As a drummer, I have my favorite players. As a screenwriter, I also have my favorite writers. I'm old school, so some of my favs would be Dalton Trumbo, Joseph Mankiewicz, William Goldman Harriet Frank and Irving Ravetch. But if I had to pick one screenwriter, that person would be Robert Bolt. His work for films like Man For All Seasons and Doctor Zhivago is masterful. And, he won Academy Awards for both of them. However, the script I admire the most is Lawrence of Arabia, which I consider my gold standard. I have created a PDF link for this screenplay, if you care to download it.
What is your gold standard screenplay? Please, only one per customer. http://freepdfhosting.com/4bbb0f6190.pdf
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shooting script, Yo
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great question, Uncle Phil!
I'm a steak N potatoes guy. My mount Rushmore is a bunch of action genre Writer/Directors: John Woo, Sam Peckinpah, Walter Hill
If I had to choose 1 as gold standard, I would probably choose "Streets of Fire" (Walter Hill). Seen it 25x, a fun popcorn action musical fantasy movie with a lone Hero, a rockstar GF, and a bad Guy in leather pants.
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Babz:
Yes, there is not a spec version of this script. Only shooting scripts online.
Dan M: Thank you my brother. Peckinpah's Wild Bunch is in my top twenty movies of all time. Love Walter Hill's Long Riders, which was heavily influenced by mister P.
yep, John Woo also studied Peckinpah- slow motion guns blazing beauty.
Even though they are based on excellent source material.....Jaws, The Godfather, The Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Strangelove, The Exorcist , The Wizard of Oz and Goodfellas are probably my top seven adapted gold scripts.
Original Screenplay top seven gold scripts are probably Cinema Paradiso, Once Were Warriors, Platoon, 8 1/2, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, and All That Jazz.
It's too hard to pick just one - or seven - screenwriters as my favorite. There are probably more like 30 or 40 on that list. I'm not good at picking one of anything, and never have been. How can you pick just one of anything? Heh-heh.
Bill C: As always, great contributions my friend.
FFR: Love me some Cohen Bros. Innovative writers and filmmakers.
Coen brothers fan here too. Also Alexander Payne and Wes Anderson.
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Jody: Alexander Payne's Sideways and Descendants also makes him a gold standard writer.
Uncle Phil - Lawrence of Arabia is a marvelous film - no doubt about it. The script is a shooting script of 268 pages and well written in the style of a by-gone era. I have the spec(?) for A Bad Day at Black Rock - it'll long and written in the prose style of the era (1950's) and Anatomy of a Murder is yet another; but they are all from an earlier era and I doubt that any of them would make it past the Intern readers of today.
As writers of today, we each develop our own approach/style to script scribing. Mine tends to be almost staccato in nature. I've had folk tell me that my story design, flow and rhythm is somewhat similar to Judd Apatow's and I certainly admire the Cohen Brothers and Wes Anderson. Actually, when I think about it, there are numerous writers throughout history.
Mister Doug:
Great post! We have similar tastes. I love Bad Day and Anatomy. The latter is a very talky movie but remains absolutely brilliant and one of the best courtroom dramas of all time.
Wow, Dan M. "Streets of Fire"...haven't seen that in ages. Back in the 80s when I was a bartender, my roommate would leave me a note to wake her up at 3 am. (when I usually got home) so that she could watch that movie on HBO. (Back in the olden days before we could afford a VCR and we had to watch it whenever it was shown.) We both loved "Streets of Fire" and "Eddie and the Cruisers."
But, back to the question, I like reading William Goldman's work, and the Coen Brothers' supporting characters in "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men" crack me up. I usually fast forward through the violence in the movies just to watch them.
Doug, when I took a writing course at LSU, "Bad Day at Blackrock" was the movie we had to watch and study. I believe the teacher said it would help us learn cause and effect, timing, and tone, among other things.
Uncle Phil; While you and I may appreciate many of these very fine stories and scripts of a bygone era - I venture that many in this forum weren't even born when they were written/produced (I said many, not all). Setting them as the "gold standard" for today's writers seems pretty pointless to me but it certainly is worth a try. I applaud your attempt.
Many greats to choose from: I always lean towards "No Country For Old Men" and perhaps "Sling Blade". "There Will Be Blood" also high on my list.
Aray: Just looked Diane up and saw her list of work. It's sad the her promising life was cut short.
I aspire only to be the next big thing. As in the art and literature worlds, it is important to study classical technique... then kick that creaky old stuff to the curb and write for the modern audience. It doesn't pay to idolize.
Vertigo. Maybe the best screenplay ever written. Parallels two story lines the best I've ever seen, keeping the one hidden until the end. An incredible and unconventional third act with a protagonist who doesn't relent until his intuition leads him to what he wants.