Raw L. The Ridley Scott Encyclopedia

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However, he comes to learn the value of his work—especially

as a way of recording how resilient children are at bonding

together and surviving amidst scenes of devastation.

THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD

US 1951 r/t 87 min (81 min on reissue) b/w. Producers:

Howard Hawks and Edward Lasker. Director: Christian

Nyby. Writers: Charles Lederer, Howard Hawks, and Ben

Hecht, from the story by John W. Campbell Jr. Director of

Photography: Russell Harlan. Production Designers: Albert S.

D’Agostino and John J. Hughes. Music: Dmitri Tiomkin.

Cast: Margaret Sheridan (Nikki), Kenneth Tobey (Captain

Patrick Hendry), Robert Cornthwaite (Dr. Carrington), Dou-

glas Spencer (Scotty), James Young (Lt. Eddie Dykes), Dewey

Martin (Crew Chief).

Christian Nyby’s direction sustains a mood of tingling

expectancy as a small group of US airmen and scientists sta-

tioned near the North Pole learn that a new, mysterious ele-

ment is playing tricks with their compass-readings. Tension

develops effectively as the expedition takes off to reckon with

the unearthly intruder. The film was clearly intended as a

response to current political events—particularly in its final

suggestion that one’s homeland should be protected against

possible invaders, or those who try to upset the balance of

the world with too much scientific research.

Although Scott has not acknowledged any direct influ-

ence, ALIEN clearly resembles this film, both in its social

criticism and its portrayal of the sheer power of the beast.

Certain scenes have distinct parallels: for example, the

“chestbuster” scene from Alien and the geiger-counter scene

from The Thing. Producer Howard Hawks’s biographer Todd

McCarthy observes that “The Thing was one of Hawks’s

most influential creations, still cited as a key film in the lives

of such prominent directors as Ridley Scott . . . [it] received

the sort of serious attention from the press that was custom-

arily denied to examples of culturally despised genres. Most

critics found it scary, entertaining, not unintelligent, and

well made, almost as if Hawks had directed it himself.”

Reference

Todd McCarthy, Howard Hawks (New York: Grove Press, 1997),

483.

THE THIRD MAN

GB 1949 r/t 104 min b/w. Production Companies:London

Film Productions and British Lion Film Corporation. Pro-

ducers: David O. Selznick, Carol Reed, and Alexander Korda.

Director: Carol Reed. Writer: Graham Greene. Director of Pho-

tography: Robert Krasker. Music:Anton Kara.Cast: Orson

Welles (Harry Lime), Joseph Cotten (Holly Martins), Alida

Valli (Anna Schmidt), Trevor Howard (Major Calloway).

Classic FILM NOIR of the late 1940s, whose visual style

(the use of dark passages and gloomy war-torn locations)

inspired many films and miniseries, including THE COM-

PANY (2007); the story of the CIA from the mid-1950s

through the Cold War period.

THIRTY-MINUTE THEATRE: “THE HARD WORD”

GB 1966 r/t TVM 30 min b/w. Production Company: British

Broadcasting Corporation. Producer:Harry Moore.Direc-

tor: Ridley Scott. Writer: Jim Allen. Production Designer: Ray-

mond Cusick. Cast: Jack Woolgar (Martin), Tony Selby

(Danny), Iain Anders (Kelly), Jeremy Young (Boss).

A contribution to the BBC’s long running series (1965–

1974), broadcast live on 16 May 1966 (Series 1, Episode 32).

The setting is a lingering and harsh northern winter. Reluc-

tantly taking the only jobs available, three men find them-

selves on a small building site.

THOMSON, ALEX (1929–2007)

After a career as a camera operator on films such as A Funny

Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and Far

From the Madding Crowd (1967), Thomson made his debut

as director of photography with Here We Go Round the Mul-

berry Bush (1967).

Thomson described his involvement in LEGEND thus,

in an interview with Ron Magid published at the time of the

film’s American release: “We used shafts of light that I some-

times had moving . . . it followed through from the thing he

[Scott] did in [BLADE RUNNER] with searchlights that

moved about for no reason at all except that they looked

quite good.”

Thomson’s work on LEGEND is most spectacularly evi-

dent in the management of lighting effects. The opening

sequence announces the theme in spectacular fashion: shafts

of blue moonlight shine through the branches of a shadowy

forest, foreshadowing the battle between good and evil that

is about to take place. To reemphasize the point, Thomson

cuts away from Darkness’s (TIM CURRY’s) lair to a shot of

a bright summer’s day as Lily (MIA SARA) skips down the

path of the enchanted forest. Another lighting effect in

Darkness’s first scene shows him lamenting his lack of power

while bathed with a majestic purple light, his eyes and fin-

gernails glowing green in the semi-gloom.

In another sequence Thomson underlines the hypnotic

aspects of Lily’s seduction by Darkness. As the masked

dancer walks around the terrified princess, the action cuts

to a close-up of the dancer’s fingers clawing across her face.

This is followed by an out-of-focus shot of the dancer mov-

ing rhythmically across the frame, at first obscuring and

then revealing Lily’s face, which gradually alters from fear to

rapture. She is now Darkness’s slave.

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Thomson found Scott’s attention to detail awe-inspiring,

especially on a production the size and complexity of Legend.

He observed to Magid that “a lot of the film’s atmosphere

comes directly from Ridley, because he dresses the sets impec-

cably and he creates a lot of that mood himself, just through

his compositions and because he props the whole thing.”

Reference

Ron Magid, “Labyrinth and Legend, Big Screen Fairy Tales,” Amer-

ican Cinematographer 67, no.8 (August 1986): 67.

THUNDER PERFECT MIND

GB 2005 Commercial r/t 30 sec. Production Company: RSA

Films. Directors: Ridley Scott and Jordan Scott.

