Script review - "Hairpray" by John Waters

 Audio version of the script read by Waters himself. Lots of fun, he's an engaging performer, the dialogue is bright. The story of thing is stronger. All Waters' work is political, this is more accessibly political (with integration). But very enjoyable.

Script review - "Somewhere" by Sofia Coppola

 Only 44 pages A series of scenes of a movie star being empty - having sex, taking drugs, feeling not quite real. He's nice to his daughter. You can imagine Coppola directing it well. Not enough for a feature though. 

Script review - "Is this Thing On?" by Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, and Mark Chappell

 Charming, senstive, actor-y. I like how the wife is given a voice and it becomes a comedy of remarriage. It wobbles a bit in places when some more pace might've helped. Great performer's showcase.

Script review - "Splendor in the Grass" (1961) by William Inge

 Very simple. Effective. Empathetic to kids. Two of them want to shag, she's poor, he's rich. He dumps her to get a root she goes mad. Her mother worries about her virginity but um that doesn't drive you mad. To be fair the film doesn't say that. The depression equals them all.

Inge was a good script writer. He should've written the adaptation of A Loss of Roses. But... casting essentia. That and this needed two leads who are perfect. 

Script review - "Blue Moon" by Robert Kaplow

 It’s not very good. As in, it’s bad. Feels like a play. Too much like a play. No use of visuals, Nothing at stake. The girl isn’t stakes because he’s not going to be with the girl. The partnership with Rodgers not really at stake bc he’s going to die. Why not use his mother as a character more? Ducks Hart's homosexuality. Makes it more about his drinking and height. I liked seeing Sondheim and George Roy Hill but both could’ve been cut from the film.

Script review - "The Wicker Man" by Anthony Shaffer

 Read an original draft - all the good stuff is there: the world, the sex, the ending, the lead. Needs a trim. Needed another character with more ambivalent feelings towards the island to mix it up. Someone unhappy there. Too many same-y types - publican, doctor, mother, Willow, librarian, etc. 

Script review - "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" by Colin Higgins

 Basically same as the final film, from memory, with a few key exceptions

- this doesn't have the coda explaining they got married and Earl got elected (which I think was a great addition)

- this has a sequence where a girl goes to work at the Chicken ranch, admits her dad got "sweet on her" and Monda sings a song - great character stuff but I can see why it was cut.

It's wholesome, cheery, a fine star vehicle. Making it a romance totally works. I know Larry King whined but this works better. 

Script review - "An Education" by Nick Hornby

 For the most part really enjoyed this - tale of young woman during that odd British period of 1962 before things went wild, falling for older man, parents controlling but also manipulated, pop culture was French, education was well funded. I like that the guy wasn't a complete villain - he did love her in his dodgy way.

At the end she turns into whiny boomer, blaming her parents for it all, blaming the school, going off to Oxford and having a high old time. 

Script review - "You Can Count on Me" by Kenneth Longergan

 Beautiful. Inspired to read after listening to podcast interview on It Happened In Hollywood. Sensitive, simple, complex, funny, sad. Some sex. Love the appalling, petty boss who the mother sleeps with. The drop kid brother is a stand out. Wonderful.

Script review - "Juno" by Diablo Cody

 Read this just for fun - warm, simple, unplotty. Great dialogue of course but also consistent - Juno and Leah talk different to Juno and Bleeker and Juno and her parents. Complication provided by the two yuppies. Cody doesn't demonise either not even Mark - it's clear Vanessa doesn't get him either.

Script review - "Fletch" by Andrew Bergman

 Not the final transcript bc there are some key admissions (narration, some famous lines, the legendary "I billed it to the Underhills" line). But the core of it is all there and many famous lines were scripted. First rate mystery. Great villain - the scary cop. Charming relationship with Gail. Colourful characters. Escape sequences. It's a series of encounters but it's well plotted out.

