Tony Scott Commits Suicide

[Psykoboy2]

What the hell?

According to the Coroner, 68-year-old Scott -- Ridley Scott's brother -- jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island around 12:30pm.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Jennifer Osburn said a suicide note was found in Scott's Toyota Prius, which was parked on one of the eastbound lanes of the bridge.

[Karak]

Saw this. Pretty shocking to be honest.

[Shjinta]

What the fuck... Why............

[Pale Ale]

Disheartening.


I almost want to shout " let's argue about gun control" to lighten it up.


As American as German Pie and Chinese Fireworks.

[menage]

Sad, wonder why, but these cases rarely make sense to people without that urge.

[muddi900]

Well that's one way to start eid...

[Urizen]

Was never his biggest fan....but seeing this kind of depression in someone so successful elicits sympathy.

To try to dwell on the positive, I loved Crimson Tide.

[muddi900]

My favorite was Man on Fire, with a terrific script by Brian Helgeland.

[Narradisall]

Why did they highlight that it was a Prius. Weird.

[LarsenNET]

He directed True Romance, one of the best movies ever made.

[fitbabits]

Christ, this is so very, very sad. I've been close twice in my life, but was always able to walk back from the ledge.

[Dark Prince]

Man, this is depressing news.

Condolences to his family, especially his brother.

Going to watch a few episodes of Numb3rs that they both worked on. Amazing show.

[National Kato]

Originally Posted by LarsenNET

He directed True Romance, one of the best movies ever made.

Agreed. So many quotes from that movie make it into my regular dialogue, even now after so many years. True story: I once lent my VHS copy of True Romance to a girl I'd slept with on a whim, trying to give her an example of some of the films I loved as I believe the topic came up during pillow talk. We never slept together again and she faded from my life shortly thereafter. Many years later, I found her on MySpace and remembered that she'd never given me back that VHS tape. I tracked her ass down and asked her to mail it to me, which she did.

Tony Scott, you made a movie that forced me to contact a decade-old fling in order to retrieve a VHS copy. Well done, sir.

In recent years, I've found Scott's style to be a handicap to his storytelling. Man On Fire, Domino, and Spy Game were immediately recognizable as his work because of the use of iconic pastel lens filters and attention-deficit editing (this last style was new and not as prominent in earlier, and better, films). Much like Wes Anderson, Scott seemed to be relying on said style instead of challenging himself to leave his comfort zone. I think it made his recent films less attractive, despite the storytelling being on par with earlier work.

Despite this, I still consider Tony Scott to be in the upper echelon of filmmakers during my lifetime. Some of my all-time favorites:

The Hunger
Revenge (my favorite Costner film)
True Romance
Crimson Tide

[muddi900]

Apparently he had inoperable brain cancer.

Frank Scott, his brother, died of cancer, or so reddit told me.

[National Kato]

Fuck cancer.

[Squidbot]

[Widgetcraft]

I guess I can understand not wanting to face what terminal brain cancer would cause. It would be a nightmare. I doubt I'd want my last days to be spent in that kind of hell.

[GrrSnort]

I've said this on Twitter, but between him, Joe Kubert, and Phyllis Diller, it's turning into a bummer of a summer. (Didn't want to rhyme it, but couldn't think of anything else to write.)

[Narradisall]

Originally Posted by Widgetcraft

I guess I can understand not wanting to face what terminal brain cancer would cause. It would be a nightmare. I doubt I'd want my last days to be spent in that kind of hell.

Yeah, I got to agree. If I had inoperable cancer, I'd much rather punch my own ticket than go through a slow and painful death.

[Hyperglide]

RIP! Just learned that he's Ridleys bro too. Didn't even know that. A legend is lost. Top Gun is a classic.