A 2005 film by JORDAN SCOTT and Ridley Scott, that

depicts Canadian supermodel Daria Werbowy moving

through various urban scenes (such as a nightclub, the back

of a taxi, and around Potsdamer Platz in Berlin), while a

recitation from the fourteenth-century poem (entitled “The

Thunder, Perfect Mind”) is read in as a form of narrative

commentary. A shortened version of the film was used in a

Prada advertisement to promote the launch of the fashion

house’s first perfume. The advertisement can be viewed online

at http://www.rsafilms.com/d/rsa/companies/rsa-uk/87.

Bibliography

Rae Ann Fera, “Thunder Perfect Prada,” Boards Magazine,1 May

2005, www.boardsmag.com/articles/magazine/20050501/prada

.html (accessed 21 January 2009).

TIDY, FRANK (?– )

THE DUELLISTS was his first feature film. Pauline Kael, in

her New Yorker review, praised Tidy for his “Géricault-like

compositions” and lighting that would earn the approval of

Vermeer himself. Gavin Millar in The Listener observed that

the photography gave “a violently sensuous impression of a

threatening physical world . . . the shrill grinding of a sword-

edge upon a wheel, the panicky flutter of a trapped sparrow.”

The film also has a mastery of minute detail: D’Hubert’s

(KEITH CARRADINE’s) slight dandyism is hinted at by the

way in which the light catches his braided golden pigtails

and the echoing pattern of his helmet strap.

Tidy’s photography can be observed to best effect in

some of the duel sequences. In the second of these, taking

place in a late autumn morning, the camera focuses on a

rural French landscape, the branches of the trees set starkly

against a blue-gray sky, the sun peeping from behind the hills

to the left of the frame. The camera tracks to the right, where

we witness D’Hubert practicing his moves with an

(unnamed) second. A farmhouse becomes visible on the

right of the frame, the sun catching its honey-stone walls. In

the background, a row of tall pine trees are visible, also illu-

minated by the morning sun. On the soundtrack, the neigh-

ing of horses can be heard, as Feraud and his seconds emerge

from the rear of the frame in preparation for the forthcoming

conflict. Feraud rides to the front of the frame, draws his

sword, and dismounts, while his seconds wish good morn-

ing to D’Hubert’s seconds. Feraud subsequently walks away

from the camera towards the farmhouse; all we can hear in

the background is bird-song, the faint clip-clop of the horses’

hooves and the baa-ing of unseen sheep. Scott holds the shot

for nearly fifteen seconds, during which time we see the two

duelists preparing for their conflict in the middle distance.

By this means Scott and Tidy emphasize the sheer pointless-

ness of the conflict. It doesn’t matter who wins: life in rural

FRANCE will continue in the same way it always has done.

In his excellent “Director’s Commentary” on the DVD

version of the film, Scott states that he operated the camera

himself, but maintains that Tidy’s contributions were equally

important. Indeed, he and Tidy had previously worked

together on scores of commercials, so the cameraman was

well acquainted with Scott’s cinematic preferences.“I had no

concerns about how much [of the imagery] was in the shad-

ows,” Scott notes. “Frank knew that this was what I liked . . .

I don’t mind if windows blow out . . . [and] I don’t mind

sometimes if [the frame] goes totally dark. Frank just really

knew how far to go.”

At another juncture, Scott huffs that some critics found

the film “too beautiful” and “too gauzed,” even though no

gauze or diffusion was used during the shoot. In fact, the

filmmakers achieved the striking look by staging scenes in

authentic locations in France which they strategically

enhanced with filters and liberal doses of smoke. Scott also

feels that the production benefited from “overcast but beau-

tiful weather,” noting that mist, precipitation, and indirect

sunlight enabled his team to create dramatic but naturalis-

tic moods. He concedes that working in variable conditions

occasionally affected shot-to-shot continuity, but is quick to

add that neither he nor Tidy worried about this much. “By

the time it’s been cut together, most of the time you don’t

even notice.” Tidy was nominated for a British Film Acad-

emy (BAFTA) award for his work on The Duellists.

References

Pauline Kael,“The Current Cinema,” New Yorker, 23 January 1978,

80; Gavin Millar, “Monstrous Absurdity,” The Listener, 8 February

1978, 184–85; Ridley Scott, “Director’s Commentary,” to the 2003

release of The Duellists by Paramount DVD in the “Special Collec-

tor’s Edition” (London: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2003).

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

GB 1979 TV series 7 ⫻ 50 min episodes col. Production Com-

panies: BBC and Paramount Pictures. Producer: Jonathan

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

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Powell. Director: John Irvin. Writer: Arthur Hopcraft, from

the novels of John le Carré. Director of Photography:Tony

Pierce-Roberts. Production Designer: Austen Spriggs. Music:

Geoffrey Burgon. Cast: Alec Guinness (George Smiley),

Michael Jayston (Peter Guillam), Ian Richardson (Bill Hay-

don), Terence Rigby (Roy Bland), Bernard Hepton (Toby

Esterhase), Ian Bannen (Jim Prideaux).

Classic BBC drama of the Cold War, focusing on a spy

coming out of retirement to cope with a serious problem at

the “circus” involving MI5 and the CIA. This drama pro-

vided the inspiration—especially in visual terms, with all

the darkened interiors—for Scott’s 2007 miniseries THE

COMPANY.

TOP GUN

US 1986 r/t 110 min col. Production Company: Paramount

Pictures. Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson.

Director: Tony Scott. Writers: Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.,

from a story by Ehud Yonay. Production Designer: John F.

DeCuir Jr. Director of Photography: Jeffrey Kimball. Music:

Harold Faltermeyer. Cast: Tom Cruise (Lt. Pete “Maverick”

Mitchell), Kelly McGillis (Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood), Val

Kilmer (Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky), Anthony Edwards (Lt.

J. G. Nick “Goose” Bradshaw), Tom Skerritt (Cmdr. Mike

“Viper” Metcalf), Michael Ironside (Lt. Cmdr. Rick “Jester”

Heatherly).

Maverick is a hot pilot. When he encounters a pair of

MIGs over the Persian Gulf, his colleague is clearly scared.

