TONY SCOTT R.I.P.

I don't know Tony Scott. I never met him, had coffee with him, bummed a beer off him, borrowed his car, crashed his car after I bummed too many beers and had to make up a story about being attacked by leather clad bears riding unicycles ...

But I sort of knew him. Sort of. Tony Scott was a movie director. He made some famous movies: Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State and many others. I've been watching his movies for years.

Yesterday Tony Scott stopped his car on a bridge in California then jumped off it. It was almost certainly suicide; he left a note. Unconfirmed are the rumours that he had brain cancer.

But here's the thing: I didn't really like Tony Scott. As a director. Most of the movies I mentioned are all flash and sound and camera angle and editing, none of which could cover up a lack of story telling, an absence of character development and a dearth of sympathetic characters. His films always looked good, they had good cinematography much of which is credited to him. In his later movies there is so much MTV style editing and cheesy camera effects you barely knew what they were about .. which usually wasn't anything

He directed one movie of which I'm quite fond, The Hunger, early in his career. He produced some movies of quality that were far removed from his own vapid blockbusters, such as last year's The Grey. He also produced a lot of quality TV, such as the series Numbers and the mini series The Pillars of the Earth.

Most of that which he produced he did so with his brother, fellow director Ridley Scott. And this is where the story gets interesting. I love Ridley Scott ... Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Black Rain, Blackhawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood ...

Ridley, like his brother, has a great visual eye. But he also has imagination and heart and passion, an ear for dialouge (or lack of dialouge at times) and a way with actors. I kept watching Tony Scott movies somehow hoping he would follow his brother's lead

It's a weird situation. Tony Scott is dead. Dead by his own hand. It's an awful thing. It is, of course, now particularly awful for those he left behind. I know from experience that suicide has a profound and long lasting affect on those left behind.

I did not know Tony Scott. I did not like most of the movies he made. But I'm sad he was in pain and I'm sad he was gone. I'm sad for those left behind. I'm sad for his brother with whom he worked for so long.

I'm sad that I don't feel worse about it.