Every Ridley Scott movie ranked, including Napoleon
In honor of the master filmmaker's latest epic, let's look back at a career that has produced the likes of Gladiator, Alien, and American Gangster
Film Features ridley scott
It’s been nearly five decades since Ridley Scott’s first feature film, The Duellists, hit theaters, and now, even well into his 80s, the legendary filmmaker shows no signs of slowing. Napoleon, his latest feature, is as grand and intense as anything else in his long career, and it demonstrates just how adept Scott remains at pulling audiences into his world, no matter where that world might be.
Scott’s directorial career now spans nearly 30 feature films, from historical epics like Napoleon and Gladiator to fantasy spectacles, true-crime stories, romantic comedies, and science-fiction masterpieces. Each film is fascinating in its own way, even the missteps, and they all chart the course of a driven, tireless artist who wants to tell just about every kind of story he can put in front of a movie camera. So, in honor of Napoleon’s much-anticipated release, here’s every Ridley Scott movie, ranked from worst to best.
111 Comments
Glad to see The Duelists didn’t get relegated to some forgotten slot at the bottom of the list. Personally I would rank it ahead of KoH and Gladiator.
Far too kind to Alien: Covenant.
yeah, I like prometheus far more than most. Even with all the stupid things the crew does….its just so well presented. Covenent….Danny McBride is the only redeeming thing. That and its shot like a ridley scott movie so its pretty.
Prometheus sucks in a lot of ways, but also has a lot going for it. The characters make stupid decisions to the point where they almost ruin the entire movie. But the big ideas are intriguing, and David remains an iconic character.Alien: Covenant just left me feeling bad about myself. It throws away all the big ideas left unanswered by Prometheus, and just decides it’s going to be a slasher movie. Which for some reason, this list praises it for?
I struggle to see why The Martian is put higher than Gladiator, as I think the latter has proven to be far more epic, influential and beloved.I also found The Last Duel tough to love, especially due to the “same story from different angles” approach, but this is very much opinion and I may be in the minority on this.
Nah, to me they’re both pretty popular, entertaining, and incredibly well-made and rewatchable. They always seem to be playing on TV.I don’t think Gladiator is the clearly superior of the two.
I will never understand the love some people have for “Gladiator,” a film of cartoonish villains and even more cartoonish heroes. The scenes in the arena were just ok (especially if you’ve ever watched Spartacus, which did the arena thing with more style and actually had something to say).
Are you not entertained? [by Gladiator]
Ya it’s dumb.
This slideshow’s praise for the Gladiator effects is bewildering, because even at the time the crown scenes in the Colosseum were panned for being murky messes. It’s entertaining (mission accomplished) but puddle-deep. I think The Martian is much more emotionally engaging.
With a bunch of science behind it. The Martian seems like it could be a real thing. But Gladiator, as one wrote, seemed cartoonish at times.
Actual scientist reviews of The Martian almost exclusively praised its verisimilitude, with the exception of the sandstorm that results in Watney’s stranding. The novel’s author Andy Weir has fully acknowledged that couldn’t happen in Mars’ thin and arid atmosphere but needed something to set the story in motion, and asked people to just go with it because that’s the best he could come up with.
Most genre movies have at least one “gimme”. You could do a lot worse than “freak weather event” as an inciting incident, especially when everything that follows is fairly tight.
The Martian is literally a perfect movie.
I fell asleep to The Last Duel twice. Finally just gave up. Never finished it. Don’t plan on it either.
They are both fantastic films. The Martian is personally my favorite Scott movie of all time.
Can someone explain to me why it’s been about two years and I still can’t star replies without them resetting when I close the browser?
The Martian was adapted from a best selling book that everyone already loved. Hard to screw up. Scott himself said it was an easy movie to make. The story was set, they could film pretty much all of it in front a green screen. I don’t think there’s anything groundbreaking about turning a good book into a good movie.
I was curious where you would rank Kingdom of Heaven and A Good Year, two movies I only ever hear bad things about, but which I love and will watch whenever I see them on (though A Good Year doesn’t get much airplay and requires actively searching it out to watch it).Also happy to see White Squall rated so highly. I never hear about it one way or the other, but another movie I love.
The Counselor should rank much higher, even the description makes it sound like one of Scott’s best efforts
You got the top 3 correct.
It may not be feature length but he also directed this classic.
I mean, a cute ad, but it’s no Macintosh super bowl ad….
And the Apple 1984 ad!
Kingdom of Heaven also features the best performance Edward Norton has ever given as well.
