Screenwriting : Favorite script for dialogue? by Dave McCrea

As long as we're talking Sorkin, MALICE is one of my all time faves. He's not the only credited writer, but the dialogue is unmistakably his. (If you haven't seen it, don't watch a trailer or even read a description first. It's one of the most kookily surprising thrillers ever. Absolutely nutso, and a really fun script to reverse-engineer.)

Tarantino and Sorkin are great...but everyone who tries to copy Quentin's style usually ends up meandering. I find there's a lot of great dialogue in TV--"Sopranos," "Justified," Modern Family," to name a few. The dialogue from "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" is memorable and "All About Eve" is exceptional, and I think based on a play, not sure. For comedy Harold Ramis and two other writers did a knockout job in "Analyze This." Patrick Marber's "Closer" has great dialogue, based on his own play. To be honest, the best dialogue I've read usually comes from really good plays--hey, that's all the playwright has to work with so it better be good.

THE PROFESSIONALS (Richard Brooks) or SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (Ernie Lehman and Clifford Odets).

David Seidler's the King's Speech

Glengarry Glen Ross (written by David Mamet) is my manual to writing dialogues. The speech of Alec Baldwin (F*ck you, that's my name) is a classic.

Yep, when I was at film school in the early 90's, Glengarry was a huge touch point.

thanks for the suggestions everybody

Double Indemnity.

Great choice, Jaime. Hell, If we're back to the forties, Casablanca!

Primal Fear is good for dialogue with subtext.

Yeah... but nothing snapped like that Wilder/Chandler dialogue. And while we're at it, Any pre 1960 Wilder film. Any Coen Brothers. Any Frank Capra pre 1950. A plethora of good stuff out there. See if you can get your hands on the actual scripts and see how it plays on the page. Quite astounding. Have fun!

Lost Boys. Specifically: "My own brother, a goddamn, shit-sucking vampire. You wait 'till mom finds out, buddy!"

As Good as It Gets. "Go sell crazy some place else. We're all stocked up here."

In Australia I have found many film and screenwriting courses will show a screening of the 1993 UK film 'Naked', with David Thewlis, for the dialogue. It really is excellent and sharp. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107653/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_60

The only Coen brothers script I've read is Barton Fink. It's a master class. When I was (very briefly) working in development I read a draft of Intolerable Cruelty NOT written by the Coen brothers, and it was decidedly not a master class. Great glows in an unmistakeable way. Cherie, Naked is one of the few movies to ever give me chills. A mind-blower.

There's one screenwriter, Tarantino, who has his friends read or play the different roles to him, so he can get a feeling of the dialogue and what works or doesn't work. He did this (according to him) with Django, and won the oscar for screenwriting. Won't it be great if all of us screenwriters have actors read for us the parts that we write before we actualy summit something in. I wish there was a computer that you could assign the roles one creates and have it read back to you with dielect, accent ,drama ecte..ect. Maybe some day, but for now it's all in our heads and in paper until someone decides to take a chance on our story, a story we all so passionately put or heart & soul.

Great choice, Kerry. The script for Barton Fink is genius. So is Fargo, for that matter. A tight 98.

Any aspiring writers out there, I suggest just transcribing a scene or two from your favorite movies. Something about the physicality of typing, or writing great dialogue longhand that gets into your soul. Try it.

" Working Girl", " Independence Day", "Heist", " Confidence". A lot of dialogue has been ripped off from Girl and Independence. Some of the really old movies' dialogue is trite , dated and stilted. This had to do with the times, I guess. Everyone talked down to the public from on high.

Wow, I love Independence Day, but for dialogue? Huh. Yes, some old movies' dialogue can be bad in a different way from recent movies. But some of it -- like some of the aforementioned -- sings in a way folks just don't do anymore.

Romanzo Criminale. An Italian movie by Michele Placido. Obviously a bunch of Scorcese's movies.

Yes, Chip. If you want any help with the coffin, call me. I'm still big, it's the pictures that got small. Nothing stilted here.

Fight Club, American Beauty, Social Network, Her?

Cameron Crowe - in particular. ALMOST FAMOUS and SAY ANYTHING. CASABLANCA, by the Epstein Brothers. and Coppola and Puzo's work on THE GODFATHER I & II. Doesn't get much better than that.

Kerry- re: Independence Day: " I picked a helluva day to quit drinking. " " I have got to get me one of these!" " Nothin' but love, nothin' but love". "Some people will be scared". .."Yeah, and I'm one of em". Also, " Heist " is a Mamet masterpiece.

Sorkin you say? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78RzZr3IwI

I just watched "Michael Clayton" again the other night. Man, Tony Gilroy writes some astounding dialogue. John Patrick Shanley's dialogue in "Doubt" is also amazing.

Okey-doke, Mary.

William Goldman is one of the all-time greats, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a gem. The only movie from the 2000s that I've seen that stands out for me with great dialogue is Michael Clayton.

Gotta love the Coens. Fargo of course, but so many others like Blood Simple, all of them have distinct characters with unique voices.

