This movie is a small miracle. It wouldn't appear so at first glance, but by all accounts, it was a nightmare to make and yet it somehow rises above itself. Roger Ebert's review of it is particularly insightful in that he points out how cynical, vicious, crude, and misogynistic the film is yet manages to still succeed as a well-crafted piece of entertainment.
For starters, the film was a war of egos. Tony Scott was a hot director and probably just starting to realize studios weren't going to rein him in or question his decisions since he'd demonstrated time and again he could rake in the millions. Damon Wayans was an up-and-coming star, just beginning to break through from his audience-pleasing characters on the TV show “In Living Color.” Bruce Willis had proven himself as a bankable action hero with the one-two punch of the first two “Die Hard” movies and Shane Black had proven the same as a writer with the first two “Lethal Weapon” movies. On top of all that, Joel Silver had produced both of those franchises and was primed to produce “The Last Boy Scout” as well. At the time, the script had sold for a record-breaking amount, so a lot was riding on this.
Needless to say, all of these men at the top of their game felt pretty powerful and had different ideas and none of them agreed on anything. Usually, that's a recipe for disaster because, even if morale is merely low on a film set, the results tend to come across in the finished product. In this case, morale wasn't simply low, the writers, directors, producers, and co-stars were at each other's throats. Yet, they all managed to pull it off. As Roger Ebert points out in his aforementioned review, “It is some kind of tribute to Tony Scott...that this material survives its own complete cynicism and somehow actually works.”
It's true. They really made magic out of the mess. Even though the overall theme is grim and defeatist, there are some great laughs. The plot is clever enough to be unpredictable. Although no one got along, the performances are strong and the chemistry is great. There are two back-to-back car chases that are both crucial to the plot as well as surprisingly unique (the first car chase literally has both cars drive side-by-side down a cliff). There are no less than four scenes where you wonder how the hell our heroes are gonna get outta this, but they do - and without “cheating” or relying on deus ex machina. Under all those circumstances, this film is exceptional.
While it was undoubtedly a miserable experience for Tony Scott, it definitely made him a better filmmaker. If nothing else, he met his wife Donna on this movie. Plus, his follow-up film was “True Romance,” which Scott - for a while, at least - considered his best work. His contempt for “The Last Boy Scout” shows through in “True Romance” in certain places. For one, the character of fictional film producer Lee Donowitz was modeled (quite obviously, shamelessly, and unkindly) after Joel Silver. Tony remarked, “Joel didn't talk to me for a long time after that.” In any case, “The Last Boy Scout” demonstrates what Chili Palmer said in the film “Get Shorty” about directors: “Sometimes you do your best work when you got a gun to your head.”
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