A FREEWHEELING Conversation on Facebook about Ridley Scott and THE MARTIAN

Earlier today, after seeing The Martian (the review for which will be up on IMDb very soon, and I'll link it in here when it's up), my idiosyncratic Canadian facebook movie buddy Karl and I had a conversation about the movie and Scott in general - he hasn't seen the movie, I just had (I deleted a few LOL's for your convenience):

Jack Gattanella: the real shocking thing this weekend.... Ridley Scott does like people

The Martian - maybe among his top 3 films

Alien, Blade Runner, that fucking good man

Karl Leschinsky: it's all a ruse

they got him too

for the moment

Jack: haha

Karl: then hell unleash another four prometheuses on you until you say you like them

Jack: Well, it [Martian] is a crowd-pleaser

god help us [more Alien sequels]

sigh

Actually, the script is maybe the most brilliant part about it

If I get to teach any screenwriting classes I'll use the Martian first

it has a lot more humor than you'd usually expect

better humor than Gravity, much more than Interstellar...

it's like.... hey, we get to LIKE these characters and get invested in them

they're not just like finding space goo and calling Guy Pearce "... Father"

so yeah, check it out some time soon

I'm curious whether you'll like it or not

 

Karl: i'd like it, most likely

 

Jack: it's hard sci-fi, but it's amusing

 

Karl: i like ridley

it looks good, well done

 

Jack: it's like, he's loosening up in this movie a iittle

letting Damon take the reigns a little

though he's secretly in control all the time

 

Karl: in my james cameron rap [unpublished], one of the lines calls out ridley for selling out "redhanded" 

 

Jack: hm

Years back you know, he said he wanted to be the John Ford of sci-fi and it didn't quite happen, but this is like him fulfilling the promise of his early movies

 

Karl: lol

yeah

 

Jack: haha

 

Karl: well, i'm happy to see him succeed

because hes better than nolan lol

so thats a bit overdue..

i always liked him but it's only recently i realized how brilliant he really is

 

Jack: sure

 

Karl: the counselor sort of foresaw movies like sicario becoming a thing

 

Jack: hm I have to wonder if Nolan will see Martian and be like... damn, wish I'd thought of doing that

 

Karl: lol well nolan was doing something similar imo

his howard hawks journals in which howard hawks is trapped inside a motel / his mind

howard hughes* sorry lol

except he never got out

that sounded like it could be nolan's best movie ... but warren beatty, gangster that he is, muscled him out

so he moved on to saving the children with akira

anyways ridley

ridleys trying to save the world, still

nolans already given up on that

interstellar was a great big: we're doomed... but LOVE!

ridleys more like: fuck that. science. war. FIGHT MOTHERFUCKER!

 

Jack: hm... well

The Martian is about sciencing the shit out of things

while listening to disco

(which the main character can't stand, but does anyway, and begrudgingly likes)

Meanwhile, Troy from Community saves the world

I'm serious

lol

It's just great to see a movie that follows real problem solving

like, we know the outcome

he'll survive and be rescued

but the shit that's thrown in his way makes it really intense

plus, it's MATT DAMON!

hard not to like him, albeit with his comments about black women directors and gays in the closet sigh

 

Karl: [Troy from Community?] you mean that rapper who was in community

ya know...

all and all i'm going to embrace this

ridley getting respect is not a bad thing... he doesnt do crap 9 out of 10 times

i'm glad people can appreciate how dedicated he is to his craft

personally, i see the martian as a great big political maneuver in coordination with nasa and the u.s. government

an illuminati thing basically but thats okay, it can still work on a filmmaking level and i like what MZS wrote about it [otherworldly yeah and yet also, deliberately, somewhat bland]

 

Jack: yeah

uh

hm

well China is also involved too...

in the movie, as in life

 

Karl: right

 

Jack: like, the Chinese come in at one point to help them out with like mega-super-rockets

and yeah, on a filmmaking level it's boss

 

Karl: yeah to teach TEAMWORK

(see Kung Fury t-rex) (or VICE Hermit Kingdom doc where the korean commentators can only praise the teamwork in commentating on the bball game)

 

Jack: o true

I think as someone who is, technically I guess, a Screenwriting "Master" it impressed the hell out of me, insomuch as - hey, you can actually do THIS in a major Hollywood level. it's not all dumb action beats and shit like the Godzilla 2014 thing

 

Karl: i'll give Martian credit there (without having seen it lol)

it's a lot smarter than the typical idiot blockbuster

 

Jack: yeah

 

Karl: yeah lol

 

Jack: It's certainly not the "it's all about LOVE" thing like Interstellar is, where it's like, love kinda saves the universe (or that's the upfront message, secretly it's about how we can try to save ourselves from dying but that'll never happen)

 

Karl: right... again... very Obama-like... by that i mean: this would have been beautiful 1 decade sooner

i think that's my only issue with it really

theres a part of me that cant get over that -- why didnt you make this instead of GLADIATOR?

 

Jack: aye

 

Karl: Ridley will occasionally take huge risks and go against the stream, but he really plays both sides in order to take those risks, like the guy he is grooming, Villeneueve (new Blade Runner 2 director) ... and... yeah... I love when he does something crazy like EXODUS, COUNSELOR, MATCHSTICK MEN, 5 ALIEN sequels... stuff that he must know on some level are going to flop...

 

Jack:I still like Gladiator

 

Karl: me too, it's really good lol

 

Jack: though it's lessened over time in my estimation, where like in high school I thought it was the shit. but now it just seems really dreary and sad, maybe more like Scott's unintentional (or not?) response to the oncoming years of torture and war (and which Black Hawk Down was more directly related)

Exodus wasn't crazy, it was just dull

routine really

Counselor was crazy, I'll give it that.

 

Karl: right, BLACK HAWK DOWN and AMERICAN GANGSTER are these middle ground flicks that will be successes just not huge

(two of his better movies imo, even tho GANGSTER is more, to me, your idea of EXODUS... but i can live with that... Scott makes a big thing of boring work in his movies, it's become a motif...)

 

Jack: yeah, gangster was one of his better ones - he sometimes comes in with those seemingly under the radar like Matchstick men, secretly one of his best

 

Karl: most of them are his best lol

you mind if I post this FB... ? it seems better than our usual shit.

....

and the rest is history...