Forrest Gumpįorrest Gump is probably the most successful and iconic example of the Traveling Angel narrative, where the story isn’t so much about how the protagonist changes but by how the protagonist causes others to change. Anderson and Paul Haggis be doing the kinds of films that defined their brand without Network? It’s a must-read. It’s cinematic satire of the highest order, and it set the precedent for dense, structurally ambitious ensembles. It’s nasty, mean-spirited, super-smart and altogether brilliant. You can’t ask for a more literate, prescient and devilishly-entertaining script than Paddy Chayefsky’s Network. Four decades later, we’re doing the same thing with comic books. Little needs to be said about The Godfather except this: it showed you can make Shakespearean art out of pulp. The lesson here, dear writers, is this: if you don’t know what you’re doing, fake it. And the great irony is, as the production history of the film reveals, Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch made it all up as they went along. It’s simple and universal and timeless, and it has arguably the most powerful ending of any love story ever.
It’s a perfect story: great characters, great story, great arcs, great message, great setting. 25 years and four sequels later, and Die Hard still exists as the gold standard of modern action movies. It also proved that you could and should have an antagonist every bit as layered, entertaining and wily as your protagonist. Die Hard proved so successful, it forever infiltrated the Hollywood mindset and became its own point of reference: “it’s Die Hard on a…”įor better or for worse, without Die Hardthere would be no Speed, Under Siege, Passenger 57, Con Air, Air Force One, as well as White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen. Die Hard proved that innovation-within a broad commercial framework-sells like gangbusters. Instead of the globetrotting James Bond formula or the (delightful) excesses of 1980s Schwarzenegger and Stallone, here was an average joe, shoeless and vulnerable, in the wrong place at the wrong time… a guy that didn’t want to be a hero and would have happily watched anyone else step up to the plate. Die Hardĭie Hard forever changed an entire genre. The character that is the most endearing and personable is Anthony Perkins’ iconic Norman Bates, and we still feel for him even after we learn the truth about him in the film’s twist ending…and speaking of twist endings, is there a more definitive model for the modern twist ending than Psycho? 4. Janet Leigh as Marion Crane is the closest thing to it, and not only is she far from likable, she gets killed off a third of the way through the film. It breaks so many rules and gets away with it, it’s almost criminal. Would we have The Last Samurai and Avatar without Dances With Wolves? 3. The script also exemplified the trope of a soldier interacting with a race of Others and finding a sense of identity and solidarity with them and choosing them over his own people. That it got made and became a success gives hope to us all that great writing will get noticed, even if it goes against the grain and what is currently considered commercial in the market. Western, at 180 pages it was an epic Western.
One, it was a Western and got picked up and packaged by a superstar-turned-director at a time when the conventional wisdom was that Westerns were dead. Dances with Wolvesĭances With Wolves is an extraordinary script in several ways. It's a dark, cathartic story that stays with you long after it ends.
The script is also second-to-none in how it seamlessly links theme and character. You feel the different parts of the story.they are all distinct.and yet they absolutely tie into each other to form a unified whole. Every act break is razor-sharp and perfectly placed. film noir (think The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past) and as a genuine entry in that genre. It's a moody, atmospheric narrative that functions both as a postmodern interpretation of the 1940s hardboiled P.I. ChinatownĬhinatown is widely considered to be the Great American Screenplay, and for good reason. All of these screenplays are extraordinary, not just due to the quality of the writing but also because of their far-reaching impact on American cinema. This is by no means an exhaustive or definitive list, but these are ten scripts every screenwriter-whether aspiring newbie or seasoned pro-should read, the sooner the better.