August 20, 2012

"The biggest edge I live on is directing. That's the most scary, dangerous thing you can do in your life."

Said movie director Tony Scott, who found a bigger, more dangerous edge — a bridge — to jump off and out of life.
The scariest thing in my life is the first morning of production on all my movies. It's the fear of failing, the loss of face and a sense of guilt that everybody puts their faith in you and not coming through.

32 comments:

Michael Haz said...

Suicide is a horribly selfish act. It takes the pain one feels, multiplies it many times over, and glues it to the coward's family and other loved ones for the rest of their lives.

Michael K said...

At least he drove a Prius. The Vincent Thomas bridge is a pretty place. Kind of a dramatic setting for a jump. I wonder how many there have been. The Golden Gate bridge is far better known. The battleship, Iowa, is a little farther down the channel these days.

wyo sis said...

Suicide leaves so many mysteries behind. It's very dramatic.

MadisonMan said...

The important becomes very unimportant. The very unimportant, mystifyingly, becomes all-consumingly important.

And a suicide occurs.

Brian Brown said...

I read the story that he 'died' but when it is suicide, is that a fair headline to give readers?

The Crack Emcee said...

"The biggest edge I live on is directing. That's the most scary, dangerous thing you can do in your life."

That's a dumb comment, but par for the course these days.

Oh well, I just mentioned here, yesterday, that our culture is sucking the flavor out of life is.

It's almost satisfying to see someone agreed.

RIP Tony Scott - "True Romance" was good,...

edutcher said...

The Blonde always says, "If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room"l. but she agrees with Michael Haz.

As a nurse, she's had to try to put many of those who failed back together.

The Crack Emcee said...

Michael Haz,

Suicide is a horribly selfish act. It takes the pain one feels, multiplies it many times over, and glues it to the coward's family and other loved ones for the rest of their lives.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!

I hadn't seen this before I wrote my last post - hilarious:

I can yell and scream and bitch and cry about the effect of scams and cons and fraud and whatnot, but all these losers do is make excuses and engage in their cover-up.

But let a guy jump off a bridge and, all of a sudden, there's a "selfish act" going on that "takes the pain one feels, multiplies it many times over, and glues it to the coward's family and other loved ones for the rest of their lives"?

And the other shit doesn't?

Fraud and shit us like the casual way we treat divorce:

We know the pain can be like a death - but we still insist people live with it like it's no big deal - which, if you ask me, is about as cruel an act (by society) as the betrayal that tears many marriages apart to begin with.

Absolutely fucking bonkers.

It's enough to make you want to jump off a bridge.

Considering you fools are too narcissistic and idiotic to address anything like this of importance, we'll probably see more of this kind of thing to come.

Oh - and for the record:

No, I won't be the one - I'm starting to enjoy the show,...

The Crack Emcee said...

Michael K,

At least he drove a Prius.

Good Lord.

If that's not sarcasm, then I rest my case,...

Christy said...

Is this another instance of "style over substance" which as the article notes was a regular critique of his films? He was of an age where health may have been the driving issue.

virgil xenophon said...

LOL re the Prius bit, Crack. When I saw the news come over the transom last night that's the FIRST thing I thought: "He WOULD have been driving a Prius, wouldn't he." So typical of the Hollywood eco-freek crowd, always wearing their badges of moral superiority and eco-absolution by driving an over-priced, shrunken husk of a car with no trunk space that gets worse mileage than many less expensive standard-engined cars. Dig into the details enough and we'll undoubtedly find he had a "COEXIST"rear bumper-sticker as well to cap it all off..

Anonymous said...

Who edits these articles?

He was also in the early stages of developing a sequel to cult classic movie Top Gun with Tom Cruise and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Later we get to:

Tony was the first of the Scott brothers to enjoy blockbuster success with Top Gun, the top-grossing film of 1986 at $176 million.
The film, which also starred Kelly McGillis and Val Kilmer, was nominated for four Academy Awards and won the best song award for Take My Breath Away.


wv: fleshos (a healthy way for zombies to start the day)

LoafingOaf said...

t-man: Also, wasn't Ridley Scott's Alien a blockbuster before Top Gun came out? I don't know the precise definition of a blockbuster, but it did create a franchise.