Pretty solid list. Only minor quibbles would be Blackhawk Down should be top 10. Nice to see Kingdom of Heaven get some props, although the director’s cut deserves this ranking; the theatrical is somewhere in the high teens.
Thanks for the list. I didn’t realize how much I appreciated his work.I’m kinda surprised you ranked GI Jane so high (ahead of A Good Year, Prometheus & Hannibal), but ok.I’ve put off watching House of Gucci & The Last Duel. At least now I know what I’m doing this weekend.
The Kingdom of Heaven Director’s Cut is genuinely a different film, and deserves that spot on the list with a bullet.I definitely take issue with the Theatrical Cut being considered just as valid though. It’s just such a mess.
Came here to say something similar. One of the disappointments of the movie in both forms, however, is how it reuses soundtrack elements from Hannibal. And then there’s the moldy mid-film White Savior stuff about building a well and irrigating some land that is just “ugh”.
Good point re: the soundtrack – however, I believe the use of Vide Cor Meum – an absolutely epic piece of opera – is very worthy of “Kingdom of Heaven,” even more so than “Hannibal.”
I love Kingdom of Heaven but the weakest part is definitely Balian’s character (Orlando Bloom). He is portrayed like a total Mary Sue that only repeats whoever gives him advice (seriously, count the number of times he is repeating something Liam Neeson, David Thewlis or Edward Norton said before).I understand he’s there for us to “live” the journey through his eyes but he such an uncharismatic bore.
I agree I take offense to both versions are good. No the theatrical cut is kinda bad and the directors good is pretty good. Its one of the widest improvements a directors cut has done.
I didn’t think it was a mess, but I do prefer the Director’s Cut.
gladiator is terrible no good very bad film
Yep. Saw it in the cinema, thought it was okay, but tried to watch again at home and it became the only DVD I’ve ever ejected and physically thrown across the room.Terrible.
I personally don’t think it deserves the praise it often gets, but I will acknowledge it is at least well made. The story is basically fan service from start to finish, with as predictable and historically nonsensical of a punchline as one could imagine for such a work. But despite its simplistic plot and cookie cutter characters, the film is still a cohesive and polished product and seems to push the right brain buttons in most people to make them like it. So I don’t think it deserves a “terrible”.
Tiger guy with the mask was pretty cool.
I always saw it as ironic that the Romans of that time loved a spectacle and would have loved that film. After all, spectacle is not history, and they loved the former more than the latter (I mean, they loved Virgil!).
I guess you were not entertained.
With a lead actor from Australia no less.
That’s the least of the movie’s problems. Crowe is an excellent actor and has portrayed British and American characters admirably, so portraying a Roman doesn’t seem too absurd.
In the children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, to which I assume the poster was sort of referring, the protagonist frequently dreams of moving to Australia. I was making a reference in response to their reference. Apropos of that only. I’m not nearly as clever as I think I am.
Friends, Romans, me bloody countrymen . . . g’day!
Are you not entertained, you big, bloody, beautiful bah-stids?!
Overall a solid list. I would switch Blade Runner and Alien, just my personal bent.. they’re both essentially perfect movies.
Damn, This is an impressive list, even with the misses. The top five are each from a different decade. Legend is my favorite fantasy movie, no offense to the Lord of the Ring films. It just has a magical quality. It feels like a peek into a deeper world.
WELL said. Even his misses are noteworthy. If any director had any ONE of those ‘misses’ in the portfolio, they should/could be so proud, if not could happily retire. p.s. I absolutely love A Good Year and think more people should check it out. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched it. Like a fine wine aging, every time I watch it I get different notes coming through.
I love A Good Year as well, and am not sure why it gets such flack. It’s certainly not as ambitious as some of these other films, and I wonder if that’s the problem- people don’t know how to accept Ridley Scott basically making a rom-com. It’s a beautifully shot, fun, breezy film. It’s just a good time.
Agreed. But to me it’s more than a rom-com, in fact I wouldn’t even think of that genre so much. It’s also much more than the ‘Ebenezer Scrooge gets a heart’ trope, which honestly surprised me. To me all the little storylines had equal weight, and like the wine analogy, every viewing I taste different things. I mean, that lawyer shushing away her assistant with such disdain, I just spat out my drink from laughing… like, what WAS that all about? And I’m glad they didn’t need to address it; like, that’s life.And yet, his Thelma & Louise still gets high praise, if mentioned at all. Yeah, I think people are missing a great ensemble-cast flick.
