It’s confirmed that director Tony Scott jumped to his death last night in San Pedro, California. He will clearly missed by family and friends, including brother and frequent collaborator Ridley Scott.
He has a large body of work as a director, distinguishing himself with films like Top Gun and True Romance, in addition to producing T.V. and films like The Good Wife and The Grey.
If you have Netflix Canada, two of his movies are immediately available for you to stream: The Fan and Unstoppable, the latter the last film he directed. Another in his line of films starring Denzel Washington, it was my favourite of his later movies. The heroism of the film comes from ordinary characters trying to avert the extraordinary disaster of an enormous, runaway train, a film that you almost expect wouldn’t have been greenlit had it not been partially based on a true story.
Unstoppable was also notable in that his signature visual style for films of that period like Man on Fire and Domino was somewhat muted. Wherever you fell on those techniques, however, anyone could recognize a Tony Scott film from watching it. He was a singular talent as a thriller and action director and the film world is worse off for not having him around. He will be missed.