I was entertained by many of Tony Scott's movies, but the one I love and watch over and over is True Romance.

Not sure why the Althouse Hillbillies are attacking the man for his car. Haven't the Scott brothers made some conservative-friendly movies? Certainly some movies that make our soldiers and pilots look good, anyway. Some of you literally think about partisan politics 24 hours a day and on any subject that comes up.

LoafingOaf said...

Michae Haz, you don't know what the man was going through that caused him to decide it was time for him to check out. It was his life and his choice. It actually takes a lot of guts to decide for yourself when you shall die.

Pastafarian said...

What Michael Haz said.

Crack, you're becoming a contrarian old grouch. And no, divorce isn't "like a death." Not quite as permanent. Ask a child if they'd prefer their parents divorce, or kill one another.

Christ almighty, if someone on here said the sky was blue, you'd come back and call them a cultist with a magic underwear fetish. It's like the spirit if J (remember him, Wiccan perp?) has infested your cranium.

Michael K said...

" The Crack Emcee said...
Michael K,

At least he drove a Prius.

Good Lord.

If that's not sarcasm, then I rest my case,..."

And you can't recognize sarcasm ?

I rest my case.

LoafingOaf said...

"Tony Scott, director of "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder" and "Crimson Tide," had inoperable brain cancer, a source close to him told ABC News."

Link

Tell us again how selfish he was for doing what he did.

Michael said...

LoafingOaf: "It actually takes a lot of guts to decide for yourself when you shall die.'

And even more to endure life and its unexpected and sometimes unpleasant turns.

ricpic said...

Frankly, Scott's comment that he was most afraid at the beginning of the huge project of directing a film was a sign of health. The anxiety about failing meant that he cared passionately that his movies "worked," and feared, above all, the disgrace of making a mess, in movie terms. If he in fact committed suicide performance anxiety was not the cause.

Revenant said...

If he had inoperable brain cancer, suicide makes sense.

Michael said...

I believe if I had such a dire diagnosis my curiosity about the progress of the disease and my own reaction to its effects would overcome all. We are all given tests and perhaps this would be too much to bear. But I would hope not.

Michael Haz said...

Tell us again how selfish he was for doing what he did.

He was selfish. He made a mess that others had to clean up. An unselfish thing to do (assuming one believes suicide is okay - which I don't) would have been to ingest a bottle of opiates, drink a last cocktail or two and slide into bed.

An unselfish thing to do would have been to endure the last months in dignity. Spend time with his loved ones. Live his life to its natural end. Show courage by his example.

Brain cancer is rough; I lost a good friend to it. In the end he was unconcious because of the cancer, the medications and the coma his medical team placed him in. His pain was well controlled.

His wife and kids and parents and siblings got to spend his last days with him.

He was unselfish.

mishu said...

I'm going with what Haz said. If he had inoperable brain cancer, why not just wait until the inevitable and die in a comfy bed? Why make the cops and the EMTS fish out your carcass out of the bay?

Joe said...

If he had inoperable brain cancer, why not just wait until the inevitable and die in a comfy bed?

The condition had likely made him extremely depressed--not just "oh I feel bad" but a feeling of complete hopelessness. Perhaps it affected his ability to reason and cope with the pain.

Suicide is rarely a truly sane, rational act. Neither is it something people do just because they have a bump in their life. If you've ever gone through a period of seriously dark depression, even if you were never suicidal, only then do you get a glimpse of what would motivate such an act.

(To even suggest that others experience the same pain is nonsense or that it is an act of a coward is nonsense. Our innate sense of self-preservation is so powerful, the emotions and mental state required to counter that are going to be unbelievably intense.)

Indigo Red said...

"I like changing the pace of my life." ~ Tony Scott

Yeah, dead stop is a pace change.

The Crack Emcee said...

Pastafarian,

Crack, you're becoming a contrarian old grouch.

