Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe are one of Hollywood’s most notable director-actor collaborators, but in addition to their universally praised masterpiece movies, they’ve also made critically panned, instantly forgettable duds. After receiving some of the best reviews of their respective careers for Gladiator, Scott and Crowe reunited and received some of their worst for the romantic comedy A Good Year. Their collaborations since then – the gritty crime biopic American Gangster, the stylish spy thriller Body of Lies, and the classical action-adventure Robin Hood – have been a mixed bag.
As proven by their initial partnership on Gladiator, Scott and Crowe are a match made in heaven. Ever since achieving back-to-back success with Alien and Blade Runner, Scott has been one of the most acclaimed directors in Hollywood. Meanwhile, roles in L.A. Confidential and The Insider had defined Crowe’s perfect combination of movie-star charisma and award-worthy acting chops. The gravitas of Scott’s filmmaking and the depth of Crowe’s performances made them an ideal match creatively, even though the quality of their collaborations varies.
5 A Good Year (2006)
Loosely based on the Peter Mayle novel of the same name, A Good Year stars Crowe as a London investment broker who settles into a new laidback lifestyle when he inherits his uncle’s vineyard in France. There, he falls for a local woman who is rumored to have sworn off men. With a mediocre IMDb rating of 6.9 and an abysmal 26% Rotten Tomatoes score, A Good Year is a rare critical misfire for both actor and director, and is widely considered Crowe and Scott’s worst movie ever. Just like Nora Ephron and Tom Hanks couldn’t make Gladiator, Scott and Crowe couldn’t make a feel-good romantic comedy.
The director and star were woefully mismatched with the schmaltzy rom-com genre. Scott is known for tackling dark, cynical material and Crowe is known for playing brooding antiheroes. They both stepped outside their comfort zone for A Good Year and the gamble didn’t pay off. On top of that, the listless, uneventful narrative of the book didn’t translate too well into the more lively and energetic medium of film. Watching a carefree vineyard owner having to adapt to the high-flying world of finance would be more exciting than watching an ex-financier chill out and wait for grapes to grow.
4 Robin Hood (2010)
Scott and Crowe’s most recent movie, Robin Hood, is a gritty, action-packed take on the story of the titular archer and his band of merry men leading an uprising against the crown to usurp King Richard the Lionheart. Crowe plays the eponymous folk hero opposite Cate Blanchett as Maid Marion, Oscar Isaac as Prince John, and Matthew Macfadyen (now best known as Tom from Succession) as the Sheriff of Nottingham. This concept seemed promising on paper – Scott’s Robin Hood movie sets itself up as a Bourne movie set in 12th-century England – but it doesn’t achieve the full potential of that premise.
Unfortunately, Robin Hood’s star-studded cast is let down by a weak script and a joyless tone. Movies that are driven by action like this one need to have fun with it. There are some masterfully crafted action sequences – Scott is a master of building tension, as famously seen in Alien‘s intro, and covering the geography of his set pieces – but they’re too dull and dreary to elicit real excitement from viewers. Both critics and audiences were underwhelmed by Robin Hood. It was a commercial disappointment and it scored 6.6 on IMDb and just 43% on Rotten Tomatoes.
3 Body Of Lies (2008)
With a middling Rotten Tomatoes score of 55% and a lukewarm IMDb rating of 7.0, Body of Lies is a formulaic geopolitical thriller saved by dedicated stars and timely subject matter. Body of Lies is the perfect espionage caper for the paranoid post-9/11 climate. Crowe stars alongside Leonardo DiCaprio as a pair of CIA agents trying to bring down a notorious terrorist in the Middle East. The two actors give a pair of committed performances in the lead roles, but Oscar-winning Departed writer William Monahan’s script falls into the clichés and conventions of the spy genre, like betrayals, double-crosses, and bird’s-eye-view surveillance shots.
Scott had previously explored the tug-o’-war between civilizations in his Crusades-set epic Kingdom of Heaven, but Body of Lies brought those themes into the modern age of warfare. The movie suggests that conflict exists amongst each side of a war, not just between the two sides. It revolves around two conflicting characters who are ostensibly fighting on the same side: DiCaprio’s Roger Ferris is a compassionate field agent face-to-face with the lives his government is affecting, while Crowe’s Ed Hoffman is his more callous and cold-hearted superior ordering strikes from the safety of his home back in the United States.
2 American Gangster (2007)
Scott’s biopic of drug kingpin Frank Lucas, American Gangster, earned an impressive 81% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes and an admirable 7.8 rating on IMDb. This is Scott’s captivating take on a rise-and-fall gangster saga like Goodfellas or Scarface. American Gangster charts Lucas’ (Denzel Washington) rise to power, from working as the right-hand man to a Harlem mob boss to smuggling heroin into the United States aboard American service planes on their way back from Vietnam. Washington gives a typically fierce performance as Lucas, carrying himself with the menace of Training Day’s crooked cop and the charisma of Devil in a Blue Dress’ hard-boiled gumshoe.
Crowe plays Richie Roberts, the Newark detective determined to bring down Lucas’ empire. Even the best crime biopics depict the law enforcement agents on the case entirely through their work, but American Gangster takes the time to round out Richie’s personal life with bitter divorce proceedings, giving Crowe the opportunity for a three-dimensional performance. As Richie gets closer and closer to catching Lucas, American Gangster becomes an intense cat-and-mouse caper. American Gangster took some liberties with its historical accuracy (via the New York Post), but it’s a gripping tale of crime and corruption.
1 Gladiator (2000)
The first collaboration between Scott and Crowe is still their best movie by far. Gladiator is the film that elevated Crowe to the A-list and gave him leading man status. It was a hit with both critics and audiences; it scored 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.5 on IMDb, and became the second highest-grossing film of 2000. Gladiator has been universally praised for revitalizing the long-dormant swords-and-sandals genre. Crowe stars as Maximus, a Roman general who’s betrayed by the emperor’s son and forced into a life of slavery as a gladiator, where he rises through the ranks to avenge the deaths of his family.
At the 73rd Academy Awards, Gladiator won Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe. Ridley Scott was nominated for Best Director, but lost to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic. Gladiator is an immersive cinematic spectacle that plunges audiences into Ancient Rome, but it’s not just a treat for the eyes; there’s also a lot of thematic depth under all the dazzling visual flair. The tale of a warrior’s narrow-minded quest to avenge his family while being forced to kill as a sadistic spectator sport explores themes of revenge, masculinity, and the spectacle of violence.
