Screenwriters: 20/20 Vision

JAY PRESSON ALLEN

Cabaret, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Prince of the City

"For original screenplay I'd have to say the Billy Wilder-I.A.L. Diamond script for Some Like It Hot. I think it is a perfect movie. I can't find any flaw in it."

GEORGE AXELROD

Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Manchurian Candidate, The Seven Year Itch

"Casablanca, written by Julius & Philip Epstein and Howard Koch, is as good in a movie-movie kind of way as any script I know. When Claude Rains says, 'Round up the usual suspects,' at the end of the film, I weep--not for the obvious reasons, but because I know I'll never write a line that good."

ROBERT BENTON

Bonnie and Clyde, Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart

"When I first moved to New York, I saw A Place in the Sun--written by Michael Wilson and Harry Brown--over and over again at a little theater on 49th Street. I remember one night when the lights went up, Katharine Hepburn was there in the theater by herself. At first, I simply responded to the movie emotionally, and then as I watched it again, I saw other things in it. I wasn't even thinking of becoming a screenwriter then, but it began to teach me something. The beauty of that movie is in its structure. Just to take one example, there's a scene where Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters go to get a marriage license, and they're standing in front of the courtroom where he will later be tried for her murder. The way the scenes reverberate one against the other is very satisfying."

MARSHALL BRICKMAN

Annie Hall, Manhattan, Lovesick

"Preston Sturges's The Lady Eve, which he wrote and directed, is a distinctively American film, and I think it's on a par with Lubitsch. It happens to be a movie that resonates with my sensibilities. The central idea is delicious, and it has verbal wit and marvelous characters. Also, it's written by the director, so you don't have the problem of guessing who contributed what."

CAMERON CROWE

Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything

"Local Hero really hit me the first time I saw it, and I've seen it many times since. I love Bill Forsyth's script because of its celebration of all these little moments. It's so purely a character piece. And there are such seductive moments, like the shot of Peter Riegert's lost watch, which was once so important to him, beeping away underwater."

NORA EPHRON

When Harry Met Sally..., Heartburn, Silkwood

"His Girl Friday is probably the most brilliant reworking of a piece from another medium that I've seen. Charles Lederer turned Hildy Johnson into a girl, and this makes it one hundred times better than The Front Page, and The Front Page was pretty good to begin with. On the stage it takes so long for Walter Burns to arrive, whereas in the movie he's there from the start, and that's as it should be. The film shows how many words a movie can support if the words are really good. I love it because it has one of the great romantic relationships in movies--two unbelievably strong and willful human beings who finally come together after a lot of kicking and scraping. It's the greatest Tracy-Hepburn movie ever made, and neither of them is in it."

JOE ESZTERHAS

Jagged Edge, Music Box

"I would have to say Paddy Chayefsky is my favorite screenwriter because he was a writer who had enough strength to protect his vision. The Hospital and The Americanization of Emily are wonderful, but I think Network is the best. To say that film is a visual medium is a cliche, and I don't think it's true. Film is a combination of words and images, and words are as necessary as any other element. It's not just the language that I admire in Chayefsky; it's also his insight into character. The scene when William Holden tells Beatrice Straight that he's been having an affair has such maturity. It's a scene that has been done millions of times, but Chayefsky wrote it with such perception that it puts chills down my spine every time I see it."

HARRIET FRANK, JR.

Norma Rae, The Long Hot Summer, Hud

"Pride and Prejudice, by Aldous Huxley and Jane Murfin, is probably my favorite screenplay. It's a faithful adaptation of a novel by my favorite writer, and I watch it again and again. The dialogue is so literate, but then Huxley did have a hand in it."

WILLIAM GOLDMAN

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men

"I would have to say The Seventh Seal, because Ingmar Bergman is the best screenwriter. And no, I don't speak Swedish."

DALE LAUNER

Ruthless People, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

"I saw Miracle on 34th Street again just this past week. Structurally it holds up. It's still fun to watch and very well written by George Seaton. Although it's touching, it also has a surprising amount of edge to it. If you were doing it again today, there isn't much you would have to change."

KURT LUEDTKE

Out of Africa, Absence of Malice

"James Goldman's script for The Lion in Winter, based on his own play, is marvelously purple in terms of language. I would agree with anyone who says the movie is theatrical, but I must admit I have a soft spot for well-acted words. I love to hear language banging around the room. I saw that movie long before I was a screenwriter, and it appealed to me instantly. I've seen it since then, and I think it wears well."

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