latest technology, Ryman had created a suc-

cessful business producing mid-price wines appealing to all

consumers.

In an interview with Jack Foley, Scott claimed that he

and Mayle—both of whom have houses in PROVENCE—

were swapping stories about their experiences in the coun-

try one New Year’s Eve. Scott called Mayle the next day and

suggested that “‘What we were talking about would be a

good book,’ and he said, ‘Yes, it would.’ So I said, ‘You write

the book and I’ll do the movie.’ It was quick, only about four

years ago.” Mayle’s book (also called A Good Year) appeared

in 2004 and quickly became a best-seller. Scott commis-

sioned MARC KLEIN to write the screenplay.

According to the Foley interview, casting was a two-

tiered affair. Having worked with RUSSELL CROWE on

GLADIATOR, Scott had established a close personal and pro-

fessional relationship with him. The two met in Hollywood,

where Scott “spouted on about this [film] and [Crowe later]

called me and said, ‘You know, that stuck with me. It might

be quite a nice thing to explore.’” Once Crowe’s participation

was assured, financing the film became much easier—even

though Twentieth Century-Fox executives were a little skep-

tical about Scott and Crowe working on a comedy. Scott

eventually convinced the studio that A Good Year was not

just a comedy but “a romantic dramedy ...driven by really

good characters in situations that they get put into that for

the most part, are amusing.” In terms of style, the film was

planned very much like MATCHSTICK MEN.

Scott cast two French actors, MARION COTILLARD

(Fanny) and DIDIER BOURDON (Duflot) in major roles.

FREDDIE HIGHMORE was engaged to play the young Max;

according to the pressbook he built up a good relationship

with Crowe: “Russell said to him,‘Hi Freddie, I’m going to be

Max.’ Freddie says,‘Yes, I know.’ Russell says,‘Maybe we should

get together’ Freddie says,‘Why?’ and Russell says,‘Well, you’re

going to be acting, I’m going to be acting, don’t you think it

would be useful?’ and he said, ‘I don’t think so.’ That was it.”

ALBERT FINNEY agreed to play Uncle Henry (who was only

referred to in Mayle’s book, but had been transformed into a

major character in Klein’s screenplay). A Good Year was his

fourth film with Scott as director or producer—the other

three being THE DUELLISTS, THE BROWNING VERSION,

and THE GATHERING STORM.

Filming took place in autumn 2005 in an area close to

Scott’s house in Provence. Choosing a location for Uncle

Henry’s Château La Siroque proved difficult: Scott looked at

almost a dozen locations in the area between Rousillon and

Bonnieux, before coming back to the first one, La Canorgue,

which according to the pressbook had “[a] spectacular view

looking out over the Luberon, and the magical dusk light

that bathes the main house in the late afternoon.”

The film opened in late 2006 to lukewarm reviews.

Despite the success of Matchstick Men, critics seemed unwill-

ing (or unable) to acknowledge that Scott could direct com-

edy. The Times objected to his use of “broad cultural

stereotypes,” while Sight and Sound felt that “‘jolly’ is not a

word one associates with Scott. His forte lies in the vivid

realisation of spectacular, violent worlds . . . A Good Year,

though tastefully photographed, comes to embody one char-

acter’s closing prediction (denied by Max) of what life in the

chateau will be: an attractive prospect but ultimately ener-

vating.” Other reviewers felt that Crowe had been funda-

mentally miscast in a comic role: “[He] doesn’t have the

chops to convince as a devil-may-care English wit ...Crowe

enters the story as an insufferably self-satisfied boor—and

departs it unchanged.” The Empire reviewer felt that the

combination of Scott and Crowe was just too weighty for the

material: “There’s a forced jauntiness, a sense of careful cal-

culation whizzing away behind the comedy beats, from

Crowe’s intense pratfalls as Max to escape a derelict swim-

ming pool, to his plummy exclamations of ‘bollocks’ at every

available opportunity.” The Sunday Telegraph treated the film

as “de luxe eye candy, beautifully shot and adequately acted,

and mildly refreshing in the way that Max remains, if not

nearly as horrid as he was in London, then certainly far from

a saint.” The Guardian described with ill-disguised glee how

A Good Year has been received in France: “The newspaper

Libération ...accused Scott of leaving no cliché unturned

and of pandering to British middle-class fantasies of life in

France . . . We also have to mention the pitiful performance

of Russell Crowe, supposedly playing a witty and laid-back

person, when the Australian actor is better known for his

cantankerous temperament than for his notoriously non-

existent comic abilities.”

