114 // I Don't Ever Blink: Ridley Scott and the Nature of Genius (The Forbidden Planet: Part 4)

As we continue our year-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of Alien, we've finally arrived at the man behind the camera: Sir Ridley Scott.

To say Scott was a bizarre choice to helm Alien would be putting it mildly. Virtually unknown outside of commercials and television—with just one feature film (an epic about Napoleonic War-era swordplay) to his name—Scott ended up being an almost impossibly good pick to direct this groundbreaking movie.

Jaime and Patrick explore Scott's roots—his youth in northern England, his years coming out of art school, his work for the BBC—and discuss how those life experiences helped shape him into the perfect director for one of the great films ever made. They also talk about the shoot itself, and how Scott's idiosyncrasies worked in his favor as he overcame the limitations of the studio system to craft a blockbuster that felt like an art film.

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