Catalogue
Subject of Study: Ridley Scott
Focus of Study: Strong Female Character
Resources: 3 Films
Question: Strong Female Characters are a theme in Ridley Scott's films, does this make him an auteur?
Films
Item 1: Alien (1979) - Film
. Alien is one of Ridley Scott's most famous piece of work and it was also one of the first films to have a strong female protagonist. It was created early in his career and had a big influence on the sci-fi genre in general, he is known as the most influential sci-fi Director. I have chosen Alien as my focus film because it is a clear representation of a strong female character and the use of a strong female protagonist has been widely discussed. As it is a popular film it has been reviewed, analysed and explored many times by a wide variety of people. I will be using specific scenes from this film that show the female protagonist 'Ripley' to be strong to discuss in my presentation and to debate on whether this makes him an auteur.
Item 2: Prometheus (2012) - Film
. Prometheus was made to be a prequel of sorts for Alien. It is another of Ridley Scott's works that fits in to the sci-fi genre and it also explores more feminine issues with the female protagonist compared to Alien as there is a scene where she becomes pregnant with an alien creature which is a good scene to discuss in answer to the question as it shows her physically being strong by getting the robot machine to perform a C-section which is clearly very painful. As it is very similar to Alien and sticks with the use of a strong female protagonist I can also use it to discuss the specific scenes that show the female protagonist as strong in relation to my question and whether this makes him an auteur.
Item 3: G. I. Jane (1997) - Film
. I chose this film because I thought it would be very useful to help address the question of Ridley Scott's use of strong female leads and whether this makes him an auteur. G.I.Jane completely focuses on a strong female lead as the character is a female working in a stereotypical male environment. This film brings up the issues of being a female trying to be equal to the male counterpart which will be useful in discussing strong female characters in Ridley Scott's films and may be useful in helping me go into more depth about strong female characters and the issues women face when they try to go against the stereotype. Despite its clear relevance to the question, I decided not to use this as my focus film because it isn't rated as highly as Alien and Prometheus which were some of Ridley Scott's best films that he directed.
Websites
Item 4: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/17/ridley-scott-opens-up-about-prometheus-kick-ass-women-and-blade-runner-2.html - Ridley Scott on Prometheus, Kick-Ass Women & Blade Runner 2 - Online Article/Interview
.This website is useful because Ridley Scott actually discusses his use of strong female characters and why he uses them in his films. The article discusses how his reliance of strong women sets him apart from other directors which could be helpful in answering my question as to whether his use of strong female characters makes him an auteur. Ridley Scott opens up about both the female protagonists in Alien and Prometheus which is useful as further evidence in discussing the two films I have chosen to look at for my question. I will take specific quotes from this article about female characters and use them as evidence.
****Item 5: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/scottridley.htm - TSPDT Ridley Scott - Online Biography
. This website is useful because it actually discusses his use of the issues related to masculinity and the need to prove its presence which works well with my question as strong female characters have a sense of masculinity in them. I will use the quotes from this that they used from a book to help answer my question. There is a quote that discusses Scott's use of women in films and the theme of masculinity which is useful as I can quote it to help me answer my question on whether Scott's use of strong female characters makes him an auteur.
Item 6: http://staticmass.net/deconstructing-cinema/alien-movie-1979/ - Alien Static Mass Emporium
. This online article discusses the film Alien, it describes the opening scene and the writer almost analyses it a bit. The author gives his opinion on why Alien is so fascinating, going on to explain the use of a strong female character, and what the female Protagonist is like in the film. This is useful as I can take quotes from the article and use them as evidence to support the argument that Ridley Scott's use of strong female characters makes him an auteur.
Item 7: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/prometheus-2012 - Prometheus Online Review
. This online article is a review of the film Prometheus which I have chosen as a sub-focus film. The review does discuss the female protagonist in Prometheus and mentions the other strong female character that is in the film. It also briefly mentions the female protagonist in Alien as the author discusses the similarities between the two films. This article is very useful as I can take quotes from it to discuss Ridley Scott's use of strong female character, especially in Alien and Prometheus which are two films I have chosen to look at and I can directly quote this review to help me argue that Ridley Scott's use of strong female characters does make him an auteur.