A Good Year opened to poor box-office receipts; on the

opening weekend in America, it took only $3.7 million, and

by January 2007 its total gross was $7.5 million. The esti-

mated cost of making the film was $35 million. As Scott sug-

gested later in 2007, however, perhaps the critics were less

than fair in their evaluation: “[W]ith A Good Year we really

got beaten up. A journalist told me how much he liked it,

and I said, ‘Really? Did you write about it?’ and he said, ‘No.’

That says it all.”

A GOOD YEAR

■

143

The film’s plot focuses the contrast between the high-

tech world of the City of London and the more leisurely

pace of life in Provence. Klein’s script describes the Lawton

Brothers’ Office Building (where Max works) thus: “A three-

story glass and concrete box at the top end of Threadneedle

Street.” Inside “a platoon of young, Savile Row-draped bond

traders sit at their desks.” In this money-obsessed world, no

one cares about the view outside; they are solely concerned

about “the plasma screens that broadcast business reports

from all over the world.” Max’s well-appointed apartment is

“shrouded in a gloomy soup of drizzle and fog”—although

“sleek, modern [and] expensively appointed,” its glass walls

“give the impression that the place is literally floating in the

foggy dawn sky.” The overwhelming image is one of dislo-

cation: Max works and lives in concrete boxes, sealed off

from the outside world. In one of the few exterior sequences

set in London, Max observes the rain-washed streets around

Piccadilly Circus, thronged with people rushing from place

to place with little time to stop and think. Such images of

DYSTOPIA recall earlier films—notably the futuristic world

of Los Angeles in BLADE RUNNER and late 1980s Osaka in

BLACK RAIN.

Life in Uncle Henry’s château and its environs can be

best summed up by the lyrics of the Noël Coward song “A

Room with a View,” which plays on the soundtrack as Max

looks around Henry’s book-lined study (“A room with a

view, and you,/ And no one to hurry us/ No one to worry us

. . . ”). Provence is identified with lasting values; the sun-

shine, the “pinwheel of colors in the sky” at sunset, and “a

stunning view of the vineyard and the Luberon valley.” This

is the perfect place where Henry “can keep busy doing so lit-

tle and enjoy it so much”; whose inhabitants work not to

make money but to identify themselves with nature: “there’s

a magnificent poetry in his [Duflot’s] devotion to each and

every grape.” Fanny’s life as a bistro-owner transforms her

into “an iridescent Provençal beauty,” whose complexion

matches the sky. Scott’s imagery recalls The Duellists and

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, in which France is associated with

lasting values unchanged for centuries.

With Max identified with the dog-eat-dog world of the

City, it is not surprising that his uncle should have chosen

not leave the château to him: “[H]e worried about what you

[Max] had become. ‘My nephew is selfish,’ he used to say.

‘How can I give La Siroque to a man who can’t even appre-

ciate the simple pleasures in life?’” As the film unfolds, so

Max’s point of view alters. He successfully prevents the sale

of the château by forging a letter in his uncle’s hand, speci-

fying that it should be left to his illegitimate daughter

Christie Roberts (ABBIE CORNISH). Meanwhile Max vis-

its his boss Sir Nigel (Kenneth Cranham) and notices a

reproduction of a Van Gogh painting on the wall of a rolling

Provençal landscape with exquisite swirls of color and tex-

ture. At this moment he understands the importance of the

French countryside, which should be experienced at first-

hand rather than through a reproduction. He gives up his

job and follows his uncle’s example in pursuing a life of

leisure. Rather than wearing Armani suits, he dons comfort-

able clothes, with his “shirt-top opened . . . [looking] a hel-

luva lot like Henry.”

CHILDHOOD is conceived in A Good Year as a time

when boys and girls learn their most important lessons

about life. In a series of flashbacks young Max learns the sig-

nificance of the Provençal wine industry, which to Henry

represents “nothing more than the art of bottling truth . . .

wine will always whisper into your mouth with complete,

unabashed honesty, every time you take a sip.” In another

sequence where Henry beats young Max at tennis, Max

learns that “the act of losing . . . can elicit great wisdom …

not the least of which is how much more enjoyable it is to

win.” More importantly Max learns the value of companion-

ship: Henry treats him as an equal—as seen, for instance,

when young Max bowls the perfect off-cutter, or fast pitch,

to dismiss (strike out) his uncle in a game of indoor cricket.

Henry remarks at one point that “you’re a genius, Maximil-

ian. You could be me.” This represents the opposite side of

the coin to the view of childhood expressed in THE BROWN-

ING VERSION, where young boys are brought up to sup-

press their instincts in a single-sex private school. The older

Max only comes to understand the value of his past experi-

ences when he puts the drunken Christy to bed: “God, I

loved being here with him [Henry]. No bedtime, no chores,

and best of all, no squabbling adults. I never told him, but

those summers saved my childhood.” Christy wishes him

good night (“Thanks a million, Max-a-million”) and Max

pulls up with a start: “No one has ever called me that, except

Uncle Henry.”

