Some film directors shun the commercial aspect of their product, preferring to stress the artistic side of their work; Ridley Scott, however, revels in it. Lush visuals and a fast-moving camera make Scott's films immediately betray his direction, whether it's the arresting Orwellian 1984-influenced advertisement for Apple Computers, or the all-out, heart-stopping space horror feature Alien. Even with his successful career as a director of feature films, Scott continues to make occasional commercials, or "pocket versions of feature films," as he likes to describe them. His consistently elaborate and astonishing sets, the meticulous attention to detail, and his heavy stylization have made him one of the most influential filmmakers in the United States; paradoxically, critics have taken his work to task for these very qualities.

Scott grew up in the northeastern, industrial section of Britain, save for a five-year stint in Germany, where his father, who remained an...