THERE is a scene in Tony Scott’s 2006 sci-fi blockbuster Déjà Vu that perfectly encapsulates his signature style. Denzel Washington is using a hi-tech, time-bending surveillance device to track a terrorist suspect in the past while his character conducts a car chase in the present.
It may sound silly, but Scott’s willingness to simultaneously mount two action sequences was typical of a film-maker who always strived to give audiences more bang for their buck.
Having come out of the same advertising background as older brother Ridley, that is perhaps not surprising. He was part of the first generation of filmmakers to really understand how to convey the essence of an idea in the fastest, glossiest and most memorable way possible.
He arrived in Hollywood just as the movie business was trying to do the same. Indeed, while the high-concept blockbuster may have been invented by producers Jerry Bruckheimer and the late Don Simpson, they found their ideal exponent of the form when they hired Scott to direct Top Gun.
But when presented with a script from a writer with a strong voice, Scott could deliver more than just amped-up action. The celebrated exchange between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken in the Quentin Tarantino-scripted True Romance proved that Scott didn’t always need pyrotechnics to deliver an explosive scene.
It’s also easy to forget that his first production credit was as the titular teenager bunking off school to escape the drudgery of his North Shields home life in his brother Ridley’s elegiac, semi-autobiographical short film, Boy and Bicycle. Watch that film today and young Tony’s blissful expression as he rides his bike is the look of someone who understands the joy that simple action can bring.
• Alistair Harkness is a film critic for The Scotsman