In which of the four films did Ridley Scott direct Tom Cruise
LEVEL 2 — 🎬 FILM ENTHUSIAST
At this level, we have films about the Church, the war in Bosnia, remakes of earlier successful movies, science fiction films, and adaptations of successful books. Read the following text to refresh your memory or discover something new about these films, and then move on to the 12 questions.
We begin with two of the most recognizable names in cinema: Tom Cruise and Ridley Scott. One is an actor and the other a director, and both have left their own mark on the history of film. They have worked together only once, with Scott as director and Cruise as the leading actor, and we want you to remember which film it was. They were also connected to another project: Scott was a producer on Top Gun: Maverick (2022) through Scott Free Productions, although he did not direct the film.
For the second question, we turn to a film that strongly criticizes the Catholic Church, especially Pope Pius XII, for its attitude toward the Holocaust. Directed by Costa-Gavras, the film focuses on the efforts of a German SS officer, Kurt Gerstein, played by German actor Ulrich Tukur, to expose the crimes of the Nazis and the use of Zyklon B in the extermination camps. The screenplay was based on the 1963 play Der Stellvertreter (The Deputy) by German playwright Rolf Hochhuth. Hochhuth was known for works with a strong political and moral character, which often caused controversy because they targeted institutions and important public figures.
Next comes Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, based on Patrick Süskind's 1985 novel, which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Süskind reportedly believed that only Stanley Kubrick or Miloš Forman could properly adapt his book, so he refused to sell the film rights to anyone else. Producer Bernd Eichinger read the novel when it was first published and immediately contacted Süskind, who was also his friend, but Süskind turned him down. In 2000, however, he finally agreed to sell the rights to Eichinger. The film was eventually directed by Tom Tykwer.
Our next question takes us into science fiction. In this film, cities ride on wheels and consume each other to survive. It was directed by Christian Rivers, while writer-director Peter Jackson co-wrote the screenplay. The main cast includes Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, and Hugo Weaving.
We stay with science fiction with Philip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). It is a remake of the 1956 film directed by Don Siegel and is often considered one of the great remakes in cinema. It is also the second film adaptation of Jack Finney's 1954 novel The Body Snatchers. Siegel makes a cameo appearance in Kaufman's film as the taxi driver who takes the main couple on a night ride through San Francisco. The music was composed by Denny Zeitlin, an American jazz pianist, composer, and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
Next, we have Jake Gyllenhaal in the 2015 film Demolition, directed by French-Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée. John Malkovich was one of the producers, while Chris Cooper and 14-year-old Judah Lewis appear in supporting roles. For this question, however, we want you to remember the actress who plays the female lead.
We then move back to 1978 and to a film based on a novel by Agatha Christie. Like many Agatha Christie adaptations, it has a large and impressive cast: Jane Birkin, Lois Chiles, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Jon Finch, Olivia Hussey, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, Simon MacCorkindale, David Niven, Maggie Smith, and Jack Warden. All of them are under the direction of John Guillermin, with the beautiful music of Nino Rota. The film is Death on the Nile, and the character we are looking for is the brilliant detective Hercule Poirot.
Now we turn to a war film about an American soldier in Bosnia. The movie takes a real story and reshapes it into a political conspiracy adventure. It is loosely based on the experiences of U.S. Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady, who was shot down over Bosnia in June 1995 and remained stranded in Serb-held territory for six days before being rescued by U.S. Marines. O'Grady later filed a lawsuit against Twentieth Century Fox, claiming that the film damaged his character. He said that he did not curse as much as the character in the film and that he never disobeyed orders. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court. The film stars Gene Hackman, Gabriel Macht, and David Keith. It was also the first film directed by John Moore, who later made Flight of the Phoenix and Max Payne.
In 1984, Brian De Palma directed Body Double, an erotic mystery thriller with a strong connection to the style of the giallo. The film is mentioned several times by Patrick Bateman, the character played by Christian Bale in American Psycho (2000). The actress we are looking for had taken a three-year break from acting and had not made another film after Roar in 1981. She returned to the screen with Body Double and also appeared in Fear City that same year. These two roles were considered her comeback.
Our next film features a remarkable cast: Patricia Clarkson, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Vanessa Redgrave, Sam Shepard, Mickey Rourke, Tom Noonan, Lois Smith, Benicio del Toro, and Harry Dean Stanton. The film was directed by Sean Penn, who dedicated it to two longtime collaborators from his first two films as a director, The Indian Runner (1991) and The Crossing Guard (1995). They were Production Designer Michael D. Haller and Composer Jack Nitzsche. Haller died in 1998, while Nitzsche died in 2000.
Finally, we close with a harsh American film that is a remake of an even harsher German film. Both are titled The Experiment (Das Experiment). The American version was directed by Paul T. Scheuring. The story takes inspiration from a real experiment conducted in 1971 at Stanford University, when psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his team wanted to examine how people's behavior could change when they were given the roles of guards and prisoners.
They selected 24 male students and turned the basement of the Psychology Department into a temporary prison. The participants were randomly divided into guards and prisoners, and the experiment was supposed to last two weeks. However, within only a few days, the situation became increasingly harsh. The guards adopted authoritarian and humiliating behavior, while several prisoners experienced severe psychological pressure. In the end, the experiment was stopped after only six days. But then again, that was in real life....
Good luck with the questions, and enjoy the quiz!