Legend is my favorite fantasy movieYes!It just has a magical quality. It feels like a peek into a deeper world.
Matchstick Men is a great example of what can be done with the con artist genre: Wonderful casting, humor, twisty-story, music, pacing, sense of place and time, and little bit profound at moments.
Prometheus deserves to be higher, and certainly higher than Covenant. People who are determined to find fault, because they’ve been told it is bad, will find fault. But for those who let it take them along for the ride will find it beautiful, weird and creepy.
I’d say Prometheus is Scott’s most disappointing movie even if it isn’t his worst (but I still think it needs to be in his bottom five). It’s disappointing for the same reason The Phantom Menace was — we were excited to see a return to a beloved franchise by the guy who started it, only to learn that he had no idea what made it work.
I mean, I love it, but if there’s a problem with the film it’s in the script. The film looks better than anything on this list in my opinion and has more ideas too.
I’m with you. What a gorgeous film. I still enjoy watching it. But what is the most disappointing is that some minor tweaks and trimming to the script could have made this a much more satisfying experience.
It’s disappointing for the same reason The Phantom Menace was — we were excited to see a return to a beloved franchise by the guy who started it, only to learn that he had no idea what made it work.I don’t think that’s fair, at least to Scott. He knew what he was doing with Alien. He was making a very monster movie, but treating it with the utmost seriousness. The issue is that he became interested in other things in the 35 years between the films, and he definitely didn’t have any interest in making the script good on a character and logic level.
Lucas is similar, but he’s been so wrapped up in creating his own myth for decades it’s hard to know exactly what is true. Lucas benefitted greatly from being surrounded by some of the best technicians of all time, not to mention being close friends with some of the best filmmakers in history who could nudge him in the right direction for the original Star Wars. But you can’t take away the fact that he has always had a great knack for exciting, interesting visuals.It’s not a new viewpoint, but I really do think the biggest problem with the prequels is simply that he never had anyone saying “No” about anything. It’s a tremendous shame that he couldn’t convince anyone else to direct those films for him, someone who would have been able to push some of the dumber ideas in better directions.
The one-two punch of losing Gary Kurtz after ESB and Lucas seeming to decide that the films should be toy commercials at least as much as compelling stories was the real issue with the Star Wars slide in quality.
Nah. I went in opening weekend with no intention but to enjoy it and, just, ugh. It’s not entirely Scott’s fault to be fair, it’s beautifully directed – but from one of the most offensively, obnoxiously stupid screenplays ever written.
Covenant is flawed but at least it makes some sense. Prometheus is a beautiful mess.
It’s bad.
It looks amazing. The combination of practical and CG effects is masterful. And the cast is great! But the story is messy, there are character arcs that don’t lead anywhere, weird hostility is taken for gravity, and what the fuck is with distractingly aged Guy Pearce? There’s a great movie in there, it just needed a lot of fat trimmed.
No, its a terrible movie. The plot lines are all over the place. Its one of his worst films.
I agree that Prometheus should be higher than Covenant, because Prometheus at least had some ambition. However, the reason it’s given a lot of flack is because prequels suck. There are a few, maybe, that work, but for the most part, they suck. I think Prometheus would have worked better had it not been connected to the Alien universe at all. The film felt like it had to do all these mental gymnastics to connect it to the 1979 original and it did it horribly.
It’s a great story concept and looked great, but the abject stupidity of some of the characters (most notably the weirdo scientist who decides to play with the oil snake when he should have been freaking the fuck out and beating a hasty retreat) was too distracting to overlook.
I completely agree. The other comments here are overlooking how its not, and never was, an Alien movie. Hence, the title. Covenants straddling of the concepts is a disservice to the really excellent new components that were put on the table. But I do agree Covenant is much better than the critics thought it was at the time…but the stupidity of the wheel physics in the climax aside (GO PERPENDICULAR TO THE AXIS OF MOTION YOU MORON) Promethus was excellent, but a touch bloated (perhaps intentionally).
I don’t know how Prometheus or Covenant should be ranked, but I will say this. I saw Covanent in my iTunes movie list and I thought “did I see it or not?” I watched it and I still am not sure, though that Tennessee character seems slightly familiar. But details, like the story – not a hint of recognition.But Prometheus? That I remember. Clearly. Even though it’s older.
Call it the Recognition Test.
“Higher?” No, sir. It’s very well shot and designed garbage, flawed from the initial concept all the way through to the script and staging.
Yeah, no. I watched in the theater shortly after it premiered and it was an absolute stinker. Yeah, it was pretty, the visuals were absolutely gorgeous, but the script was a puzzle box of stupid nonsense.