Once Max embraces the Provençal life, his childhood

memories come flooding back. In a final flashback the ten-

year-old Fanny (described even then as “gorgeous and a bit

dangerous”) swims across the pool towards him and gives

him his first kiss. Thus it seems somehow fitting that the two

of them are reunited at the end of the film.

In contrast to BLACK HAWK DOWN and AMERICAN

FIGHTER PILOT, both of which support the idea of the

nuclear family, A Good Year suggests that the idea of belong-

ing is more significant. Max’s “family” at the château not

only includes Fanny but Duflot, Ludivine (Isabelle Cande-

lier), and Christie. Duflot in particular mourns Henry’s pass-

ing; he admits to Max that “we became very close . . . Almost

like father and son.” Needless to say Max at this point does

not understand in the least what the old man means. How-

ever when Christie tells him that her childhood was similar

to his own (both of them grew up without parents), and

they are still in a sense searching for security, Max’s attitude

144

■

A GOOD YEAR

begins to change. At length he admits to Fanny that Henry

was the only person he had ever loved, and that he could not

work out why he stopped coming to the château. The attrac-

tions of the château are summed up in the final sequence,

where Max sits on the edge of the wall watching the gypsy-

pickers do their work and listening to Christie and Duflot

arguing about the best way to cut the stems. Fanny and

Madame Duflot enter the frame, placing lunch on the table,

adjusting flowers and uncorking wine. Klein’s screenplay

acknowledges that while La Siroque might be “just a tiny

piece of terroir in a very big world,” it is inhabited by a close-

knit community.

A Good Year charts the characters’ progress towards

mutual understanding. At first they are prisoners of their

cultural preconceptions: Fanny believes that Max’s taste in

food extends solely to McDonald’s or fish and chips; Max

describes Duflot as a French tosspot and Duflot in turn

thinks of Max as an English prick. As the action unfolds, so

their attitudes begin to change; this is chiefly signaled by

their behavior during meals. Max and Fanny go out one

evening and share a delicate display of food spread on a

white cloth. Duflot invites Max and Christie to an elaborate

dinner including thrush paté, eggplant purée, headless larks

and civet of wild boar. Fueled with liberal quantities of wine

and Marc de Provence, the guests gradually lose their inhibi-

tions and start to enjoy one another’s company. With

its array of bizarre food, the meal itself recalls a similar

sequence in HANNIBAL, where the eponymous hero

(ANTHONY HOPKINS) fries Krendler’s (RAY LIOTTA’s)

brains in butter. Whereas Hannibal treats the occasion as a

performance, showing off his culinary skills as well as his

cannibalistic inclinations, the Duflot’s dinner in A Good Year

brings people together. Although ending somewhat abruptly,

as Christie exits in a drunken stupor vowing to find her way

back to the château, the meal shows how people of different

cultural backgrounds can interact with one another if they

are prepared to indulge in a little give and take. Max under-

stands Christie’s motives for coming to the château in the

first place; and finds out about the mysterious Le Coin Perdu

wine; Duflot begins to comprehend Max’s businesslike view

of life; while Duflot’s elderly father (Jacques Herlin) realizes

the importance of listening to the vines rather following his

son’s inebriated rambling. The occasion foreshadows the

final sequence when Duflot admits to Max that he loves this

“mad person” Christie, while Max volunteers to “soften up”

the intransigent French wine authorities through a mixture

of flattery and charm.

To date, no critical articles have appeared on the film.

A copy of extracts from the screenplay with photographs of

Provence by Rico Torres appeared in 2006. Peter Mayle’s

work has been widely published in a variety of editions too

numerous to mention here; but the best introduction to

Provençal culture and how it shapes writers can be found in

Richard Aldington’s Introduction to Mistral (1960).

References

Dalya Alberge, “The Times Story of French Sour Grapes That

Turned into a Film,” The Times, 3 October 2006, 5; Richard Alding-

ton, Introduction to Mistral (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univer-

sity Press, 1960); Patrick Fahy,“A Good Year,” Sight and Sound, 16,

no.12 (December 2006): 55; Jack Foley, “Ridley Scott Talks about

A Good Year,” www.indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/a-good-year-

ridley-scott-interview (accessed 8 August 2008); “A Good Year,” The

Times 2, 26 October 1006, 16; Dan Jolin, “A Good Year,” Empire 209

(November 2006): 38; Marc Klein,“A Good Year: Screenplay” (Draft

dated 5 September 2005), www.dailyscript.com/scripts/A-GOOD-

YEAR-2.pdf (accessed 26 January 2009); Marc Klein and Rico Tor-

res, A Good Year: Portrait of the Film Based on the Novel by Peter

Mayle (New York: Newmarket Press, 2006); Will Lawrence, “My

Scraps with Russell Crowe,” Daily Telegraph, 2 November 2007, 32;