On almost no fuel, Maverick is able to talk him back down

to the aircraft carrier. As a reward, Maverick is sent to the

Top Gun Naval Flying School. There he fights the attitudes

of the other pilots and struggles to be the best pilot, stepping

on the toes of his other students and becoming attracted to

Charlie, a civilian instructor. Top Gun provided the inspira-

tion for the reality series AMERICAN FIGHTER PILOT,

produced by TONY SCOTT (who had directed Top Gun).

At least two of the three pilots featured in this series had seen

the film.

TOVOLI, LUCIANO (1936– )

Born in Massa Marittima, Italy, Tovoli began his career in

Italian films, making his Hollywood debut as director of

photography with Reversal of Fortune (1990) and Single

White Female (1992).

The Ridley Scott-produced comedy MONKEY TROU-

BLE was his third American film. The action is set entirely

in LOS ANGELES, around Venice and other suburban loca-

tions. Tovoli pictures the city as a place of eternal sunshine,

full of people walking by the sea, cycling, skateboarding, or

engaging in street theater. Director FRANCO AMURRI

seems to suggest that everything should be perfect in this

kind of ambience; but this is certainly not the case, with the

perpetual threat of crime: theft, and maybe worse—partic-

ularly if Azro (HARVEY KEITEL) catches Eva (THORA

BIRCH) and Dodger the monkey. However, everything ends

happily; family stability is restored; and Eva is allowed to

keep Dodger (despite the fact that her stepfather Tom [Kevin

Scannell] once had an allergy to animals).

Bibliography

“Luciano Tovoli Reminisces,” In Camera, October 2002, 16–17.

“TRIPOLI”

A script written by WILLIAM MONAHAN, which was due

to go into production in 2002 with Scott as director. How-

ever, filming was delayed due to the 9/11 attacks and the star

RUSSELL CROWE’s decision to take a break from acting.

The story was conceived as a historical epic set against

the backdrop of the Barbary Wars of 1805. It focuses on the

military and diplomatic campaign of US naval agent to the

Barbary States William Eaton (Crowe) to restore to power

Hamet Karamanli, the rightful but exiled Bashaw of Tripoli,

in order to curb the piracy by Barbary corsairs against

American merchant and military vessels. In other words,

Eaton is a hawk who schemes to oust the brutal Yusuf

Bashaw from power and install a ruler who will be friendly

towards the fledgling United States and their commercial

and military interests abroad. Eaton led his motley crew of

US Marines, Berbers and assorted mercenaries hundreds of

miles across the desert to battle Yusuf Bashaw’s superior

forces. According to a script review issued in 2003, Mona-

han’s work was “a highly fictionalized work based on a his-

torical event. It is not a biopic of either Eaton or Hamet; it

focuses only on their campaign against Yusuf Bashaw. Mon-

ahan’s script condenses events that transpired over the

course of months and sometimes years, a creative license

that is more than understandable.”

Interviewed four years later, Monahan said he still

owned the rights to the script and he hoped that it would get

made when the time was right.

References

Interview with William Monahan, www.collider.com/entertainment/

interviews/article.asp?aid=3700&tcid=1 (accessed 16 January

2009); “Stax,”“The Stax Report: Script Review of Tr ipoli” (7 August

2003), http://movies.ign.com/articles/432/432011p1.html (accessed

16 January 2009).

“TRISTAN AND ISEULT”

After THE DUELLISTS, Scott planned to make a version of

the TRISTAN AND ISOLDE myth with a script by GERALD

VAUGHAN-HUGHES, but failed to find any funds. Eventu-

ally he abandoned the project and worked on ALIEN

instead. The film was eventually made in 2005 as TRISTAN

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+ ISOLDE with KEVIN REYNOLDS as director and Scott as

producer.

TRISTAN + ISOLDE

Germany/Czech Republic/GB/US 2005 r/t 120 min col. Pro-

duction Companies: Apollo Pro Media, Scott Free, and Twen-

tieth Century-Fox. Executive Producers: Ridley Scott, Tony

Scott, Frank Hubner, and John Hardy. Producers: Moshe

Diamant, Elie Samaha, and Lisa Ellzey. Director:Kevin

Reynolds. Writer: Dean Georgaris. Director of Photography:

Arthur Reinhart. Production Designer: Mark Geraghty.

Music: Anne Dudley. Cast: James Franco (Tristan), Sophia

Myles (Isolde), Rufus Sewell (Lord Marke), David Patrick

O’Hara (King Donnchadh), Mark Strong (Lord Wicktred),

Henry Cavill (Melot).

Scott had been considering an adaptation of the TRIS-

TAN AND ISOLDE myth as long ago as the early 1980s,

after he had finished THE DUELLISTS, under the title

“TRISTAN AND ISEULT.” He explained why in an interview

with Reg Seaton: “I was down in Dordogne, that part of

France, which seems to be very applicable to that kind of

romanticism ...Basically, because of the legend, the love

story always works. I think Shakespeare tried it closely in

Romeo and Juliet. I mean, the love that shouldn’t happen. I

think Lancelot and Guinevere; those are all very similar

exchanges of that human passion.” Evidently he had planned

to make a science fiction version of the tale, but opted for

BLADE RUNNER instead. DEAN GEORGARIS’s screenplay

was sent to Scott on spec in the mid-1990s. In an article

published in Creative Screenwriting, Georgaris suggested that

he had created his own version of the story; having read the

opera libretto of TRISTAN AND ISOLDE (WAGNER), the

poem by A. E. HOUSMAN, and watched other TRISTAN

AND ISOLDE FILMS, he decided “with a fist full of blas-

phemy” to create a version focusing on a young man “being

forced to make a choice and to believe that he can turn his

back on love.” Scott himself preferred this version—although

Wagner’s retelling appealed to him, he felt that the basic sto-

ryline involving a cup of potion (which makes Tristan fall in

love with Isolde) might not prove believable to his potential

audience. There was also the problem of length; to retell the

Wagner version might result in a three-hour film. Scott told

Seaton that he worked on the Georgaris version by “tighten-

ing up the story, and improving the dialogue.” In this ver-

sion Tristan and Isolde are not brought together as a result

of a political marriage; rather, Tristan is actually put on a

boat and cast out to sea in the belief that he is actually dead.

