Never as revered as his older brother Ridley, Tony Scott carved out a niche for himself, winnowing it down by the last decade or so of his career to the surprisingly robust subgenre known as Denzel Washington action thriller. Prior to that, however, Scott the younger directed some equally iconic films of his own, some of which—Top Gun, Days of Thunder, and Enemy of the State, to name but three—we won't be covering due to lack of skin. One could argue that he has at least two iconic films among the ones we're going to talk about today.
Tony began his career in 1969, only four years after Ridley, at first making short films under his christian name, Anthony Scott. He never relied on his older brother or his clout to get one of his movies made. In fact, the two set up the Scott Free shingle to produce films together made by other directors. When it appears on one of the films they directed themselves, the Scott brother who directed the film is the only one also credited as a producer.
All of this is to say that while Tony and Ridley were certainly close and maintained a healthy friendship throughout their professional lives, they were their own men creatively. One wouldn't mistake a Tony Scott movie for a Ridley Scott movie, though one could argue that Ridley has made alargenumber of Tony Scott movies in this millennium, including American Gangster, Body of Lies, and The Counselor.One could also argue that there's less fat on Tony's directorial resume. Far fewer Exodus: Gods and Kings and Kingdom of Heaven-type epic disasters on his cv, if you know what I mean.
The other elephant in the room is Scott's untimely death at his own hands in the summer of 2012. Whatever demons he faced in his own life don't hang over his films, which is why his death was such a shock. His last film, Unstoppable, was released a decade ago, and it's a terrible thing, but certainly something his films don't dwell on, hence neither will we.Let's focus instead on a healthy cross-section of his filmography from his feature directorial debut in 1983 all the way up to his third offive films made with Washington. There's nudity all over these films, nearly all of which are action-oriented, save that aforementioneddirectorial debut...
The Hunger (1983)
Erotic vampire lovers rejoice as Scott's directorial debut might just be the sexiest and best movie in that burgeoning subgenre. Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie star as ancient vampiric lovers who currently reside in New York City and subsist on random people they encounter in the city's nightlife scene like the poor, ill-fated Ann Magnuson...
Suddenly, and without explanation, Bowie's vampire begins suffering from insomnia, coupled with rapid aging, causing the couple to seek out Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), a renowned specialist—conveniently enough—in both aging and sleep disorders. Thus begins a love triangle that culminates in Sarandon and Deneuve having a skinsational sapphic encounter at the 59 minute mark, though Deneuve employed a body double for her nudity...
During the encounter, Deneuve bites Sarandon's arm, but Sarandon is repulsed by the notion of becoming a bloodsucker herself.The Hunger was perhaps the last major piece of vampire fiction created before public awareness of the AIDS crisis, which obviously tinged any subsequent talesadhering to the lore. For example, just two years later, Fright Night leaned heavily into the AIDS panic. That alone is enough to make the film a time capsule of a particular place in time. Also of note, Scott directed two episodes of the short-lived television adaptation of the film on Showtime, an anthology series hosted in the first season by Terence Stamp, and by Bowie in season two!
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
1984's Beverly Hills Cop opened at the tail end of that year and went on to gross $234 million at the box office—$629 million adjusted for inflation—making a sequel all but a sure thing. Original director Martin Brest left to make Midnight Run, and with Scott hot off of Top Gun, Paramount turned to him to make the sequel. This time around, Eddie Murphy's Axel Foley is hot on the trail of Brigitte Nielsen, while also causing all manner of hijinks in the upper class world of Beverly Hills.
Of course, this includes stopping by the strip club at the 47-minute mark, where Teal Roberts and Peggy McIntaggart inject some skin into this otherwise skinless franchise...
Nowhere near as successful as the original, BHCII managed to still make a respectable $153 million at the box office—$368 million in 2020 dollars—though the franchise went dormant until the lackluster John Landis-directed third entry in the mid-90s. There continues to be talk of reviving it again, but at this point in time, I think it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.