Pressbook: A Good Year (Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox Film

Corporation, 2006), 8; Anthony Quinn,“A Good Year,” Independent

Arts and Books Review, 27 October 2006, 8; Catherine Shoard, “A

Good Year,” Sunday Telegraph, 29 October 2006, 27; Kim Willsher,

“A Good Year? It’s No Vintage Scott, Say French Critics,” The

Guardian, 4 January 2007, 17.

Bibliography

Derek Malcolm,“Russell Crowe Is an Unlikely Englishman Abroad

in a Ridley Scott Rom-com That Paints a Rose-Tainted Vision of

Rural France,” Evening Standard, 26 October 2006, 41; Ridley Scott,

“Ripe on the Vine,” Fade In 9, no.3 (October 2006): 48–53; James

Cameron Wilson, “A Good Year,” Film Review 676 (November

2006): 104.

GOODALL, CAROLINE (1959– )

Debuted in British television series such as Rumpole of the

Bailey (1988) and the Australian-made Ring of Scorpio

(1990). Goodall observed in 1994 that she was continually

asked to play “the wife”—“the kind of women ...who,yes,

happen to be married and happen to have children, but who

actually do something.” It was perhaps on the strength of this

ability that she was cast in WHITE SQUALL. She plays a sup-

porting role as someone perfectly capable of competing with

men when it comes to working on the Albatross. To the

teenage crew members, she appears as an object of lust—at

one point March (DAVID LASCHER) observes that “she

looks pretty good in her all-together for being thirty ...I

look down into the skylight above Skipper’s cabin and there

she was, peelin’ down.” Alice Sheldon herself does not know

the meaning of fear—after having helped steady the ship

during a storm, she observes that she “cheated death again.”

Alice also has a playful side—when left alone with her hus-

band in Panama, while the boys enjoy themselves at a party

with the Dutch schoolgirls, she dances with him and recalls

GOODALL, CAROLINE (1959– )

■

145

the time when Sheldon asked her for her hand in MAR-

RIAGE “on the deck of the Yankee . . . We weren’t much older

than they were.” Screenwriter TODD ROBINSON comments

in the script: “She’s sixteen again. There’s something about

him [Sheldon] that still makes her blush.” Sadly she does not

survive the white squall—despite her heroic efforts to escape,

she is imprisoned in a cabin as the ship sinks.

Goodall’s performance was commended by the Sight

and Sound reviewer: “The sight of Jeff Bridges watching

helplessly as Caroline Goodall is sealed up in a watery tomb

is shattering because we have come to know and believe in

their characters ...Bridges is ideally cast as the grumpy, salty

dog [Sheldon] with a heart of gold, but Goodall essays Dr.

Alice Sheldon with equal conviction. Amidst all the on-

screen chaos, the couple’s final lingering look delivers a

weighty dramatic punch.”

References

Mark Kermode, “White Squall,” Sight and Sound, May 1996, 64;

“Profiles: Caroline Goodall,” Empire, April 1995, 52; Todd Robin-

son, White Squall: Revised First Draft (dated 31 October 1994),

http://sfy.ru/sfy.html?script=white_squall (accessed 8 September

2008), 78.

Bibliography

Hilary Kingsley, “Know the Face but Can’t Place the Name,” TV

Times (London), 1 May 1999, 14–15.

GOODING, CUBA, JR. (1968– )

Born in the Bronx, Cuba Gooding Jr. made his film debut in

John Singleton’s 1991 hit Boyz in the Hood. He won an Oscar

as Best Supporting Actor for his role in Jerry Maguire (1996).

Cast as Nicky Barnes, the main rival to Frank Lucas

(DENZEL WASHINGTON) in the heroin trade in AMERI-

CAN GANGSTER, Gooding played the part of a real-life

character who wanted all that Lucas had and more, once

appearing on the cover of the New York Times Magazine,

asserting that he was “Mr. Untouchable.” In the production

information Gooding described Barnes as one of “the true

celebrities. Today we have sports celebrities like the Mets and

the Yankees or actors, but back then you had the drug deal-

ers. They were the ones that were directly connected to the

inner city and the people.” Nicky Barnes is clearly conceived

as the visual opposite to Frank Lucas. If Lucas, in his sober

tailored suits, prefers restraint in behavior and dress (so as

not to draw attention), Barnes wears wide collars and flared

trousers characteristic of early 1970s popular fashion. He

keeps a club where he cavorts with naked girls and which,

according to STEVEN ZAILLIAN’s script, resembles a set

from a blaxploitation film. Nicky dislikes Frank’s tone, par-

ticularly where issues of “trademark infringement” are con-

cerned: “Catch me? Insist? Infringement? I don’t like these

words as much as please—thank you—sorry to bother you,

Nicky. These are better words to use [when] you come to my

place without an invitation.” Frank does not respond, but we

understand from his expression how much he despises his

rival. Nicky “nods, Fine, okay, but it’s more like a warning.”