No, I was born a contrarian old grouch. Adults were calling me "Mr." before I lost the training wheels on my first bike.

And no, divorce isn't "like a death."

Read, numbnuts: Divorce is Like a Death in the Family

Not quite as permanent.

Funny, it feels pretty permanent to me.

Ask a child if they'd prefer their parents divorce, or kill one another.

As long as I can follow it up with, "You wanna watch 'Dinosaur Train' while eating a bowl of sherbet? Yea!"

Christ almighty, if someone on here said the sky was blue, you'd come back and call them a cultist with a magic underwear fetish.

Like it's my fault cultism touches on every aspect of our lives. Don't blame me, blame the hippies that raised you - and your own resistance to doing anything about it.

It's like the spirit if J (remember him, Wiccan perp?) has infested your cranium.

Yeah, and that's so hard on you:

I always tell my sister that I wish people who are not Scientologists could understand the severe mental, emotional, and psychological abuse that we were subjected to. Yes, the physical abuse was horrific but it didn't have the same impact on me. When I say that I walk alone, I mean that. I trust no one. I walk into a room and my first instinct is to look for every exit and plan my escape if I need it. I will never sit with my back to a room. I can't handle people in my personal space and I hate to be touched. These are just some of the things that I believe are left over from my cadet days.

...All of those celebrities in the news are not the face of Scientology, we are. The broken ones, the kids who wandered the halls and were never important enough to be looked at, with their hollow bruised dirty faces, sad eyes and tear tracks. Unless you walked in my shoes then you'll never understand, but I hope I have given a small glimmer of what Scientology really is. I'll continue to walk alone, never broke, just badly bent.


Partially because we know all these other folks - who consider themselves good people - could give a damn, and will do NOTHING, as long as they can read their blogs in peace,...

southcentralpa said...

Scary ... dangerous ... ? Speaking as a former member of the naval aviation, Top Gun is one of the funniest movies ever made.

Michael Haz said...

So it turns out he didn't have brain cancer after all.

Still think he should have committed suicide?

I didn't and I don't

themightypuck said...

Maybe the brain cancer made him afraid it would alter his personality and he'd do something terrible? Free will is a tenuous balance of brain chemicals and real estate.

themightypuck said...

I don't really care that he killed himself but oops about the brain cancer. The idea that suicide is selfish is an argument that never made sense to me. Historically in many places suicide was the honorable way out. I think a cultural norm that vilifies suicide is a good thing though as when I'm old and dependent on the state I'll probably want people to have a Roman Catholic view on the sanctity of life.

chickelit said...

LoafingOaf chided: Tell us again how selfish he was for doing what he did.

Loafing Oaf stands for one and only one thing in the context of these blog comments (at least for the last 4-5 years) and that is to play contrarian and to poke fun at as much conventional wisdom & tradition (especially religious tradition) as he possibly can. It is his shtick and he's shticking to it.

Anonymous said...

Michael Haz said...
Suicide is a horribly selfish act. It takes the pain one feels, multiplies it many times over, and glues it to the coward's family and other loved ones for the rest of their lives.


I think suicide can show a lot of character, especially if you take care not to do it in secret or without warning. If you have an incurable disease why not go out with a bang? Have a party on the shore of a lake, invite your family and friends, make a toast to their health and happiness, assure them of your devotion and love, then say goodbye, row yourself out to the middle of the lake, feel the sun in your face and the wind in your hair. Then when you're ready--and only when you're ready--reach down and set off the 10 sticks of dynamite bundled under your seat.

The shock wave will reward you with instant oblivion. No pain. No tunnel of light. One second you're here and the next you're one with all eternity. All that's left is a little puff of white smoke blowing in the wind.

Your family won't have to worry about burial or cremation. And you will be spared a painful and embarrassing stay in hospice or intensive care. Whatever minute organic particles remain after the blast will be gobbled up by the fish and promptly returned to the food chain.

As for your family feeling ashamed, I don't see that at all. I think they'll be proud of your thoughtfulness and courage in sparing them the pain of your long slow decline.

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