Boy and Bicycle
Ridley Scott's first film, shot on 16mm in 1960s England.
Ridley Scott's first film, the 1965 black-and-white short Boy and Bicycle, starred his brother Tony and was shot on 16mm while Scott studied photography at the Royal College of Art. Though made years before his debut feature, it previews recurring visual signatures like cooling towers and blast furnaces, later seen in Alien, Blade Runner, and Black Rain, as well as the central bicycle imagery reused in his 1973 Hovis advert.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Ridley Scott
- Starring
- Tony Scott
- Released
- 1965
- Runtime
- 27 minutes
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- The film is included as an extra on the Paramount DVD of Scott's first feature The Duellists and on The Criterion Collection Blu-Ray and 4K UHD of Thelma & Louise.
- It can be viewed free of charge at the BFI website.
- The central boy-on-a-bicycle image reappears in Scott's 1973 Hovis TV advert The Bike Ride.
Production
Scott financed the film through the British Film Institute's Experimental Film Fund, which covered editing and sound completion in 1965. He described the production as a one-man effort with his brother Tony as the sole actor; they carried all equipment themselves. Scott's father once drove his car with Scott in the trunk filming Tony behind. The soundtrack includes a John Barry piece titled "Onward Christian Spacemen," originally the B-side of a cover of The Human Jungle theme. Barry produced a new recording for the film after Scott could not afford the rights to the existing recording.
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