Each drug baron has his own patch, and woe betide anyone

who seeks to encroach upon it.

References

American Gangster: Production Information (Los Angeles: Universal

Pictures, 2007), 6; Steven Zaillian,“American Gangster: Final Shoot-

ing Script” (27 July 2006), www.roteirodecinema.com.br/scripts/

files/american_gangster.htm (accessed 8 February 2009), 82–84.

GORTON, ASSHETON (1930– )

Assheton Gorton began his career in television, turning later

to films such as Get Carter (1971) and The French Lieu-

tenant’s Woman (1981).

For LEGEND, Scott in collaboration with Gorton at first

explored locations in northern California’s famous redwood

forest, with an eye towards making it the primary filming

site. Later, however, they chose to build an artificial forest on

the world’s largest sound stage, the so-called “007 stage” at

Pinewood Studios. Dozens of live trees, a running book, a

bear, numerous shrubs, horses, bees, flowers, small animals

and a ten-foot-deep pond were spread across the stage. The

set took sixteen weeks to create. Scott told PAUL M. SAM-

MON that “the general design . . . was based on a huge forest

set that had been built for Siegfried, the Fritz Lang film . . .

for a scene where Siegfried kills a dragon.” For Gorton him-

self, speaking in a documentary about the making of the

film, the forest symbolized life, death and nature—a wilder-

ness where the characters embarked on a voyage of self-dis-

covery. It was one of those “big archetypal stories which give

enormous scope for the art department.” His sources of

inspiration included baroque architecture, Fransese’s prison

paintings and WILLIAM BLAKE.

The set also contained some “floating fluff” (actually

cut-up duck down), as Scott wanted to suggest (according

to a preproduction article of 1986) “a real forest during the

spring, [where] there are usually things floating through the

air all the time . . . Against the backlight, it looked like we

had millions of seeds floating through the forest.” For the

winter scenes, fifteen hundred icicles were added to the set.

Varying in length from one foot to eight feet, they were

made of resin and hot wax to achieve the proper texture. The

special effects team, under supervisor NICK ALLDER, also

supplied tons of artificial snow in the process of “winteriz-

ing” the forest set. The forest set is but one of several major

sets designed by Gorton for the film. Another is the gigan-

tic kitchen at the bottom of Darkness’s subterranean castle.

Constructed on a mammoth scale and populated with giant

146

■

GOODING, CUBA, JR. (1968– )

demon cooks, it appears even bigger against the tiny bodies

of the goblins appearing throughout the film. The castle’s

great hall is another spectacular set, which includes Dark-

ness’s huge and menacing throne. Among its other features:

ominous jet-black columns, twenty-five feet high and nine

feet in diameter; a gigantic black marble banquet table; and

a massive fireplace adorned with fantastic sculptures.

Other important sets include an ancient tomb, heaped

with gems and treasures and containing the corpse of a knight

clad in gold chain mail and lying on a golden dais, his bejew-

eled sword on his chest; the Great Tree, where an inner tree

sits transfixed by a curved bronze horn; and the woodcarver’s

cottage at the edge of the forest. Vincent Canby of the New

York Times observed that Gorton was “the film’s real auteur . . .

[he] appears to have pigged out in the studio’s carpenter’s

shop. He’s created a series of fancy, plastic sets that keep the

eye busier than the eye or the heart.” The film’s publicity made

much of the sets: the production notes claimed that: “[I]t

should come as no surprise, given Scott’s reputation, that Leg-

end is a visual feast. Indeed, production designer Assheton

Gorton’s sets are among the most elaborate ever constructed

for a motion picture, pulsating with style and imagination.”

References

Vincent Canby, “Legend,” New York Times, 18 April 1986, D4;

Assheton Gorton, interviewed in “The Making of Legend” (2002

documentary directed by J. M. Kenny), included on Legend: The

Ultimate DVD (Los Angeles: Universal Studios, 2002); Production

Notes: Legend (Los Angeles: Universal Pictures, 1986), http://www

.figmentfly.com/legend/background3.html (accessed 13 May 2008);

“Set Pieces,” AIP & Co 71 (Jan/Feb 1986): 17; Ridley Scott, quoted

in Paul M. Sammon, Ridley Scott Close-Up: The Making of His

Movies (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1999), 79–80.

