Ridley Scott’s longtime cinematographer says the 87-year-old filmmaker has become “lazy” and sacrifices quality for the sake of expediency.
In an interview with DocFix (via World of Reel), John Mathieson discussed his experience working on Gladiator II. The two previously worked together on films like Matchstick Men and Kingdom of Heaven, and compared to those productions, Mathieson said he found Scott’s work on Gladiator II to be “really lazy” and “quiet impatient.”
Mathieson specifically took issue with Scott’s use of a multi-camera setup, instead of relying on just one lens, which he said resulted in less attention to detail. “It’s the CG [computer graphic] elements now of tidying-up, leaving things in shot, cameras in shot, microphones in shot, bits of set hanging down, shadows from booms,” Mathieson explained. “And they just said [on Gladiator II], ‘Well, clean it up.’”
“[Scott] is quite impatient so he likes to get as much as he can at once,” Mathieson added. “It’s not very good for cinematography.”
“Look at his older films and getting depth into things was very much part of lighting,” he continued. “You can’t do that with a lot of cameras but he just wants to get it all done… Having lots of cameras I don’t think has made the films any better… It’s a bit rush, rush, rush. That’s changed in him. But that’s the way he wants to do it and I don’t like it and I don’t think many people do, but people love his films and he’s Ridley Scott and can do what he wants.”
Read our review of Gladiator II, and see all the ways the sequel connects the original film.