Item 8: http://europe.newsweek.com/ridley-scotts-history-directing-strong-women-65047?rm=eu - Interview with Ridley Scott
. This online article is an interview with Ridley Scott where he is discussing his new film at the time Prometheus, and his use of strong women in his films. This is very useful as it is his opinion of his own films and his own reasoning in why he uses strong women in his films which I can use to quote it in my presentation script to help me answer my question. This provides more evidence in agreement to my question because it is his personal opinion which can then be used to back up my opinion.
Magazines
Item 8: Ridley Scott G.I.Jane - Total Film Dec 1997 Magazine
. This magazine article contains some useful quotes from Ridley Scott on the strong female protagonist in the film G.I.Jane and he also discusses the actress Demi Moore and what she was like to work with on the film. I can use these quotes to discuss his use of strong female characters and answer the question on whether this makes him an auteur as they are his own opinions of using strong female characters which is useful as I can take his opinions into account.
Interview
Item 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zInLxITvRBo - Behind Close Doors with Ridley Scott
. In this interview Ridley Scott discusses some of films including Blade Runner, and Alien which both include strong female characters. I will take quotes of what Scott says to discuss his use of strong female characters and to help me answer my question quoting his perspective of his films.
Item 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_AEg05pSp8 - Interview Prometheus
. In this interview Ridley Scott discusses his common use of strong female characters and the two strong female characters in Prometheus. This is useful as I can quote what Ridley Scott said in the interview and use it as evidence to answer my question on whether his use of strong female protagonists makes him an auteur.
Books
Item 11: Ridley Scott Virgin Film - Book
. This book discusses the role of women in different films by Ridley Scott which is useful for answering my question on Ridley Scott's use of strong female leads and if this makes him an auteur. It does discuss the film Blade Runner and the use of strong female characters in that film, there is a big section on the pages about Blade Runner that just discusses women in the film. It also discusses the roles of women in some of his other films which is very useful as I can use this to compare the roles of women in his different films and see if they are all represented as strong and if so I can use this as evidence to either support or argue against that Ridley Scott's use of strong female characters makes him an auteur.
Item 12: Auteur Theories Andrew Butler - Book
. This book is useful because it discusses the auteur theory, what is an auteur, and what makes an auteur which will help me in answering my question on whether Ridley Scott's use of strong female characters makes him an auteur. I can take quotes from the book to use as evidence form question and to back up my argument that Ridley Scott's use of strong female characters does make him an auteur.
Item 13: Film Notes: Blade Runner Nick Lacey
https://laceysfilms.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/ridley-scott-as-an-auteur/
. This book is useful because it discusses female protagonists, especially in G.I.Jane which I have chosen as a sub-film. There is a section in this book that specifically discusses Ridley Scott as an auteur and his his use of strong female characters in his films, such as Alien, Thelma and Louise, and Blade Runner. This book is very useful because it actually discusses Ridley Scott as an auteur as well as his use of strong female characters which I can use to help me answer my question of whether his use of strong female characters makes him an auteur. I can take quotes from this book and use them as evidence for Scott being an auteur because of his use of strong female characters.
Item 14: Alien Vault Ian Nathan
. This book goes into extreme detail about Alien, with quotes from Ridley Scott, the actors and other people that worked on the film. There is a lot of discussion about the different choices they made for the film and the background story for many different aspects of the film. There is an entire chapter that just discusses Ripley as a character, the female protagonist, which is useful and can be used to discuss Scott's use of female protagonists in more depth and could also help me to answer the question on whether the use of strong female characters makes him an auteur as Alien was the first film he did that used a strong female character specifically as the lead.
Documentaries
Item 15: Alien (1979) Behind The Scenes- (about 20 minutes in)
. This documentary has people that worked on the film Alien discuss the idea behind have a female protagonist in Alien, and how they found the actress Sigourney Weaver who played the female protagonist 'Ripley'. This is quite useful for me as I can use this to discuss how Ridley Scott first started to use strong female characters in his films, especially as Alien was one of his first films so perhaps I could go into further detail and talk about how Alien could have been the turning point for Ridley Scott's common theme of strong female characters and use this as further evidence to discuss if this makes him an auteur.
Rejected Items
. Total Film Magazine March 2001 - Ridley Scott by Garth Pearce
- I rejected this item because Ridley Scott doesn't discuss his use of strong female characters even though writer does brush on the subject.
