Ridley Scott defends his most hated film: “It’s really fucking good!”

The director still doesn’t understand the negative criticism against Cartel, one of his favorite films.

While he has just released his biopic on Napoleonwith Joaquin Phoenix in the title role and Vanessa Kirby in Joséphine de Beauharnais, Ridley Scott returned to the case of Cartel, his film most hated by the public (24% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes, 1.8/5 on Allociné), and hardly more appreciated by critics. This thriller is written by Cormac McCarthythe only screenplay signed by the author of No Country for Old Men And The road, crowned with a Pulitzer Prize. We follow the descent into hell of a criminal lawyer who colludes with the world of drug trafficking on the American-Mexico border. When it was released in 2013, the film grossed $71 million at the worldwide box office. In comparison, Gladiator raked in 503.1 million.

Boosted by a five-star cast (Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem And Brad Pitt), Cartel (The Counselor in original version) brought together all the ingredients to be a success. Unfortunately, it still remains one of the cursed films of Ridley Scottto the great dismay of the filmmaker who talks about it in a recent interview for Rolling Stone: “Cormac McCarthy for me is probably the best dialogue writer of all time. Cartel is one of my favorite films, with a very dark subtext, and you feel it coming from the first minute”.

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“I was disappointed and I don’t even know who to blame because I think this movie is really fucking good. He’s so funny and cynical. People took it too seriously! They are starting to understand it today. It’s annoying, my films take a long time to be understood. The most famous is Blade Runnerwho was dead for twenty years and then accidentally rediscovered at the Santa Monica Festival”, says the filmmaker.

There are many examples of masterpieces that were misunderstood or released too early and achieved late success. But if Blade Runner is considered a science fiction classic today, so it’s not too late to rediscover and reevaluate Cartel Today. Last June, following the death of Cormac McCarthy, Première invited you to urgently rehabilitate the film. Take advantage of it, it is available for free streaming on the France Télévisions website until February 15, 2024.

Why we need to (re)discover the brilliant Cartel, the only film written by Cormac McCarthy