I have seen The Last Boy Scout a lot in my life. I saw it in theaters when it came out. I surely rented it on VHS and definitely taped it off of HBO to watch regularly, though those were pan and scan editions back in the ‘90s. I’ve had it on DVD and Blu-ray in the proper aspect ratio, but I’ve never seen it look as good as the new 4K.
That’s not surprising from Tony Scott. His critics accused him of MTV style, since he came from the commercial world. His popular movies like Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop II were about selling the glamour to the audience. He gets grimier in The Last Boy Scout, with Joe Hallenback (Bruce Willis) and Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans) investigating the underbelly of Los Angeles.
It opens on a rainy night football game shrouded in blue. Billy Cole (Billy Blanks) sits silhouetted in the locker room before his violent shootout on the field. Then the Tony Scott sunrise wakes Hallneback up in his car. He goes inside his dark office with shadow and silhouette.
There are a lot of film noir shots with half of a character’s face in shadow. Also a lot of slick, steaming dark alleys. Even a parking garage looks beautiful when Scott films it, all the way to the stadium rafters in the climax.
1991 was still early in surround sound, though it was post Terminator 2. Last Boy Scout has the stadium crowd in surround, but also subtle effects like typewriters in the police station.
A new 35 minute interview with screenwriter Shane Black covers his whole career. 30 more minutes at his 2024 Beyond Fest retrospective manages not to repeat much. And if you’ve ever heard Black talk about writing, movies or even detective novels, you know it’s 90% gold.
32 minutes with Danielle Harris focuses on her experience on the film. She’s also such an industry pro, even stories she’s told before sound fresh and it’s important to keep a definitive record. Tony Scott author Stephane Moissakis has tales of the unproduced Ticking Man movie.
22 minutes of deleted and extended scenes from the work print are the big find. Granted, with intros and explanation is’ significantly less new footage, and they compare the violence ot the theatrical cut so you can directly see the shortened edits.
Josh Nelson and Martyn Pedler’s new commentary is both researched with quotes and analytical themselves. They tie the film’s themes to it’s color schemes. Al Cowlings was an advisor on the football scenes and he and O.J. Simpson visited the set. Hearing the alt line for Billy Cole’s suicide would’ve had a lot of bite but it’s understandable it wouldn’t pass legal.
They also give the gender politics of the film a really nuanced fair shake. Hallenback may have had a surprising amount of influence on subsequent Willis roles, more so than even John McClane.