Bobcat Goldthwait's GOD BLESS AMERICA has some great dialogue in it. Particularly Frank's rant on the downfall of civilised behaviour; Frank: Oh, I get, and I am offended. Not because I've got a problem with bitter, predictable, whiny, millionaire disk jockeys complaining about celebrities or how tough their life is, while I live in an apartment with paper-thin walls next to a couple of Neanderthals who, instead of a baby, decided to give birth to some kind of nocturnal civil defense air-raid siren that goes off every fuckin' night like it's Pearl Harbor. I'm not offended that they act like it's my responsibility to protect their rights to pick on the weak like pack animals, or that we're supposed to support their freedom of speech when they don't give a fuck about yours or mine. Office Worker: So, you're against free speech now? That's in the Bill of Rights, man. Frank: I would defend their freedom of speech if I thought it was in jeopardy. I would defend their freedom of speech to tell uninspired, bigoted, blowjob, gay-bashing, racist and rape jokes all under the guise of being edgy, but that's not the edge. That's what sells. They couldn't possibly pander any harder or be more commercially mainstream, because this is the "Oh no, you didn't say that!" generation, where a shocking comment has more weight than the truth. No one has any shame anymore, and we're supposed to celebrate it. I saw a woman throw a used tampon at another woman last night on network television, a network that bills itself as "Today's Woman's Channel". Kids beat each other blind and post it on Youtube. I mean, do you remember when eating rats and maggots on Survivor was shocking? It all seems so quaint now. I'm sure the girls from "2 Girls 1 Cup" are gonna have their own dating show on VH-1 any day now. I mean, why have a civilization anymore if we no longer are interested in being civilized?

CJ, I believe "reality TV" has left an indelible mark on our "culture." First, it legitimizes super low-end production values as broadcast quality TV. Second, it eats up bandwidth otherwise occupied by scripted programs, and provides a forum where the least common denominator is celebrated and imitated. I'd bet Honey Boo Boo t-shirts have outsold F Scott Fitzgerald t-shirts by a factor of a million to one, that is if you could find an F Scott Fitzgerald t-shirt.

Alexander Payne's SIDEWAYS is among my favorites.

For me, there are a lot of them, but one that I always remember, is the one way telephone dialogue scene in "The Way We Were", by Arthur Laurents. Where Katie is begging Hubbell to come over after they split up. Intrigues me how much emotion can be squeezed out of that one scene with one character. It's old, but impactful. (I think,) but others might disagree.

BEST MONOLOGUE - MEMENTO. BRILLIANT. Both the story by Jon Nolan and the script adaptation

This reminds me of the question, who was the better drummer, Ringo Starr or Ginger Baker? Starr was a backup support drummer, Baker was a virtuoso. In the end, it's a matter of personal taste. Great dialog generally draws attention to itself. When I hear cleverly written dialog (e.g., Tarantino) , my attention shifts from watching a visual medium to listening to words on an audio track. It takes me out of the story. Should dialog be so cool it stands out? Or should it blend into the movie and be barely noticeable? What about long scenes that mesmerize us with no dialog at all? That's what movies can do that a stage play cannot. For thirty years, before the "talkies" arrived, movies pleased audiences with no dialog at all. One of my favorite movie scenes has no dialog to speak of. If you haven't seen the museum scene in DePalma's "Dressed to Kill," try to find it on You Tube. No dialog for what feels like an eternity. Personally, I'd rather the writer try to use as little dialog as possible. As a matter of fact, I prefer to watch foreign movies with subtitles and skip the talk entirely.

Keith Moon was the best, "the octopus,"

De Palma is a master of visual scenes without dialogue. The scene in the museum is extraordinary. The murder with the power drill in Body Double is another great one. My favorite of all is the foot chase that climaxes Carlito's Way. As an homage to De Palma I plan to shoot an assassination scene that climaxes my movie silent with just music. Of course I'm prone to "clever" dialogue , but unlike Tarantino mine relates to the story and characters.

Yeah, although DePalma was a visual virtuoso in a way. The museum scene is purposely filled with modern art because DePalma is influenced by how much painters accomplish without words. More recently Stephen Soderbergh has written about his need to get away from narrative storylines and go back to a more purely visual art form. However, he seemed to have reconsidered this line -- he's producing/directing an interesting new series called The Knick on Cinemax starting August 8th. As for me, I love story more than dialog or visuals. I write plot-strong mystery/thrillers and I'd love to hear more about your scripts. If you want to share ideas, send me a private message. Lee.

Three that I can never get out of my head because of the very smart dialogue: Tombstone (favorite actors: Powers Boothe, Dana Delany, Val Kilmer, Michael Biehn), The Shootist (John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard), Big Jake (John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara)

Yeah, Tombstone is classic. "I'm your huckleberry." My favorite western. One of my new favorites is LOCKOUT, 2012, by Luc Besson, with Stephen St. Leger and James Mather. Guy Pearce plays the protag and every line out of his mouth cracks me up. He talks trash the entire movie. That's my type of dialogue!