Hello all and welcome to my first blog post as The Cinemascapist. I love movies. I love the idea of watching a movie and just being immersed into a film. Escaping into another world, another time, another place.... Hence why I decided to call this blog Cinemascapist.
It's because of my wife that this blog came to be. Besides watching movies, I love to read about their histories, the trivia, and the business itself. I often am giving my two cents about movies to her, after which she often says "you missed your calling as a studio executive" or "Maybe you should write a blog about movie stuff". Since I believe she may be right that i have in fact missed my calling, a blog seems like the perfect place to write down my thoughts of all things movies. Over time I may make a video blog and or podcast to accompany these sentiments, but for now it'll simply be in written blog form.
My wife had given me the blog idea months ago and I had even started creating the blog itself weeks ago, but today seemed like as good a day as any to start the blog after hearing the passing of director/producer Tony Scott.
It's sad to hear of his shocking passing. I know I had enjoyed films that he directed and the ones he produced with his brother, Ridley Scott, over the years, but it wasn't until I looked at imdb.com after hearing of his death just how many I've enjoyed. The first film I saw of his that he directed was Top Gun. I was 11, and I went to the theater (I believe the Star Winchester or the AMC Hampton) to see it with my friend, Roger Hurst. We were ready for a high flying action film, but what we got was a slow-paced romantic drama with some cool aerial stunts throughout. It wasn't until years later that I appreciated the film a bit more, but still it's not my favorite Tony Scott film. I'd have to say my favorite of his goes to Crimson Tide. I know many will say theirs is True Romance, but truth be told, I haven't seen that movie in roughly 20 years and can't say I remember much about it besides that awesome seen between Hopper and Walken. It's definitely one I need to revisit. I would like to say that Beat the Devil is my favorite Tony Scott directed film, but it's really a glorified BMW commercial that was made for the web. There's definitely many other Tony Scott movies I enjoyed, but I have to say the one that sticks with me is Crimson Tide. It's a suspenseful film almost completely taking place on a submarine, much like The Hunt For Red October and Das Boot (from what I hear, because I've never seen that film). I was working at the Star Rochester Hills theater when the movie came out. As an employee of the theater we always got to see the movie late on Thursday the day before it opened. I had seen it that night in May of 1995 and I had enjoyed it so much, I treated my parents to see the film later that weekend. There are many things that still leave an impression on me: Gene Hackman's "Go Bama" speech out in the pouring rain; Denzel breaking up a fight between two sailors on which artists' interpretation of Silver Surfer was better (a scene supposedly written by Quentin Tarantino); Hackman's not-so-blanketed racist analogy of lipponzoner horses; the use of the term Defcon over and over; the tension you could feel between Hackman and Denzel throughout the film; and finally thinking how much Viggo Mortensen looked and sounded like Kirk Douglas (something my dad also thought). In fact this was the first movie I had seen Viggo in.
It's an engaging film, like most of Tony Scott's films. You are entertained by not only the acting and writing, but also the look and the feeling that you too are on that submarine with them in tight quarters. Credit that most definitely has to go to Tony Scott. I think of his movies as being exactly what I want movies to be, escapism. Thank you for making such entertaining movies Mr. Scott.
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