His boat washes up on the Irish coast, and there he meets

Isolde; and the two of them fall in love on the spot. This

transformed the story into a Romeo and Juliet-type tale,

which Scott believed would be more accessible to audiences.

He also altered Georgaris’s script by rendering the protago-

nists much younger and having them make love for the first

time on the Irish coast, very soon after they had met. He also

omitted a scene at the beginning where Isolde (as an old

woman) retells the story in flashback.

Twentieth Century-Fox agreed to finance the produc-

tion so long as it contained a bankable star—consequently

JAMES FRANCO was cast as Tristan in the belief that he

would prove a box-office draw on the strength of his per-

formances in the two Spiderman films (2002, 2004).

SOPHIA MYLES played Isolde, having played Lady Pene-

lope in the remake of Thunderbirds (2004); RUFUS SEWELL

(Marke) had played in numerous costume dramas on film

and television, notably A Knight’s Tale (2001) and Helen of

Troy (2003); while DAVID PATRICK O’HARA (Donn-

chadh) had a major role in the television series The District

(2001). In the Seaton interview Scott recalled that he was

unavailable to direct (as he was heavily involved in KING-

DOM OF HEAVEN), so he passed the reins on to KEVIN

REYNOLDS, who had apparently been offered THELMA &

LOUISE: “He’s [Reynolds] a great filmmaker, and I just

thought he does well with period stuff. You know, not just a

romp like Robin Hood [1991], which was a pretty big one, a

pretty successful romp, but I also liked his version of The

Count of Monte Cristo [2002]. In fact, seeing that again, I

then realized that he’d done it, and that kind of started to

resurrect the discussions [about directing Tristan] again.”

Financing was provided by Twentieth Century-Fox and

three European partners, while filming took place in the

Republic of Ireland and the Czech Republic. Scott was

quoted in the production notes as saying, “It’s a story with

epic scope, rooted in common human behavior that is time-

less ...I continue to be drawn by the tragic nature of the

love story ...It’s so powerful dramatically that it transcends

any setting or time.”

Sadly the reviewers did not share his enthusiasm once

the film opened in January 2006 (in the USA) and three

months later in Great Britain. The Sight and Sound reviewer

felt that “the film cannot survive Dean Georgaris’s remark-

ably terrible screenplay, some of which sounds like an

unhappy opera translation . . . Quite bizarrely, Isolde seems

to have accessed literature from the distant future, murmur-

ing lines from John Donne’s ‘The Good Morrow’ (c. 1600).”

Derek Malcolm in the Evening Standard felt that the casting

was weak: “it would have taken two brilliant performers to

make Dean Georgaris’s screenplay zing into our hearts. And

there’s far too much rum-tum fake history and sword-flail-

ing on the way.” In particular, James Franco received much

criticism for his “pouty woodenness that blighted his per-

formance in the Spiderman movies” and his “glum, one-

dimensional presence.” The Times reviewer summed up the

views of many fellow-critics: “A tale that inspired great opera

has turned into something as murky as a long-running

TRISTAN + ISOLDE

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soap.” Although the film was made for a comparatively low

budget, it hardly set the box office on fire; by March 2006 it

had grossed only $14.7 million at the US box office.

What is perhaps most interesting about Tristan + Isolde

is the extent to which the screenplay appears to have been

inspired by earlier Scott films. Like Maximus in GLADIATOR

(RUSSELL CROWE) and Balian in Kingdom of Heaven

(ORLANDO BLOOM), Tristan and King Marke suffer fam-

ily tragedies, their immediate siblings killed by the marauding

Irish. This traumatic experience prompts the desire to seek

revenge by whatever possible means and thereby restore sta-

bility to the English kingdom. Georgaris’s script makes this

clear: “They [the Irish] are one day from their boats on the

old Roman road. Now who will ride out with Tristan to fight

them?” The Irish are portrayed as barbaric, with their King

Donnchadh displaying a bloodthirsty relish for killing as

many English as possible, rather like the warrior Reynald de

Chatillon in Kingdom of Heaven (BRENDAN GLEESON): “If

there are any more attacks we shall put out guests to death

and raze this entire land.” Both films end with sieges, in

which one group (the Christians in Kingdom of Heaven, the

English in Tristan + Isolde) struggle to protect their property

against the invaders (Saladin and the Irish). Tristan + Isolde

incorporates a tournament sequence reminiscent of Gladia-

tor, with a Herald (Gordon Truefit) announcing the contests

in a circular arena thronged with spectators, and Tristan—

the central character—emerging the winner after several con-

tests. In a later sequence King Marke appoints Tristan as his

second, much to Melot’s (Henry Cavill’s) disappointment.

This encourages him to plot against Marke by forming an

alliance with Wicktred (MARK STRONG). Melot’s reactions

parallel those of Commodus (JOAQUIN PHOENIX) in

Gladiator, who objects to his father Marcus Aurelius’s nam-

ing of Maximus as heir to the throne of Rome. In the com-

mentary to the film’s DVD release, Georgaris recalls that

some scenes reminiscent of Gladiator were removed from the

Tristan + Isolde screenplay—for example, a sequence show-

ing the young Tristan walking through a field of barley.

Tristan + Isolde suggests that male bonding is not only

an important aspect of growing up; it is essential to the sur-

vival of the state. In one sequence Tristan, Melot, and Simon

(Leo Gregory) discover the secret passage leading into

Marke’s castle; they think it might be “a burial crypt or

something,” but decide not to tell anyone in case it might put

the king’s authority at risk. The three friends are shown

fighting for their lives against the marauding Irish. Both

Simon and Tristan are stabbed; Simon dies, while Tristan

appears to die (but actually remains alive). Devastated by the

loss, Melot assumes (quite wrongly) that every man should

look after themselves. This is what lies behind his decision

to join Wicktred in the plot to overthrow King Marke. Melot

only understands the error of his ways at the point of death

when he asks Tristan to “swear . . . that you are true.” Tristan

responds,“As we are brothers.”

