Ridley Scott Stopped Reading Reviews After One Critic's Take 'Killed Me Stone Dead': 'I Was So Offended'

Mar. 15, 2025

Ridley Scott.Photo:Gareth Cattermole/Getty

Gareth Cattermole/Getty

Ridley Scottlearned an important lesson from a harsh review of his 1982 filmBlade Runner.

The British director, 86, toldThe Hollywood Reporterabout a negative review he received for his science-fiction movie and the purpose it still serves in his life nearly 40 years later.

“Pauline Kael inThe New Yorkerkilled me stone dead with herBlade Runnerreview,” Scott recalled. “It was four pages of destruction. I never met her. I was so offended.”

Ridley Scott on the set of ‘Blade Runner’ in 1982.Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty

Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty

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Scott said there are consequences of both positive and negative reviews. He feels “good” reviews can lead to one getting a “swollen head” and forgetting who they truly are, whereas “bad” reviews can leave a filmmaker “so depressed that it’s debilitating.”

The director spoke more about the reception of his movies, particularly on having never received an Oscar win after being nominated for three directing awards, for his work onThelma & Louise,GladiatorandBlack Hawk Down.

Ridley Scott.Patrick T. Fallon / AFP; Ladd Company/Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP; Ladd Company/Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock

Scott criticized the foundation of the Academy Awards, noting that the voters are considered “19,000 ‘peers’ in the Director’s Guild” rather than actual directors.

“I don’t do a film thinking I’m going to get an Academy Award,” he added. “I haven’t been to the awards sinceGladiator.”

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Kael’s1982 reviewof Scott’s work offered several personal critiques of his work. “Scott doesn’t seem to have a grasp of how to use words as part of the way a movie moves.Blade Runneris a suspenseless thriller; it appears to be a victim of its own imaginative use of hardware and miniatures and mattes,” the critic wrote at the time.

Additionally, Kael criticized his directorial choices, writing, “With Scott, it’s just something unpleasant or ugly.”

Production still from ‘Blade Runner’.Warner Bros./Archive Photos/Getty

Warner Bros./Archive Photos/Getty

Scott revisited the negative reviews of his movie in 2023. According toSlash Film, he toldTotal FilmMagazine, “You’ve got to learn, as a director, you can’t listen to anybody. I knew I was making something very, very special. And now it’s one of the most important science-fiction films ever made which everybody feeds off. Every bloody film.”

He continued, “I hadn’t seenBlade Runnerfor 20 years. Really. But I just watched it. And it’s not slow. The information coming at you is so original and interesting, talking about biological creations, and mining off-world, which, in those days, they said was silly. I say, ‘Go f— yourself.’ "

The filmmaker teased the movie inan exclusive interview with PEOPLEin August. “It’s as good as the first one,” Scott said. “I didn’t say better. It’s as good.”

Gladiator IIis in theaters Nov. 22.

source: people.com