This month’s Alien: Covenant marks Ridley Scott’s 24th feature film in what has been a long, influential, albeit uneven and sometimes flat out maddening career. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, Ridley Scott’s oeuvre is as inconsistent in quality as his late brother Tony’s was consistent in aesthetics and tone. He has his strengths – world building and managing epic scope – and his weaknesses – creating three-dimensional characters. These aspects aren’t always true, but they are more consistent than anything in his career.
Digging through Scott’s entire filmography, spanning epic classics and replacement-level thriller dreck, it was tough to try and rank some of the lesser works above the each other. But with careful viewing I began to disseminate just how much effort Scott was putting into his craft from movie to movie. It helped shape a list top heavy with older films and, unfortunately, a heap of Scott’s most recent work filling out the bottom of this list.
Here we go…
20. 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
It’s strange how Hollywood had so many movies with similar stories dueling it out in the 90s. There was the one-two combo of Volcano and Dante’s Peak, Armageddon and Deep Impact. And, in 1992 (presumably to celebrate the 500th anniversary?), Ridley Scott and John Glen released a pair of Christopher Columbus biopics. Glen’s Christopher Columbus: The Discovery was an astounding pile of shit beyond all comprehension.
Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise, when held up against Glen’s film, is not too terrible. But it still isn’t that great. Gérard Depardieu plays Columbus, and he feels like the perfect fit for the mythical adventurer – at least he did back in 1992. Scott’s world-building prowess pays off from time to time with some stunning scenery, but as is the case with these type dueling films, things feel rushed. The journey across the sea is oddly brief, and the ending just sort of… dissolves, and the darker sides of Columbus’s character are never explored.