Tristan enjoys an equally close relationship with Marke;

once the king loses his right hand in battle, Tristan quite lit-

erally assumes its function. The Biblical echo is quite delib-

erate: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come,

you are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the

kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the World.’”

Tristan becomes Marke’s vice-regent on the battlefield—

without him the kingdom cannot survive. Marke reminds

him of his responsibilities while appointing him his second

“Ever since you were a boy you sacrificed everything for me.

All for one dream. Now that you reached that dream, it is

natural that you would feel some loss. It doesn’t matter if

you want to be second. You are. I will only be king if you are

my second. I’d put it more gently if I could.” By conducting

an illicit affair behind Marke’s back, Tristan puts the future

of his country at risk—as Tristan himself remarks: “For all

time, they will say it was our love that brought down a king-

dom” Tristan has no choice; he has to give up Isolde and

reassume his position at Marke’s side, as the two of them

launch a counterattack against Wicktred and the marauding

Irish forces.

Perhaps more so than any other film since BLACK

RAIN, Tristan + Isolde focuses specifically on LOVE VS.

DUTY. Director Reynolds suggests that both protagonists

have to be aware of their responsibilities, even if they are in

love with one another. Isolde has to comply with her father’s

wishes and marry Morholt (Graham Mullins); later, Tristan

tells her that her MARRIAGE to Marke “will end a hundred

years of bloodshed” between England and Ireland. Whether

she likes it or not does not matter; she has to “live with this.

We must.” Isolde asks: “If things were different. If we lived

in a place without duty ...would you be with me?” Tristan

responds pragmatically: “That place does not exist.” Isolde

herself soon understands that the stability of her husband’s

kingdom is more important that her own personal well-

being. She cannot acknowledge her love for Tristan in pub-

lic, however much pain that may cause her: “Yesterday at the

market I saw a couple holding hands, and I realized we

would never do that. Never anything like it. No picnics or

unguarded smiles. No rings. Just stolen moments that leave

too quickly.”

Yet such denial is particularly important in a context

where everyone has to participate to ensure the common

good. Tristan understands this as he sends Isolde back to

Ireland in a boat and leads the English in their defense of

Marke’s castle. He ends up by cutting off Wicktred’s head

and stepping out on to the drawbridge, proclaiming

“Behold! The head of a traitor!” Marke sets aside the per-

sonal humiliation of learning about Tristan and Isolde’s

affair and releases Tristan from prison so that he can lead

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the army into battle. The king understands the importance

of social responsibility as he urges his fellow barons to join

the fight to expel the Irish from his homeland: “Will you

always be little men, who cannot see what was and could be

again? There is no middle ground! So slay us or slay him

[Donnchadh]!”

At the same time, Tristan + Isolde suggests that “love

conquers everything”—even if this particular theme under-

cuts the film’s socio-political message. Isolde proclaims that

personal qualities such as duty and HONOR are “the shells

of life. And empty ones and in the end all they hold is days

and days without love. Love is made by God. Ignore it and

you can suffer as you cannot imagine.” This speech prepares

the ground for the final scene when Tristan declares that he

does not know whether “life is greater than death, but love

was more than either.” Reynolds cuts away from his death

scene to a shot of the two of them lying together, while

Isolde’s voice is heard reciting the concluding stanza of John

Donne’s lyric “The Good Morrow”:

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;

Where can we find two better hemispheres

Without sharp north, without declining west?

Whatever dies, was not mix’d equally;

If our two loves be one, or thou and I

Love so alike than none can slacken, none can die.

Her sentiments might be heartfelt, but the sequence

seems rather incongruous in a film emphasizing the impor-

tance of responsibility, especially for men. Or perhaps we

should approach the film not as a social commentary but

rather as “a legend or fable, and therefore you can take all

kinds of liberties [with the plot].”

To date there has been no published critical work on the

film (even though there are plenty of online reviews). There

are numerous books focusing on the Tristan and Isolde

myth, notably Dorothy Roberts’s The Enchanted Cup and

Rosalind Miles’s trilogy Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle, The

Maid of the White Hands, and The Lady of the Sea. Denis de

Rougemont’s Love in the Western World explores the psychol-

ogy of love from Tristan and Isolde to Hollywood, while

Geoffrey Ashe looks at the myth in its historical context.

Most recently Jeff Limke has retold the story in graphic

novel format with illustrations by Ron Randall.

References

Geoffrey Ashe, The Landscape of King Arthur (London: Webb and

Bower, 1987); The Bible: Authorized Version: Matthew 25:41; James

Cameron-Wilson, “Tristan + Isolde: Celtic Myth Given Hollywood

Treatment,” Film Review 669 (May 2006): 107; Denis de Rouge-

mont, Love in the Western World (Princeton: Princeton University

Press, 1974); John Donne, “The Good Morrow,” www.luminar-

ium.org/sevenlit/donne/goodmorrow.htm (accessed 25 January

2009); Dean Georgaris, “Commentary” to the 2006 DVD release of

Tristan + Isolde (Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox Home Enter-

tainment, 2006); David Jays,“Tristan + Isolde,” Sight and Sound 16,

no.4 (April 2006): 80; Ian Johns,“Tristan + Isolde,” Times 2, 20 April

2006, 17; Will Lawrence, “Tristan + Isolde,” Empire May 2006, 54;

Jeff Limke and Ron Randall, Tristan and Isolde: The Warrior and

the Princess: A British Legend (London: Graphic Universe, 2007);

Derek Malcolm, “History Re-told to the Tune of Rum-Tum,”

Evening Standard, 26 April 2006, 35; Rosalind Miles, Isolde, Queen

of the Western Isle; The Maid of the White Hands; The Lady of the

Sea (Los Angeles, CA: Three Rivers Press, 2003, 2005); Dorothy

Roberts, The Enchanted Cup (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts,

1953); Ridley Scott interviewed by Reg Seeton, www.ugo.com/

channels/dvd/features/tristanandisolde/interview2.asp (accessed 8

August 2008); Ridley Scott, quoted in Production Notes: Tristan +

Isolde (Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox, 2005), vi–vii; “Tristan

+ Isolde: Screenplay by Dean Georgaris,” Creative Screenwriting 13,

no.1 (2006): 32; “Tristan + Isolde. Written by Dean Georgaris. Tran-

script by Chani at tristanandisolde.net,” www.imsdb.com/Movie

%20Scripts/Tristan%20and%20Isolde%20Script.html (accessed 23

January 2009).