. The Martian
- I rejected this item because whilst it does contain some strong female characters, I feel as though they have not got enough presence in the film to discuss as it is predominantly focused on the main character Mark Watney who is the sole character in the film most of the time.
. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/is-ridley-scott-the-most-macho-man-in-movies-7782369.html#gallery
- I rejected this item because I felt that it didnt really contain any relevant information to help me answer my question, whilst it goes into a lot of detail about Ridley Scott's career and some of his films it doesn't discuss his use of strong female characters in any of his films or anything to do with themes in his films.
. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/13/ridley-scott-alien-ripley
- I rejected this item because whilst the articles central focus is on Ripley the main protagonist in Alien it discusses her character more in the sequels which were not made by Ridley Scott therefore it is not really relevant in helping me aanswer my question. Yes whilst it does discuss her a little bit in the first Alien mentioning how she was one of the first strong female protagonists I still felt that it wasn't a useful source as some of my other more useful sources also mention this as well as going into more detail about the female protagonist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdL2mwruTqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ7qKKQrSBY
refer to 3 scenes from focus film
refer to a scene from each sub focus film
Presentation Script
Strong Female Characters are a theme in Ridley Scott's films, does this make him an auteur?
Speaker: Ridley Scott's second film made was Alien which contained the strong female protagonist 'Ripley', Scott took inspiration from the cinematography in Star Wars and the character in Star Wars, Princess Leila who was a strong, independent woman which was very rare at the time.
The female protagonist Ripley is described as the anchor for our fears in Alien. We turn to her for help from the very beginning. Thomson said, "She was cast in the movie as an unknown, but she was never reticent or demure. She was earnest, confident, and visibly smart. She had a no-nonsence innocence. All those things, I think, are observable early in the film." There is a quote from Ridley Scott where he said "My film has strong women because I like strong women. I just believe in the equality of men and women." "I said, to Fox, we're not finishing the film when she jumps in the shuttle. I have got a fourth act," says Scott, whose unexpected, not-dead-yet-trickery would define a whole new form for the horror genre: the false ending. "We changed the way films were made." "She is beautiful - she'll die late in the third act. It makes the audience keep wondering" said Scott. Ridley Scott wanted to fool us into thinking she might be the next to perish. Weaver wore a threadbare flight suit in military grey-green. "What was considered daring at the time was that we had this ordinary working woman, not in a frilly space dress," determines Weaver, "but a woman with dirty hands, dealing with people in crisis. And it's still something they don't do. It's as if they feel they have to turn the woman into some kind of weird science fiction doll to make it interesting." They enjoy that she is no pushover. If they'd listened to Ripley, the damn creature wouldn't have gotten onboard in the first place. Ripley was defined by chaos. "Ripley changes the science fiction rules," acknowledges writer-director Joss Whedon. "She allows you to play with stereotypes - she becomes the active leader, but is never taken as seriously as she should be." Weaver says "She doesn't depend on other people coming through for her, she takes it on her own shoulders." (Item 14)
Speaker: Scott has always tried to promote some form of female equality and this is no clearer than his landmark film, Blade Runner. The Duelist features several strong women characters, such as Laura, who can stand their ground with confidence in the male-oriented society that is the heart of the story. This is very much a Scott issue, for example G.I. Jane. Thelma & Louise was Scott's first film to focus exclusively on two female protagonists.
