We asked 20 top screenwriters, from Robert Benton and William Goldman to Cameron Crowe and Daniel Waters, to name a favorite screenplay
The moguls who invented Hollywood may have been crass and megalomaniacal, but they were showmen who loved good yarns, and they knew that the most important element in any movie was the script. Today's executives lavish their attention on just about everything except the script--more thought is given to the special effects, the soundtrack album, and marketing tie-ins.
Perhaps because of the old moguls' reverence for the word, there was a time when Hollywood attracted great writers from every other field. As Anita Loos once observed, "When the writers were all moved into the Thalberg Building at MGM, a directory in the downstairs lobby listed, at one time or another, every important American, English, French, and Hungarian author in the world." These scribes often didn't enjoy their sojourn in Lotusland, but they brought rare qualities to the movies--literate dialogue, elegantly structured stories, memorable characters, and, sometimes, a vestige of their political passion and concern. Even routine, forgettable movies were brightened by ingenious plot twists and witty repartee. Most of those qualities have vanished today, partly because the bosses don't appreciate literacy, and also because the writers themselves don't have the wealth of experience in journalism, playwriting, or fiction that helped an earlier generation to hone their storytelling skills.
There are still, however, gifted writers working in Hollywood, and we thought it would be illuminating to ask 20 prominent screenwriters to name their favorite scripts. Many of them cited older movies and spoke wistfully of the very qualities that have virtually disappeared.
Some of the people I surveyed have themselves written scripts I would list among my own favorites. Robert Benton's Kramer vs. Kramer is one of the rare adaptations that improves on the novel that inspired it at absolutely every juncture. George Axelrod's The Manchurian Candidate is another deft adaptation, full of wit and ingenuity and astonishing narrative complexity. Frederic Raphael's Two for the Road is a dazzling original screenplay, the most inventive time travel adventure ever conceived, and also unexpectedly moving.
Kurt Luedtke created in Absence of Malice one of the smartest issue-oriented melodramas since the Warner Bros. movies of the '30s, and, in terms of ensemble characterization, Barry Levinson's Diner stands out for its novelistic texture and sense of detail.
Many of my own choices for best screenplay--Ben Hecht's script for Notorious and Robert Towne's script for Chinatown, for example--are not among the selections here. Among other glaring omissions, I note that there's no Woody Allen movie among our 20 selections. Two Preston Sturges movies appear, but only one Billy Wilder. If I had to pick my favorite writer, it would definitely be Wilder. I would be hard pressed to decide between Some Like It Hot, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, or Ace in the Hole (released as The Big Carnival), and that isn't even counting the scripts like Ninotchka and Midnight that Wilder wrote before he started directing.
Only one of the writers I reached refused to play the game. Richard Price (The Color of Money, Sea of Love) said, "I don't read screenplays. And from just seeing a film, I couldn't even begin to guess what the writer did and what's been added." When asked if there were screenwriters he admired, Price answered peevishly, "No. It's a craft." But most of the writers I spoke to were reluctant to limit themselves to singling out just one favorite screenwriter's best work.
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."
ANNA HAMILTON PHELAN
Mask, Gorillas in the Mist
"For me, great screenwriting is more about character than plotting. On the Waterfront--written by Budd Schulberg--has a main character we take a journey with, and you get involved in all the shifts and turns during the journey. I must have seen that movie 15 times. Sunset Boulevard also has that journey, and so does Midnight Cowboy. But in On the Waterfront the character's victorious in the end, so you identify with the little guy overcoming the system."
ABRAHAM POLONSKY
Body and Soul, Tell Them Willie Boy is Here
"How could I possibly choose any script except one of my own? But I can't do that either. I'm torn between being called vain if I name one of my scripts and being called a liar if I don't. Actually, a perfect screenplay is The Maltese Falcon, written by John Huston. Of course a perfect screenplay may not make a very important picture. A very imperfect movie like Glory can actually change people's minds. But The Maltese Falcon is a script one could use to teach writing. It's great in terms of character, structure, revelations. There's not a dull scene in it. And it has a marvelous hidden theme. A man unmasks the mystery of who killed his partner, and he didn't even like his partner. That raises very interesting questions."