Bibliography

Jeremy May, “The Dark Ages in Britain—Via Prague,” Screen Inter-

national 1424 (10–16 October 2003): 13.

TRISTAN AND ISOLDE

A legend dating back to the twelfth century, of which there

have been many different versions in different cultures.

Claude D’Esplas reconstructs the legend thus: The giant

Morhot comes to Cornwall to collect the tribute of young

people which the country owes to Ireland. Tristan challenges

Morhot and kills him in single combat; a chip of the edge of

the sword remains, however, embedded in the giant’s skull.

Tristan himself receives a wound that becomes dangerously

infected. No one can help him. In accordance with the Celtic

funeral rites he is put into a boat without sails and left to the

currents.

The boat drifts to the shores of Ireland. Tristan calls

himself a minstrel and hides his identity under a disguised

name; the magic drinks of Queen Isolt, sister of Morhot,

who is assisted by her daughter, Isolt the Fair, cure him. Tris-

tan leaves his benefactresses without having revealed his

identity nor spoken of Morhot and returns to Cornwall. The

story negotiates various twists and turns until the final scene

when Tristan, away in Brittany, marries another Isolt—Isolt

of the White Hands. While coming to the rescue of her

brother Katherdin, Tristan receives a mortal wound which

can only be healed by Isolt the Fair as she has done before.

However Isolt of the White Hands grows jealous, and tells

TRISTAN AND ISOLDE

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Tristan that Isolt the Fair will not come; all Tristan can do is

die. Isolt the Fair arrives, and falls lifeless on Tristan’s body.

King Marc buries them together.

Bibliography

Claude D’Esplas, Tristan & Isolt: From Bayreuth to Monsegur

(Moscow, IMA Press, 1994).

TRISTAN AND ISOLDE FILMS

The Internet Movie Database lists fourteen films in addition

to TRISTAN + ISOLDE that have been made using the same

story. Of these, the most noteworthy are L’Eternel Retour

(1943) directed by Jean Delannoy, Tristan et Yseult (1972)

directed by Yvan Lagrange, Lovespell (1979) directed by Tom

Donovan, and Fire and Sword (1981) directed by Veith von

Furstenberg.

The attraction for most of these films has been the orig-

inal myth’s themes of consuming love and transfiguring

death. The challenge of interpreting the myth cinematically

has proved formidable, and those directors who have cur-

rently attempted it (including KEVIN REYNOLDS in Tris-

tan + Isolde) have failed to satisfy most critics. Nevertheless,

cinema has been the major medium for the exploration of

these themes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Bibliography

Kevin J. Harty, “A Bibliography on Arthurian Film,” in Cinema

Arthuriana: Essays on Arthurian Film, ed. Harty (New York and

London: Garland Publishing, 1981), 204–43 (includes references

to reviews of all the Tristan films mentioned above); Meradith T.

McMunn, “Filming the Tristan Myth: From Text to Icon,” in Cin-

ema Arthuriana: Essays on Arthurian Film, ed. Harty, 169–81.

TRISTAN AND ISOLDE (WAGNER)

Epic musical dramatic poem by Richard Wagner completed

in 1865. Wagner reduces the TRISTAN AND ISOLDE myth

to its simplest details. His main focus is on the longing for

Death associated with love. This idea, commonly attributed

to Schopenhauer, appears in Wagner’s works long before

he had heard of Schopenhauer. In a letter to Liszt (written

in 1854), Wagner wrote: “His chief idea, the final negation

of the desire of life, is terribly serious, but it shows the only

salvation possible. To me of course that thought was not

new, and, indeed it can be conceived by no one for whom

it did not preexist; but this philosopher was the first to

place it clearly before me.” He elaborates the point in a let-

ter written in January 1859, when he was scoring the sec-

ond act of Tristan: “This Idea will then play an important

part in the form of this experience; the purer and more ele-

vated this Idea has been, so much the more unworldly and

incomparable that experience will be. It will purify his will,

his aesthetic interest will become a moral one, and the

highest moral consciousness will be added to the highest

poetical Idea.”

Screenwriter DEAN GEORGARIS listened to Wagner’s

version of the myth before composing his own version of

TRISTAN + ISOLDE, which was eventually directed by

KEVIN REYNOLDS and produced by Scott.

Reference

Richard Wagner, quoted in Alice Leighton Cleather and Basil

Crump, Tristan and Isolde: An Intepretation (London: Methuen &

Co., 1905), 8–9.

Bibliography

C. A. Barry, A Preface to Richard Wagner’s Music-Drama Tristan und

Isolde (London: A. S. Mallett, 1901); Eric Chafe, The Tragic and the

Ecstatic: The Musical Revolution of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); Hans von Wolzogen,

Guide to the Legend, Poem and Music of Richard Wagner’s Tristan

and Isolde, trans. B. L. Mosely (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1884).

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (TRIUMPH DES WILLENS)

Germany 1935 r/t 110 min b/w. Production Company:

Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. Producer/

Director: Leni Riefenstahl. Director of Photography:Sepp All-

geier. Production Designer: Albert Speer. Music: Herbert

Windt and Richard Wagner.