G.I. Jane. is something of a sequel to Thelma & Louise, with its female protagonist and, maybe even more importantly, its placing of a woman at the heart of a man's world and movie genre, in this case a war movie; in Thelma & Louise it was the outlaw road movie. Jordan O'Neill is a strong woman, determined and bound by honour and duty. Scott also manages to sketch in her femininity. This issue of femininity versus masculinity was well addressed in a Sight and Sound article by Linda Ruth Williams entitled 'Body Talk', which explored Demi Moore's screen image and how G.I. Jane, particularly, put a new spin on it. As in all Scott's films, Gladiator features a strong female character, Lucilla. Her face has the same quality as Sigourney Weaver's and even Mimi Rogers in Someone to Watch Over Me. They are all strong women who can withstand the tests placed on them. Maximus confirms this when he says to Lucilla, 'Ithink you have a talent for survival.'(Item 11)
Another thing that sets Scott apart is his reliance on strong women. "Ripley was androgynous, and she didn't emerge until she shouted at Yaphet Kotto to 'Shut the f-ck up' and that was well into the second act. This rather pretty woman who everyone assumed in the first act was going to be one of the first ones to cop it gradually starts to take up the mantle, and the weapon. To me, its always organic and not a specific decision to make her female. I read with slightly raised eyebrows the surprise and the power about having a female lead instead of a male lead, and it refocused my awareness about what we've done. The difference with Ripley was that she had won and survived." "I am used to very strong women because my mother was particularly strong and my father was away all the time. My mother was a big part of bring up three boys, so i was fully versed in the strength of a powerful woman, and accepted that as the status quo. I think there are a lot of men who feel they're being emasculated by having the woman be in charge; I've never had that problem. All the relationships in my life have been with strong women, from childhood. Oddly enough, I find it quite engaging to be working with a female when I'm directing. It's kind of interesting." "The evolution of taking the side of the woman, as far as my career's concerned, is epitomized by Thelma & Louise. The budget was very slender - about $15million - because no one wanted to make it. I first came on as producer, and I was selling the notion to four or five male directors - this was made over 20 years ago, so there weren't many female directors to do it - that the movie should be an epic about two women on their journey for freedom. One director who turned me down said, "I've got a problem with women," and I said, "Well you're meant to, you dope!" So I thought that I should direct it myself." "It's far more considered normal to have a female in the lead, and yet, studios will always look at the bottom line and the value of female lead versus a male lead globally, because none of the budgets for these films are getting any smaller, so they have to take into account the bottom line from a business standpoint. For Prometheus, it was already written in there that the lead probably ought to be female, and that the two central characters in it would have a relationship. They have two headsets in terms of the way they look at life and evolution, in that: one believes in God and the other doesn't and one believes we were a petri dish at some point in time, and another believes we were somehow created. That's the ying yang of it." - Ridley Scott (Item 4)
"Directors tend to emphasise different issues in their interpretations of scripts. For a director such as Ridley Scott, masculinity and its habitual need to prove itself is a presence even in his films about women (Thelma & Louise and G.I. Jane.) The value that prevails in a Scott film is the positive value of masculinity." - Ken Dancyger (The Director's Idea: The Path to Great Directing, 2006) (Item 5)
What makes Alien so fascinating are these subtle dynamics and power-plays. Here we have a woman who refuses to back down or surrender when it comes to survival. Her moral compass always points north but her approach is usually more utilitarian that Kantian. When push comes to shove, Ripley will stand up and make those choices, and it might not be for her own good, but it will certainly be for the good of others. (Item 6)
Her later showdown with a waning oxygen supply shows equal resourcefulness; Noomi Rapace continues here the tradition of awesome feminine strength begun by Sigourney Weaver in 'Alien.' Another strong woman is on board, Meredith Vickers, a representative of the corporation that privately financed the Prometheus. (Item 7)
"I think by doing Thelma & Louise, I kind of built myself up to be helping out female stars who could rarely hold a film on their own. Although it wasn't the first film to have two female stars in it, the result seemed to have an enormous effect on Hollywood. I became interesting for a lot of actresses and female stars. There are a lot of powerful women now, particularly in this industry. I am one of those guys who's never really noticed the difference, because I've always had females running my companies. The reason was they were the best men for the jobs, not because they were female. So I really liked the idea in G.I. Jane. of a woman going into the army and beating men at their own game."(Item 8)
Alien, Scott's first major film, introduced the iconic Ripley who has since appeared in three further episodes of the franchise. Ripley is a rare character in Hollywood, the strong and charismatic woman of action. Her superiority to men is evident. His follow-up to Blade Runner, Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), also emphasises the female over the male; during the climactic battle between the women, the male lead can only watch. Thelma and Louise (1991) would appear to offer a clear-cut example of Scott's ability to deal with women sympathetically. Scott's most recent movie, at the time of writing, G.I. Jane (1997), once again has a female protagonist who proves herself to be better than the men around her. Although it could be argued that the sexual politics of the film suggest that, in order to compete with a man, a woman must be a man, this does not detract from the film's engagement with male misogyny. Using the auteur perspective we can see that, if anything, Scott's oeuvre is strong evidence against the charge that he is sexist. (Item 13)