FREDERIC RAPHAEL
Darling, Two for the Road
"Screenplays don't tend to age very well. I always thought of All About Eve as a very witty screenplay, but I saw it again recently, and except for a couple of lines, I found it ponderous. So I would lean toward a more recent movie. Tootsie I thought was a very fine screenplay, and it breaks all the rules. It was written, not by one solitary artist but by many people, among them Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal, and Elaine May. Whoever's words they were--probably about 300 people's--they were wonderful. I hate to mention that movie, because it vindicates every shit's notion of how screenwriters should be treated--except that I gather they were paid well. Of course, it didn't win the Oscar. It was beaten by Gandhi, which represents the triumph of the significant over the worthwhile."
IRVING RAVETCH
Norma Rae, The Long Hot Summer, Hud
"Grand Illusion, written by Jean Renoir and Charles Spaak, is one I would choose because it is most like a great book. It has the resonance and texture and humanity of a classic novel. It captures the complexity and paradoxes of human nature and the indomitability of the human spirit in terrible circumstances."
ALAN RUDOLPH
Welcome to L.A., Choose Me, Love at Large
"Dr. Strange-love may be the best script of the last 25 years. It was written by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, and Peter George. I like it for its savage comic perceptions. It proves that you can tell a story in that kind of wild format and bring it home to some frightening truths. When I first saw that movie, it awoke me politically. It made me see the potential power of translating politi¬cal thought on screen. I think the movie should be shown every year as a public service."
ALVIN SARGENT
Julia, Ordinary People, Dominick and Eugene
"Whenever I sit down to write, I almost always think of Adrien Joyce's script for Five Easy Pieces. There are certain times that inspire me, that epitomize standards I try to reach. Five Easy Pieces moves so beautifully for me. When I first saw it, I was deeply affected by the workmanship of that screenplay. It begins sparsely, with just an open field. You have no idea of the background of the character. Then it continually grows in interest. Only gradually do you learn of the deep trouble in this man. New characters keep being introduced. It's a movie full of surprises and full of people. It is almost Chekhovian."
TOM SCHULMAN
Dead Poets Society
"Ikiru is one of the most moving scripts I know. Other scripts of Akira Kurosawa's are very broad. To see him do something that sensitive is surprising. But it has tremendous humor as well as sentiment. So many moments are memorable. After the main character is told that he's dying, he goes home, and he's in his room winding his clock. And he realizes how few times he has left to do that. I don't think of that as a directorial touch. Writers think of moments like that. What I also like about Ikiru is that it's not a classical piece of storytelling. Structurally, it's all over the place. The main character dies in the middle of the film, and then it goes off in a whole different direction."
ROGER L. SIMON
Enemies: A Love Story, The Big Fix
"The purity and the farce construction of The Palm Beach Story are absolutely classic. There is an elegant perfection to that screenplay by Preston Sturges. It doesn't mean anything at all, but it is one of the best farces since Plautus, and it moves like a bullet. I must say I have tremendous respect for beautifully structured art--everything from Mozart to Ross Macdonald."
DANIEL WATERS
Heathers
"The first time I saw Network, I was under 18, and I had to sneak in. Maybe I respond to Chayefsky because he has the same flaws I have as a writer. A character will stop and give grandiose speeches. Some people don't like that constant verbal energy, but I have a taste for writing that never really coasts. Writers don't show the same attention to dialogue today. They think movie dialogue has to be either the way people always speak or reminiscent of other movies. The language of Network is neither. Chayefsky created a new language. I also love Lolita, but there I'm not sure who did the writing, because Nabokov's published script is un¬wieldy, and not at all the same as the movie."
______________
Stephen Farber is the author of Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego & The Twilight Zone Case and writes on film for The New York Times.