Revenge (1990)
Like everyone else in the late 80s and early 90s, Tony Scott got into the Kevin Costner business with this film released the same year as the actor's Oscar winning film Dances with Wolves. Costner plays a Navy pilot who travels to Mexico to stay at the hacienda of his old friend and crime boss played by Anthony Quinn. It doesn't take long for Costner to fall for his buddy's trophy wife, played by Madeleine Stowe, and an even shorter time for the two to get down...
Although Stowe does go topless in the film, she left any below-the-belt nudity to a body double. After their several rendezvous in the film's first 45-minutes, Quinn then takes the titular revenge, scarring Stowe's face and leaving Costner for dead in the desert. Of course, he's Kevin Costner and won't die in the desert, returning to take his own bout of the titular act. Interestingly, I mentioned earlier that The Hunger avoids mentioning or dancing around AIDS, while this film has an absolutely nonsensical subplot involving Stowe getting herself infected with a tainted needle because she wants to die. It sends an otherwise solid revenge thriller into the realm of melodrama, though no one really knew what to make of AIDS artistically at that point in time. It was mostly used, as it is here, as shorthand for a character's death sentence.
The Last Boy Scout (1991)
The common theme among most of Scott's movies is that there's not a strong consistent style between them. He was mostly a chameleon as a director and was almost certainly never the "story" behind a film he was hired to direct. That was never more apparent than the consecutive early 90s efforts—this andTrue Romance—that were more about the writer than the director. Writer Shane Black cashed a record check for his script, bringing Scott into producer Joel Silver's circle for the first time. It would be the only time he'd work for the mega-producer, finding much more success with producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson.
Scott often complained about making the film, telling anyone who would listen that Silver and star Bruce Willis had far more control over the film than he did. He even went so far as to take a not-so-subtle dig at Silver by casting virtual lookalike Saul Rubinek as a cocaine-addled producer in True Romance. Even still, the film is above average and more than competently made, and while it's not anyone's favorite of the Shane Black/Warner Brothers action movies of the day, it's worth a rewatch if it's been a while.Also, the nudity isn't buried in the film, they get it all out of the way in the first twenty minutes, with Denise Ames emerging topless from a pool at the 12-minute mark, and Sara Suzanne Brown showing off her boobsand bethongedbooty while stripping seven minutes later...
True Romance (1993)
One of only two films written by Quentin Tarantino which he didn't also direct—along withOliver Stone'sNatural Born Killersthe following year—is this early 90s violent love story with a killer ensemble including Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Sam Jackson, Val Kilmer, James Gandolfini, and Brad Pitt in one of his best roles. The film centers around movie nerd Clarence (Christian Slater) and call girl Alabama (Patricia Arquette) who meet by chance at the movies and end up on the lam after murdering Alabama's pimp (Oldman) and absconding with his stash of coke, hoping to peddle it for cash in Hollywood. Little do they realize that Oldman was just a cog in the machine, and now the mafia is on their tails to recover what is rightfully theirs.
Scott made two major changes to Tarantino's original script. The first change was putting the story in chronological order, as it had apparently been written as a mixed chronology,Pulp Fiction-esque narrative. Tarantino's only other complaint was that Scott decided to let Clarence live at the end of the film, despite being shot in the eye. Tarantino apparently was keen on killing the character off, but this is Hollywood and certain concessions must be made to certain time honored traditions. As for nudity,Patricia Arquette goes topless for her first sex scene with Slater, just 12 minutes into the film, and also bared her breasts in a deleted scene in a hot tub...
The film was not a commercial success upon its initial release but picked up a cult following on home video, which exploded the following year with the release of Pulp Fiction, enticing everyone to seek out Tarantino's earlier work. LikeNatural Born Killers, it wasn't a smash hit in theaters, but both films are now considered incredibly influential early 90s classics.
