Every Ridley Scott Movie Ranked Worst To Best

20. 1492: Conquest Of Paradise (1992)

You can almost set your clock by Ridley Scott's attempts to make historical epics. and rather calamitously, there are precious few of them that can really match up to his character pieces with tighter focus. In 1492, the director made his first foray into the genre, carving out stunning visuals (of course) and spending every penny of his then lavish $47m budget.

Unfortunately, the film also set a precedent for hubris that Scott has flirted with ever since in these sort of epics. There's a great central performance by Gerard Depardieu in there, who makes his character more human and more relatable than he'd been before on screen but the rest of the film feels over-blown and insistent.

Sadly, after the dull Christopher Columbus: The Discovery was released the year below, audience interest in the Columbus story was pretty low, and the film failed at the box office. That context isn't the only reason why it took less than $8m, though, and even now it probably deserves its underwhelming critical reception.