Black Rain is an excellent movie and captures Tokyo noir so well that I thought it must have been a high profile Japanese production the first time I saw it.
Is White Squall actually good? I’ve never seen it and I’m frightened to now given how Qanon has adopted it (or at least its tagline), and if I stream it the services will start recommending that I watch Plandemic or something.
I watched it while I was in Navy League back in the late 90’s – as I recall it was the usual ‘hard work and camaraderie are important’ vibe I got from being in cadets. I haven’t watched it since, so I’m not sure I’d take away the same now.
It’s not a great movie, but it is a good movie.I’m one of the few hundred (maybe thousand) in the U.S. that have actually seen it and one of the few dozens that actually owned a copy.
I enjoyed it when released but it’s not holding up after all these years.
Has a courtroom scene at the end where all the white boys finally put their shirts on and show some solidarity with their beleaguered teacher, so, not really.
Ugh, I hate it when people put their shirts on in court.
In 2021, Ridley Scott gave us both The Last Duel and House of Gucci: 2 films where Adam Driver gets screen time fucking the living shit out of a female co-star.
Ridley clearly has specific kink that puts Tarantino’s foot fetish to shame
It’s cute that we always want to point the fingers at the horrific nature of European colonialism but the blood-soaked cultures that were pretty fucking horrific in and of themselves.
I think the key to redeeming Alien: Covenant’s reputation is to view it as an Island of Dr. Moreau adaptation that happens to have xenomorphs in it.
My take away:
Sir Ridley Scott directed far more influential films than I ever thought.
And his late brother Tony directed a lot of influential, if somewhat low-brow, action films like Top Gun, Crimson Tide, and Enemy of the State.
Crimson Tide, +1.
And the soundtrack! I often make fun of Hans Zimmer as budget-basement John Williams, but Crimson Tide has an awesome soundtrack by Zimmer. I still have the CD somewhere around.
I actually had no idea he’d directed some of these. Knew Gladiator, the Alien series, Kingdom of Heaven, and Robin Hood were Scott’s films. Most of the others I’d seen but didn’t even know were his.
I somehow forgot he directed Thelma and Louise, which feels like a major outlier relative to his typical spectacle.
My takeaway is that he’s directed so many more mediocre-to-awful paycheck movies than I realized. He directed three great, transcendent films in the 12 years between 1979 and 1991, and none in the last 32 years (YMMV when it comes to “Gladiator,” which is carried completely by Crowe’s magnetism and is otherwise meh). Scott has a reputation for genius and the ego and persona to match, and access to good material and to stars that keeps some of his films in decent or better box office territory (“American Gangster” “The Martian” etc.), but let’s be real about what he has actually accomplished cinematically in recent decades.
House of Gucci was a joke. So much so that I REALLY, honestly to this day don’t know if it was supposed to be a comedy or drama.
Respectable list. As much as I agree with the blurb about how G. I. Jane doesn’t go beyond its base idea, I still like it for what it is. Looking at the Top 10, I’d slot in Black Hawk Down, for American Gangster’s spot, and drop that out since I don’t think it’s better than The Last Duel or Matchstick Men. Denzel and Crowe are dynamite, but it takes too long to get them onscreen together, like a lot of movies that tried to imitate Heat.
a jumble, a jam-packed exercise with too many ideas colliding all at oncePlus, Prometheus is really, really dumb.
The Duellists… medieval EuropeGood lord does nobody bother to research these listicles anymore?
It was in the “old times”. People get confused by that. Like if you go to any “Renaissance fair” it will be about people dressing up as knights and not Leonardo da Vinci and the like.
Or Vikings. Or in togas. Whatever…
I felt that. 1492 is the latest you can say middle ages, although most tend to use 1453 with the fall of Constantinople.
Its, you know, THE SAME TIME PERIOD AS YOUR NUMBER 12 FILM! Which you did not label medieval.Yeah, I was highly annoyed bt this one too.
House of Gucci is a mess, mostly because all the leads are performing for totally different films, but it’s thoroughly entertaining. I feel like a shorter version the solely focused on Lady Gaga’s character would have been much more successful because despite a weird accent (that’s consistent, at least, so you get used to it) she gives a fantastic performance.
A few of these are amongst my favourite movies and a number of others I’d gladly watch again. For me his worst film is The Counselor. It’s an insult to all, except maybe Exodus, that it is a few slides in.