Domino (2005)
While it was probably shocking and a bit off-putting to audiences in 2005, Scott'sfilmwritten by Donnie Darko's Richard Kelly and billing it self as "A True Story. Sort Of." Keira Knightleybegan her ascent to the A-list with 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean, and Domino marks her first starring vehicle, though the following month's Pride and Prejudice was much more successful and landed Knightley her first Oscar nomination. Knightley plays former model Domino Harvey, daughter of acclaimed Lithuanian actor Laurence Harvey and, as the film would have you believe, quite a badass bounty hunter.
For his film, Scott intensely researched the world of bounty hunters and came away with the lesson that many of them are raging cocaine addicts. This informed Scott's style for the film which is sort of an amalgamation of Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers and The Wachowski's The Matrix, with all the macho fetishism of guns one mightexpect from a latter-day Rambo film. In true macho movie fashion, Knightley even received a second degree burn on her neck while firing two machine guns at the same time when a hot shell attached itself to the actress' skin.
While the film isn't necessarily what I would call successful nearly 15 years after its release, it's much better than its reputation suggests, particularly in an age when this film's editing style is much more in line with the trends of the time. If nothing else, you should check it out for Knightley's multiple nude scenes in the film...
Déjà Vu (2006)
It's at least somewhat fitting to close out with a Denzel Washington film as the two made five films together, with 2009's remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 and 2010's Unstoppable being the last two skinless efforts. Washington plays an FBI counter-terrorism operative who uses a groundbreaking time travel technology that allows him totravel into the past and use crucial information discovered to bring down terrorists and prevent attacks. While investigating an attack in New Orleans, he becomes obsessed with one of the attack's victims—played by Paula Patton, whom Washington would also romance in 2013's 2Guns—which threatens the safety of his entire mission, and increases the potential for a new, unseen crime.
It sounds confusing when you explain it all, but Scott keeps things moving without bogging the audience down in scientific mumbo jumbo exposition dumps.It's also one of the rare PG-13 films of the new millennium to feature a nude scene, with Paula Patton briefly baringTA on a shower cam being studied by Denzel...
It's been nearly a decade since we lost Tony Scott, and his loss is felt everywhere, particularly in every subpar Antoine Fuqua-directed movie thatDenzel Washington finds himself headlining these days. Thankfully he left behind a wide range of films covering lots of genres and helped to craft the blockbuster movie formula of the 1980s, ensuring he will never be forgotten.
Check out the Other Directors in Our Ongoing "SKIN-depth Look”Series
Bruce Lee|Terry Gilliam|Alejandro Jodorowsky|Luis Buñuel|Atom Egoyan|John Boorman|John Schlesinger|James Ivory|Alan Parker|Walter Hill|Louis Malle|Mike Nichols|Allison Anders|Jonathan Demme|William Friedkin|Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Part One|Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Part Two|Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Part Three|Federico Fellini|Philip Kaufman|Miloš Forman|Pedro Almodóvar: Part One|Pedro Almodóvar: Part Two|Blake Edwards|Catherine Breillat: Part One|Catherine Breillat: Part Two|Spike Lee|John Landis|David Cronenberg: Part One|David Cronenberg: Part Two|Ingmar Bergman|François Truffaut|Bernardo Bertolucci|Steven Soderbergh|Kathryn Bigelow|Oliver Stone|Roman Polanski|Nicolas Roeg|David Fincher|Francis Ford Coppola|Pier Paolo Pasolini|Ken Russell: Part One|Ken Russell: Part Two|Robert Altman:Part One|Robert Altman:Part Two|Adrian Lyne|Martin Scorsese|Jane Campion|Park Chan-wook|Bob Fosse|Dario Argento|Wes Craven|Tobe Hooper|Todd Haynes|Danny Boyle|Stanley Kubrick|Paul Thomas Anderson|David Lynch|Brian De Palma|Paul Schrader|Paul Verhoeven
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Non-nude photos courtesy of IMDb