A visual record of the Nazi party’s 1934 Nuremberg rally

including speeches by Hitler, Hess, Goebbels, Sepp Dietrich,

Hans Frank, Alfred Rosenberg, Baldur von Schirach, Julius

Streicher. Ridley Scott acknowledged this film as an inspira-

tion for GLADIATOR, not least in terms of the futuristic Nazi

architecture, whose oblique lines provided designer ARTHUR

MAX with an alternative concept to that expressed in other

ANCIENT EPICS such as Ben Hur (1959). This is espe-

cially evident in the scene where Commodus (JOAQUIN

PHOENIX) returns to Rome, to be greeted by a guard of

honor, cheering crowds, and the senators waiting on the steps

of the Senate to greet him. At this point he resembles Hitler

enjoying similar acclaim in Riefenstahl’s film.

TRUMBULL, DOUGLAS (1942– )

Visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull was one of the Spe-

cial Photographic Effects Supervisors for Stanley Kubrick’s

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He also worked on Close

Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Star Trek: The

Motion Picture (1979) before coming to BLADE RUNNER.

Trumbull believed that the work done on Scott’s film

pushed the art form “to its ultimate leading edge ...To really

be able to create illusions that are significantly advanced

from anything anybody’s ever done is something I find very

exciting.” By 1983 Trumbull had quit the motion picture

business and concentrated instead on supplying theme parks

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TRISTAN AND ISOLDE FILMS

and hotels with special visual presentations—for example

the “Back to the Future’ ride at Universal Studios.

References

Paul M. Sammon, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, 2nd

ed. (London: Gollancz, 2007), 265.

TURKEL, JOE (1927– )

Joe Turkel’s career began in television with roles in The

Untouchables and Bonanza. His film credits included The

Hindenburg (1975) and the supernatural bartender in Stan-

ley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980). It was this last film that

persuaded Scott to cast him as Tyrell in BLADE RUNNER.

With his huge glasses and detached, aloof manner,

Tyrell one who values control over anyone else. During

Deckard’s (HARRISON FORD’s) meeting, Tyrell manipu-

lates the sun light with the push of a button; it rises convinc-

ingly in the sky, making the view early in the morning

towards the east. In Ancient Egypt the sun god Ra was con-

sidered the creator of all things, “the god of the whole

world.” Likewise according to William M. Kolb Tyrell is the

creator—both father and mother of all the REPLICANTS.

The relationship between Tyrell and the replicants is

understood by all the ecclesiastical trappings that surround

Tyrell in a later sequence: the papal gown he wears, the bed,

the ring on the little finger of his right hand and the devo-

tional candles illuminating his rooms. However he makes

one fatal mistake with Batty (RUTGER HAUER) by treating

him as a comrade. Batty responds by kissing Tyrell and

thrusting his hands into his creator’s eyes. The eye imagery

is important here, for it is only by doing this that Batty can

make Tyrell see (in other words, understand) that replicants

should be given a life of their own and not simply exist to

serve their “parents.’ Scott revealed in an interview with Har-

lan Kennedy that Batty was supposed to deliver the line “I

want more life, fucker,” at this point; but this was softened

into “I want more life, father.” This “funnily enough, works

better.”

Joe Turkel’s subsequent career has been punctuated

with occasional television roles in Tales from the Dark Side

(1985) and Miami Vice (1988). For the most part he has kept

a low profile, save for an appearance at a BLADE

RUNNER—FINAL CUT panel in July 2007, where PAUL M.

SAMMON witnessed him recalling how the kissing scene

was the first time he had ever “kissed a man with passion.”

References

Harlan Kennedy, “21st Century Nervous Breakdown,” Film Com-

ment 18, no.4 (July 1982): 64–68; William M. Kolb, “Blade Runner

Film Notes,” in Retrofitting Blade Runner, ed. Judith M. Kerman,

2nd ed. (Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular

Press, 1997), 158; Paul M. Sammon, Future Noir: The Making of

Blade Runner, 2nd ed. (London: Gollancz, 2007), 472.

TWOHY, DAVID (1955– )

Early successes as a screenwriter included The Fugitive (1993),

plus the screenplay for the Kevin Costner film WATER-

WORLD (1995).

Twohy was brought in to improve the script of G.I.

JANE after it had been initially written by Danielle Alexan-

dra. Scott told PAUL M. SAMMON that Twohy “came up

with the action, as well as integrating my concerns into the

script. He did a great job of grafting all that onto a good

story with humorous and intelligent dialogue.” Twohy’s first

draft for the film can be accessed online at http://sfy.ru/

sfy.html?script=gi_jane.

References

Ridley Scott, quoted in Paul M. Sammon, “Joining the Club: Rid-

ley Scott on G.I. Jane,” in Ridley Scott Interviews, ed. Laurence F.

Knapp and Andrea F. Kulas (Jackson, University Press of Missis-

sippi, 2005), 137.

TWOHY, DAVID (1955– )

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US MILITARY

Several of Scott’s films contain a military theme, notably

THE DUELLISTS. G.I. JANE is the first dealing directly with

the US military. Scott admitted in an interview that he was

fascinated with the SEALs on account of their status as

“state-of-the-art spearheads in terms of avoiding warfare.

These groups can infiltrate enemy territory months before

a confrontation ...In that sense, the SEALs actually save

lives. Ultimately, I think that is what the concept of the mil-

itary is all about. Saving lives.”

When asked what he had achieved through the film,

Scott responded.“We got a fairly good sense of really being

inside the military and of how hidden agendas motivate pol-

itics.” The film caused a stir on its first release, not least

because it addressed an event very much on the political

agenda at that time: the role of women in the armed forces.

Mad magazine even published a parody of the film (GI

Shame) in its issue of 1 January 1998.

In AMERICAN FIGHTER PILOT the life of the US mil-

itary at the Tyndall Air Base in Florida is explored in a seven-

part reality series. In general the tone is reverent, allowing

both instructors and recruits to create an image of military

life as firm but fair, training pilots to be harsh and ruthless

yet concerned with maintaining group identity. This is par-

ticularly important in the post-9/11 era, when they are faced

with the possibility of being killed in action as they seek to

preserve the American ideals of freedom and democracy.