Prometheus and Alien Covenant are two of the most moronic SF films ever made. Battle Beyond the Stars is 10x more enjoyable and yeah, I’m serious. People who defend either one based on (a) visuals or (b) ideas are looking past the worst scripts in SF film history with characters so damned unlikable that you want them all to die horrible deaths (need I remind folks of the “don’t run in the same direction as the giant rolling doughnut scene”?). Alien and The Martian belong where they are, but IMO, Blade Runner achieves what it does more due to the SFX, music (by Vangelis) and set design than his direction. Directors don’t determine mood…lighting, cinematographers, and other behind the scene folks do. Controversial take: If I were to compare Ridley’s versus Tony’s entire body of work, I’d give the nod to Tony. Tony’s Unstoppable is the very definition of a perfect action thriller. Just my two cents.
Historically worth noting, White Squall has a very important legacy. Its where the phrase, When We Go One We Go All comes from. Yeah, the Qanon slogan is plagerized from a Ridley Scott movie. Wonder if he knows.I don’t know if 1492 is thaaat low but its pretty bad. Not sure what the worst part is, doing the whole earth was round myth, making Columbus to be an alright guy, or casting famously French (and famously a rapist) Gerald Depardu as the famous Italian explorer (and famously cruel) Christopher Columbus.
Well, in retrospect, the casting seems appropriate at least.
The earth wasn’t round?
The myth is that it was not widely understood in 1492 (really since ancient Greece) that the earth was round
And I thought Q only cribbed unironically from Frank Miller…
Totally agree on the top 3.Everything else aside, I thought The Counselor was repellent, and mean-spirited in a way that might make me re-watch hot trash like Gucci again instead.
Don’t sleep on Raised by Wolves. Scott and his son produced the show and Ridley directed S1E1. The show captured a feeling of really cerebral and weird sci-fi – 70’s pulp sci-fi book cover art type stuff. I kept hoping he’d direct more episodes, but the show’s tone was held together so tightly that there wasn’t ever a sense that one episode was better or worse than another – it was all of one piece.Admittedly it got too wrapped up reworking Biblical imagery and themes, but man… Alien is hard sci-fi going in one direction, Prometheus has a different feel, and Raised by Wolves has a totally different feel from those two.I want to compare it to Twin Peaks getting cancelled after two seasons. Raised by Wolves makes about as much sense as Twin Peaks, but Peaks is five times bigger and has five times the likable characters. So you can’t make a straight comparison. One thing both shows have, though, is this uncommon place where you follow the genre down these dark paths that are so uncomfortable and near-horror that all rationality breaks down and shit starts bubbling to the surface that is pure nightmare unconscious stuff that defies logic and even story telling structure. Episode after episode, after the credits role, you’re left saying “What the fuck did I just watch?”
This is a really good list. I went to see Matchstick Men in a theater, and I remember being disappointed by the third act. But I was having a blast in the first two. The director’s cut Kingdom Of Heaven keeps getting better with age (is it just me, or do a lot of people confuse it with Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy?). I was pleased to see Black Rain, The Last Duel and Legend rank relatively high. For me, the list starts with Alien, The Duelists and Blade Runner in the top 3, and everything else is up for debate. Thelma And Louise is among his best, but maybe a wee overrated. It makes its point that men are dumb a few too many times (I agree with the thesis).
Alien is a masterpiece. That trailer is still one of the greatest trailers ever made.
Loved Black Rain. Sato (Yusaku Matsuda) is one of my favorite villains.
“The story of two men (Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine) who fight each other across medieval Europe” Lol. What sort of fool thinks the Napoleonic wars took place in medieval times? There’s a 500 year difference ffs.
I’m kind of a Ridley Scott apologist. The highs can be high, but woof the lows can be low.
Hannibal is a perfect example. The book is terrible. Thomas Harris completely dropped the ball. But Scott managed to turn it into something “average.”
I think I enjoyed Robin Hood far more than most. Yes, Crowe’s accent does wander at times, but the supporting cast is good fun and the film as a whole stands up to repeat watches.
I agree with most of the list, but I think it’s being very generous toward Alien: Covenant.
Ridley Scott is one of like 25 legends who millenials and Gen z have allowed to be utterly wiped from pop culture consciousness in favor of literally only Scorsese and CHRISTOPHER NOLAN.
I think it would be easier to put his films in bins: 1) truly extraordinary and ground-breaking, 2) pretty damn good, 3) competent, and 4) disappointing (but only in light of his other stuff).
The Duelists takes place in Napoleon’s time, not medieval times. Way off.