Bibliography

“Légende,” L’Écran Fantastique 60 (September 1985): 23–25; John

Russell Taylor, Anatomy of a Television Play (London: Weidenfeld

and Nicolson, 1962).

GOTHIC HORROR

Valdine Clemens claims that ALIEN constitutes a good

example of Gothic horror. The only genuine Gothic aspects

of Ridley Scott’s work, as both producer and director, can be

seen in the television series THE HUNGER. A good exam-

ple of this can be seen in “The Lighthouse,” an episode from

the first series based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story

concerns a man with a broken heart (Bruce Davison) who

decides to retire from the world by running an isolated light-

house. Tormented by dreams of his lover Monica, he con-

jures up an ideal woman—symbolically known as Angelica

(Simone Elise-Girard)—and the two of them make love.

Eventually reality intrudes and the woman turns into a piece

of seaweed. The man encounters the lighthouse owner,

strangles him in a fit of madness, drowns the old man in the

sea, and then walks to his death in the same way. As he does

so, director Darrell Wasyk intercuts between close-ups of the

man and images of Angelica stretching before him, to

emphasize the fact that he has symbolically been “possessed”

by her. The episode ends with the host (TERENCE STAMP)

intoning “love wounds, maims, even kills, but its absence—

anything is better than that.” THE HIRE: “BEAT THE

DEVIL” contains some Gothic elements, as JAMES BROWN

visits The Devil (GARY OLDMAN) in the hope of renew-

ing his pact for maintaining eternal youth.

Yvonne Tasker penetratingly explores the ways in which

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and HANNIBAL develop

the Gothic horror genre. She argues that the main difference

between both films and their closest cinematic, television-

based, and literary cousins is the heroine’s relation to male-

centered institutions. Though Clarice Starling (JODIE

FOSTER, JULIANNE MOORE) is clearly working toward

advancement in a male world, Tasker finds her far less tied

to the opinions of any one man. Starling’s quest for success

and identity is ultimately personal, not defined within patri-

archy. Her motivation is “clear and direct . . . [in Silence the

director does not] simply allow Clarice Starling her auton-

omy; it is positively celebrated.”

References

Valdine Clemens, The Return of the Repressed: Gothic Horror from

The Castle of Orlando to Alien (New York: State University of New

York Press, 1999), 24–25; Yvonne Tasker, Silence of the Lambs,BFI

Classics (London: British Film Institute, 2002), 21.

W. R. GRACE DEFICIT TRIALS

US 1986 Commercial r/t 1 min col. Production Company:

RSA Films for W. R. Grace. Director: Ridley Scott.

Set in 2017, this commercial features a little boy prose-

cuting people in the 1980s in “The Deficit Trials,” condemn-

ing people for their irresponsibility. A young boy quizzes a

time-traveler (looking very much like Roy Batty in BLADE

RUNNER), accusing him of contributing to a National Debt

in the US in 1986 of 2 trillion dollars. The camera suggests

the suffering that this debt has caused through repeated pans

of a group of paupers of various ages who are witnessing the

trial taking place. The irony of the situation is further

emphasized through a shot of a tattered white flag with the

words “the republic,” “the nation,” and “equality for all.”

Clearly the commercial suggests that people during the

1980s took very little heed of these fundamental principles

of American democracy. The time-traveler asks pathetically:

“Are you ever going to forgive us?” A voice-over informs us,

“At W. R. Grace, we want all of us [i.e., the people] to stay

one step ahead of a changing world.”

W.R. GRACE DEFICIT TRIALS

■

147

This commercial caused a good deal of controversy

when it was first released in 1986. Although broadcast on

150 independent television stations throughout the coun-

try, it was deemed too controversial and too one-sided for

inclusion on the big three networks. NBC’s vice-president

Rick Gitter remarked,“It’s [the commercial is] too well done.

It expresses a view that budget cuts are a moral imperative.”

Which was exactly the point: J. Peter Grace, the company

chairman, served as head of President Reagan’s commission

on Waste and Inefficiency in Government.

Bibliography

“American Notes: Advertising,” Time, 24 January 2001, 22.

