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Directed, scripted, edited and photographed by the then 24-year-old Tony Scott,
One of the Missing marked the behind-the-camera debut of a director who would go
on to extraordinary Hollywood success. Like his elder brother Ridley, Tony Scott
had come to filmmaking through the Royal College of Art. This first effort, made
with a grant of £2,000 from the British Film Institute Production Board, proved
interesting enough to attract the attention of Albert Finney, who then helped to
finance Scott's next film (also with the BFI), Loving Memory (1970).
Set during the American Civil War, One of the Missing is based on a story by
Ambrose Bierce which itself shares elements with Edgar Allen Poe's earlier gothic
classic 'The Premature Burial'. The constant possibility of his own sudden death
produces a frenzied panic in the soldier, whose mind fills with memories and
fantasies that push him farther and farther into a world of maddening
terror.
Scott combines elements of fantasy and horror to produce a nightmarish vision
of a man completely alone and confronted by his own imminent death. The tortured
state of the soldier's mind is explored with innovative uses of sound and
creative editing, providing a disturbing vision of a man staring death in the
face, and knowing he is beaten.
David Morrison *This film is available on BFI DVD and Blu-ray.
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Complete film (25:26)
Production stills
