The anticipation I had for Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel” and “The House of Gucci” died when I watched the recently debuted trailers for both films earlier in the week.
The former looked so plain and familiar. Not to mention, Ben Affleck’s permed goatee and hair. Matt Damon also looked rather silly with his mullet. Meanwhile, the latter looked like pure camp; what with Lady Gaga’s terrible acting, the all-around ludicrous Italian accents, the excessive wealth and a hammy Al Pacino as Aldo Gucci — you can just tell the best case scenario for this film will be its cult classic potential.
The peculiar directorial career of Scott is one that you cannot help, but respect. The 83-year-old filmmaker is not just a workaholic, churning out almost one film per year, but in his nearly five-decade career he’s managed to release as many great films as he has terrible ones. The fact that he still remains “on the scene,” so to speak, having survived the tumultuously monopolized changes in the industry this decade, feels like some kind of small miracle.
In all, he’s directed 25 features since his underrated 1977 debut “The Duellists” (by which “The Last Duel” could potentially be seen as a fitting career bookend, of sorts). And yet, has Scott really bookmarked a specific auteur-driven style in his filmography.
The glossiness of a Scott production cannot be overemphasized.; crossing through various different genres, he is and has always been about atmosphere. The lighting. The inaccurate attention to set design and detail. Ridley Scott is very good at his craft and has always wanted a slick end product.
And so, it happens, Scott has managed to strike lightning almost a dozen times in his career — Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Alien, Blade Runner, American Gangster, The Duellists, Thelma and Louise, Matchstick Men, Prometheus, The Martian, and Kingdom of Heaven.
I don’t expect “The House of Gucci” or “The Last Duel” to join that select club. Instead, it inevitably feels like it will be part of Scott nadirs such as “Alien: Covenant,” “The Counselor,” “Body of Lies,” “Robin Hood,” “A Good Year,” “Hannibal,” “G.I. Jane,” “White Squall,” “1492: Conquest of Paradise,” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.”