GRANT, SUSANNAH (1963– )

American screenwriter and director who wrote the screen-

plays for major hits including Erin Brockovich (2000), for

which she received an Oscar nomination. After her nomina-

tion, Grant adapted JENNIFER WEINER’s novel IN HER

SHOES (2005), produced by Scott. Grant seemed the right

kind of person for the task, as she was preoccupied with her

own image—claiming to have spent a sizable portion of her

youth convinced that she might someday become the

princess that she read about in so many stories. Her adapta-

tion surprised those expecting a shallow romantic comedy,

given its multilayered characterizations, intelligent dialogue,

and sensitive lead portrayals.

Reference

Susannah Grant—The Dialogue—Learning from the Masters,(DVD

2005).

GRAZER, BRIAN (1951– )

Producer of AMERICAN GANGSTER, Grazer has been

making movies and television programs for more than

twenty-five years. His films include Splash (1984), Apollo 13

(1995), and The Da Vinci Code (2006).

For American Gangster Grazer read MARK JACOBSON’s

article in New York magazine and immediately optioned the

project for his company, Imagine Entertainment. Initially the

film was to be directed by Antoine Fuqua with DENZEL

WASHINGTON and Benicio del Toro in the leading roles; but

Universal Pictures withdrew funding for budgetary reasons.

Eventually the film was made by Scott with a script written by

STEVEN ZAILLIAN. In the production notes, Grazer admit-

ted that he was “fascinated by the cautionary tale of a man

[Frank Lucas] with the dream of corporate America who

found a way to make a deal with individuals in Southeast Asia

that could lead him to the highest grade of heroin . . . [and]

import it in body bags of US soldiers traveling from Viet-

nam back into America . . . I thought that was a remarkable,

inescapable and interesting idea.”

References

American Gangster: Production Information (Los Angeles: Univer-

sal Pictures, 2007), 3.

THE GREAT TEXAS DYNAMITE CHASE

(aka DYNAMITE WOMEN)

USA 1976 r/t 90 min col. Production Companies: Yasny Talk-

ing Pictures and New World Pictures. Producer: David Irving.

Writer/Director: Michael Pressman. Director of Photography:

Jamie Anderson. Production Designer: Russell J. Smith. Music:

Craig Safan. Cast: Claudia Jennings (Candy Morgan), Tara

Stroheimer (Pam Morgan), Jocelyn Jones (Ellie-Jo Turner),

Miles Watkins (Boyfriend), Nancy Bleier (Carol).

A source-film for THELMA & LOUISE that features

two women who rob banks, seduce men, show off their bod-

ies and finally escape to South Africa. Intended as a soft-

porn film (with a tagline of “They’ll steal your heart . . . and

rob your bank!”), it a good example of mid-1970s sexploita-

tion. Va ri et y commented that the film provides “kicks for the

ozoner crowd and tongue-in-cheek humor for the more

sophisticated.”

Reference

“The Great Texas Dynamite Chase,” Varie ty, 18 June 1976, 3.

GREEN, EVA (1980– )

Born Eva Gaëlle Green in Paris. She made a remarkable debut

in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers (2003), after consider-

able theater experience in France. On the strength of this per-

formance, Jeena Jay, the casting director of KINGDOM OF

HEAVEN told Diana Landau that she was perfect for the role

of Sibylla, wife of King Baldwin IV (EDWARD NORTON) in

a film “where there are no [other] significant female roles—so

she is carrying a great deal. And she carries it off beautifully.”

In a preproduction interview Green asserted that, far

from showing Muslim people in a bad light, the film “says

that war is futile and that people will find love irrespective

of race. The title itself described Jerusalem as somewhere

where all races live together harmoniously.” Green told Film

Review that she was aware of the issues underlying the film:

“[I] went to the Arab Institute in Paris because I wanted to

be aware of both sides of the argument. And I hope and pray

this film will do good rather than bad.”

In the original version of the film Green’s Sibylla is por-

trayed as someone with both a private and a public face. In

public she is every inch a queen; in private she is someone

who tries to turn every situation to her own advantage.

Balian (ORLANDO BLOOM) turns down her husband’s

request to marry her; once Balian has died, Sibylla responds

by taking Guy de Lusignan (MARTON CSOKAS) for a hus-

band even though she is well aware of his anti-Muslim

views. Eventually she regrets what she has done; and tries to

148

■

GRANT, SUSANNAH (1963– )

atone for it by cutting her hair and acting as a part-time

nurse for the wounded in the defense of Jerusalem. By doing

this she rejects the teaching of the Bible as set forth in I

Corinthians 11:15: “But if a woman have long hair, it is a

glory to her; for her hair is given her for a covering.” The

film ends with her casting off the regal role completely, and

joining the exodus of citizens from Jerusalem.

In KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT

Sibylla is portrayed as much more of a corrupt princess who

quite openly continues her affair with Balian. Guy does not

object; he is only interested in her for political reasons.

