WGA compiled a list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays. Billy Wilder, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen have four on the list while Charlie Kaufman and John Huston each have three. I was glad to see Tootsie and Groundhog Day but was surprised to see When Harry Met Sally.
Thoughts? What is missing? What shouldn't be on the list?
7 comments:
Hey - !
Thanks for stopping by my blog....and thanks for leaving the comment... especially since you don't agree... :)
Honestly - I didn't mean to say that we have to know why the bad guy does what he does...I only meant to say that it certainly is a big trend in film nowadays... That most people want a reason why the person is the way he is...
and so development people really want to know and usually ask for it to be in the script. IE - the one I am rewriting right now. So I have to come up with the reason - and even if the reason is not explicitly stated in the script - as a writer - we need to know what it is - and what is driving the guy - and not just that he is crazy or that he is the bad guy cause that is his role....
So in essence... i believe we agree... even if I might not have consciously said that directly this morning... :)
Greg
webofliesanddeceit.blogspot.com
Funny you should mention "Harry," 'cause I think it's one of the great underrated screenplays. It LOOKS simple and it SOUNDS easy and it may even feel shallow... but I actually think it's a brilliant piece of work. I think the casting makes it tough viewing for some (if you're not a Billy Crystal fan and/or don't love Ryan) but nobody, to my knowledge, has ever pulled off this particular feat since, in a mainstream American movie: a man and a woman more or less sitting around talking, for 90 minutes -- and striking a chord with an audience that's made this perennially appear on most people's short list of favorite romantic comedies. (There's a certain book that dissects the intriguing thematic underpinnings of the script, pp.97-104...)
All of that aside, I'm happy to hear that Allen and Kaufman were well represented.
Yes, I read that and was embarrassed that while I'd easily identified the "single life" and "male/female friendship" portions of the thematic stew, I missed the "differences between men and women" as a thematic underpinning -- I had thought it was just one of topics between Harry and Sally discussed as a means of revealing character and building on the "male/female friendship" thing... . so I had to watch the movie again.
Greg, I had to go back to your blog and read again what it was I disagreed with. Yeah, I am Mary, Quite Contrary.
It's a puzzling list. Puzzling because I don't know what criteria they use to evaluate a screenplay. "Jaws" is on the list, but an awful lot of "Jaws" was created in post production with some first rate editing - scenes re-ordered and recut, lots of ADR.
"The Lion In Winter" is on the list, based on James Goldman's play. Why not put "A Streetcar Named Desire" on the list? Or "Hamlet"?
Yep. Puzzling. But there are some GREAT movies on that list, no doubt.
Perhaps it depends on how much of the play was "adapted" as opposed to "transcribed"? Dunno. Maybe somebody smarter than me will weigh in.
I would have ranked "Memento" higher, and would loved to have seen "Crash" on there. But what do I know, I'm a movie lover, not a movie writer.
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