Simon Dalby has recently noted that GLADIATOR,

BLACK HAWK DOWN, and KINGDOM OF HEAVEN all

explore the morality and identity of the American soldier.

They are set in exotic landscapes and settings that empha-

size the confrontation with danger as external and frequently

unknowable; political violence is presented as something

that has both simple and very complicated geographies. The

public discussion of the necessity for warfare and “interven-

tion” in Western states is enmeshed in discourses of moral-

ities, rights, and “just war.” The professional fighter, whether

in the guise of a Special Forces operative, gladiator, or gar-

rison soldier in peacekeeping mode, is a key figure of the

post-9/11 era, physically preserving the safety of the Amer-

ican nation, and simultaneously reinforcing its identity as

the repository of virtue against barbaric threats to civiliza-

tion. These themes are central to Ridley Scott’s work. Ana-

lyzing them in terms of the soldier’s life adds a specifically

military dimension to the critical geopolitical literature on

war and representation.

Despite the fact that the CIA makes use of sophisticated

military hardware—Black Hawk helicopters, plus the latest

surveillance equipment—they are ultimately outwitted by

their enemies in BODY OF LIES. In the tight, closely-knit

streets of Amman, or in the wastes of the desert, their equip-

ment offers them little assistance in catching Al-Saleem

(ALON ABOUTBUL). This is a new kind of warfare—one

relying much more on stealth and cooperation than tech-

nology. In this changed world, the US military has yet to find

an effective role.

References

Paul M. Sammon, “Joining the Club: Ridley Scott on G.I. Jane,” i n

Ridley Scott Interviews, ed. Laurence F. Knapp and Andrea F. Kulas

(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005), 166–67; Simon

Dalby, “Warrior Geopolitics: Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and

[The] Kingdom of Heaven,” Political Geography 27, no.4 (May 2008):

439–55.

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LES VACANCES DE M.HULOT

(MONSIEUR HULOT’S HOLIDAY)

France 1953 r/t 90 min b/w. Production Companies:Cady

Films and Discina. Producer: F. Orain. Director: Jacques Tati.

Writers: Pierre Aubert and Jacques Lagrange. Directors of

Photography: Jacques Mercanton and Jean Mousselle. Music:

Alain Romans. Cast: Jacques Tati (M. Hulot), Nathalie Pas-

caud (Martine), Michele Rolla (The Aunt), Raymond Carl

(The Waiter), Lucien Frégis (The Hotel Proprietor).

Tati’s classic slapstick comedy of an innocent man

encountering all kinds of mishaps while on holiday in

coastal FRANCE. Ridley Scott acknowledged the influ-

ence of this film on the tennis sequence involving Max

Skinner (RUSSELL CROWE) and Duflot (DIDIER BOUR-

DON) in A GOOD YEAR: “I have a court in France, and

it’s still the best game for me ...[In Hulot] there’s always

this gentleman playing tennis and Tati has everyone watch

him play ...I like the scene a lot.” Scott includes a more

direct tribute to Tati by naming Duflot’s Yorkshire terrier

after him.

Reference

Ridley Scott,“Ripe on the Vine,” Fade In 9, no.3 (October 2006): 53.

VANGELIS (1943– )

Born Evangelos Odysseus Papathanassiou in Greece. Vange-

lis came to BLADE RUNNER via a number of connections—

Ridley Scott used music from his China album for his EDEN

ROC CHANEL NO. 5 (1989) commercial, while TERRY

RAWLINGS had cut the Vangelis-scored Chariots of Fire

(1981), which won an Oscar for music.

Vangelis recalled that what interested him most about

the film was the atmosphere and the general feeling rather

than the distinct themes. The score borrows from a dazzling

variety of musical genres, from the haunting love theme

played as Deckard (HARRISON FORD) and Rachael

(SEAN YOUNG) kiss, to the arabesque-style music-influ-

enced “Tales of the Future” sung by Demis Roussos; from

the 1940s throwback “One More Kiss, Dear” played after

Zhora’s (JOANNA CASSIDY’s) death to the end titles

theme.

Vangelis’s methods mirrored Scott’s own technique of

layering: the musician improvised the basic melody of each

track, laid down the melody on tape, and then refined it by

piling other sounds on top of it, working the whole struc-

ture into a unified whole. The official soundtrack to Blade

Runner was not released until 1994, entitled Blade Runner:

Vangelis featuring twelve tracks overlaid with extracts of dia-

logue from the film.

Vangelis returned to work with Scott on 1492: CON-

QUEST OF PARADISE, when HANS ZIMMER was unavail-

able. Scott admitted in an interview published by Brian J.

Robb that “the film could have a traditional score to suit its

fifteenth-century project ...[but] that’s the last thing I

wanted. I knew Vangelis could give me something which was

both appropriate for the period and is also contemporary

...I hate it when people say you shouldn’t notice the score.

The score, if it’s doing its job, should lift and elevate the

movie.” In the film, Vangelis’s music is not triumphal; rather

it emphasizes mystery, unease, and solemnity.

Reference

Ridley Scott, quoted in Brian J. Robb, Ridley Scott (Harpenden:

Pocket Essentials, 2002), 64.

Bibliography

Ian Freer, “Synth Job,” Empire, August 2007, 112–13; Michael Han-

nan and Melissa Carey, “Ambient Soundscapes in Blade Runner,” i n

Off the Planet: Music, Sound and Science Fiction in Cinema, ed. Philip

Hayward (Eastleigh, UK: John Libbey Publishing, 2004), 149–65.

VAUGHAN-HUGHES, GERALD (?– )

Vaughan-Hughes cut his teeth in television, working on

series such as ITV Playhouse and Armchair Theatre.Before

working on THE DUELLISTS, Vaughan-Hughes had writ-

ten a screenplay based on The Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Scott wanted to produce this picture, but could not find the

funding to do so.

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