Stephanie Zacharek commended her for showing “a mea-

sure of cool that defies her surroundings: She doesn’t quite

know what to do with her character’s stilted dialogue, but

she carries herself so regally that you barely notice.”

References

Lorien Haynes,“Kingdom of Heaven:All About Eva,”Film Review 657

(June 2005): 52–53; Diana Landau ed., Kingdom of Heaven: The Rid-

ley Scott Film and the History behind the Story (London: Simon and

Schuster Ltd., 2005), 69; Stephanie Zacharek, “Kingdom of Heaven,”

Salon.com 6 May 2005, http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/

review/2005/05/06/kingdom/index.html (accessed 9 January 2009).

GREGSON-WILLIAMS, HARRY (1961– )

Made his name in British films such as The Borrowers

(1997), Whatever Happened to Harold Smith (1999), and

Chicken Run (2000). He provided an atmospheric score for

Sanctuary, the first episode in the second series of THE

HUNGER: TELEVISION, which only serves to emphasize

the eeriness of Julian Priest’s (DAVID BOWIE’s) world.

He also composed the aggressively minded score for

AMERICAN FIGHTER PILOT (2002) and for the Tony

Scott-directed short THE HIRE: “BEAT THE DEVIL” (2002)

produced by Ridley Scott.

For KINGDOM OF HEAVEN Gregson-Williams chose

to move away from the musical styles characteristic of

HANS ZIMMER in GLADIATOR. Rather, his score incorpo-

rates Eastern influences—incorporating music played by

Turkish musicians—and early music with Bach influences.

The Music from the Movies reviewer described Gregson-

Williams’s score thus: “Veering somewhere between a litur-

gical mass and a medieval symphony, this is a fine

development of the Eastern work ...it’s an earnest accom-

plished piece with an appeal that grows with each listening.”

Reference

Nick Joy,“Kingdom of Heaven,” Music from the Movies 45/46 (Sep-

tember/October 2005): 110–11.

Bibliography

Jeff Bond, “Harry King of Scots,” Film Score Magazine 10, no.3

(May/June 2005): 12–13.

GRIFFIN, NICK (?– ) and TED (1970– )

Born Nicholas and Theodore Griffin in Pasadena, Califor-

nia. They co-wrote MATCHSTICK MEN—their first official

collaboration. The experience proved interesting: Ted Griffin

admitted in a preproduction interview that the two of them

wrote best “by not being in the same room. If we were in the

same room we’d just start tearing at each other like a couple

of kids in the back of a station wagon on a long road trip.”

Nick prepared for the project by speaking with two FBI

agents on the subject of con men: “It’s not as far-fetched or

antiquated as people might believe.”

They were quoted in the production information as lik-

ing the book on account of its story: “It’s primarily the story

of a man coming to terms with himself through meeting his

daughter and the relationship that develops between them.

The con scenario is essential but secondary ...These char-

acters still exist and they’re still running the same old games,

but they have also branched out lately to include the Inter-

net and telemarketing.”

The first draft of the script had been written before

Scott was engaged as director. It went through several

changes before shooting finished. Certain sequences were

deleted: for example, a scene involving Roy (NICOLAS

CAGE) where he encounters a young mother; the mother

hands her baby to Roy, who becomes so enamored of the

experience that he resolves to call his ex-wife Heather

(Melora Walters). This sequence was judged too sentimen-

tal for a comedy which tries its best to take an unsentimen-

tal look at its three central characters’ lives.

Another deleted scene took place in the supermarket,

where the fourteen-year-old Angela (ALISON LOHMAN)

takes some cartons of beer and places them in the trolley.

Other scenes were rewritten, such as the con involving the

lady in the launderette (Beth Grant), which originally showed

Angela keeping the three hundred dollars. In the finished film

Roy persuades her to give it back to the lady. Both of these

alterations emphasized Roy’s underlying moral sense—in

spite of being a conman, he does not like taking advantage of

anyone weaker than himself; nor does he approve of the idea

of underage drinking. This underlines a point made early on

in the finished script, which shows Roy conning a potential

customer via the telephone, and though his voice may be

grinning, his eyes betray him; he doesn’t enjoy it.

Scott also created new scenes for the finished film—for

example, one where Frank (SAM ROCKWELL) is shown

talking on a headset in his car telling Frank about the sud-

den change of plan involving Frechette (BRUCE McGILL).

The original script describes Frank as “stressed”; the film

shows that, far from being stressed, Frank takes things very

calmly. This provides yet another indication that all is not

what it seems. Frank carried out the next stage in his elabo-

rate con designed to fleece Roy of his savings.

GRIFFIN, NICK (?– ) and TED (1970– )

■

149