Script of Jaws

Knocked out again how good the script is - superbly directed, acted, etc... but feel script is also magnificent and never gets its due (aside from “Indianapolis” monologue which everyone bangs on about). Why is it so good?
- basic structure very strong: first shark attack (kills girl), cop not dumb and tries to shut down beach but can’t bc of business, second shark attack (kills kid), everyone panics, mum of kid offers huge award which sends out vigilante, someone kills a shark but (twist) it’s the wrong shark, third shark attack (kills guy who tries to help cop’s son), go out on expedition
- Solid conflict all through: shark versus human, but also mayor versus cop and scientist (and the mayor is well motivated i.e. he’s doing it for business), macho fisherman vs scientist, macho fisherman vs cop
- Basic engineering plotting but very well done: we know cop will face off against shark, so we have him (a) afraid of water (b) be the least knowledgeable person about sharks on the boat compared to scientist and the macho fisherman (c) leave him abandoned by the other two at the end via killing fisherman and knocking out scientist (d) remove the boat - this is breathtakingly good and amazingly has not been copied enough (I think because stars want to play superheroes)... but you have our lead, have him go on a shark hunting expedition but we think he’s safe because he’s on a boat and we have the world’s toughest shark fisherman and the world’s smartest shark scientist... BUT THEN... they destroy the boat, kill the fisherman, take out the scientist... why is this not ripped off more?
- Things that might have been a little contrived (eg going shark hunting on a boat that is falling apart, not radio-ing for help) makes complete and utter sense if motivated by character: Quint the fisherman is full of swagger and machismo, thinks he’s the toughest guy on the block, tougher than any shark so of course he’d go off shark hunting on a crappy boat (it wouldn’t make character sense if he went off on a good boat) and wouldn’t call for help (of course he wouldn’t call for help) - it is about character
- Also, watch building of status of shark through Quint’s attitude: ‘I’ll catch him easy’, on trip, ‘no worries’, then over trip ‘hang on this shark is really skilled’ then ‘you know what lets try to drown him in the shallows’ then... shark eats Quint!
- Incredible sense of verisimilitude - everything feels real around the edges, mainly the day to day life in the town for the cop: he’s always got people whinging about karate students karate chopping people’s fences, and sitting in front of him at the beach whingeing about people parking in front of their shop, people make jokes at the town meeting about the reward being cash or cheque - it’s all grounded in reality which sells the outlandish story
- key change from the novel... where there’s a big subplot about the scientist having an affair with cop’s wife... now in terms of conflict this is good... you can see the scenes and the dramatic tension... but someone somewhere along the line went “let’s not do that because it overloads the script” and instead he gives the cop and wife a loving marriage (“want to fool around?”)... also it makes the cop and the scientist friends, and thus focuses the conflict between fisherman and scientist - I don’t think keeping the adultery subplot would have been fatal to the film but it would have robbed “Jaws” of much of its warmth... and I think would have been less popular (speculative theory: what is the difference between Spielberg and Scorsese? Scorsese would have kept the adultery subplot if he’d done Jaws).

Anyway thanks to Peter Benchley, Carl Gottleib, Howard Sackler and John Milius

Script review - "The Big Chill" by Lawrence Kasdan and Barbara Benedeck

 At one stage this film was a Big Deal. The Soundtrack sold like gangbusters. Became a short hand - a Big Chill type gathering. Didn't invent the format. Return of the Secauscus Seven. But also plays.

It's like a play. Kasdan and Benedeck keep it visual in a way - a funeral, a visit to a bar, chasing bats, differnent rooms, sex.

The dynamic of the friends is worked out well. I'll use character names:

- William Hurt - one of best characters. Flashy role. Drug addict, dealer. Doomed, Funny, Impotent. How is being with Meg Tilly going to make him better.

- Meg Tilly. Bad character on page and screen. Just dull. I know why she's there.

- Jeff Goldblum. Terrific character. I like how Mary Kay Place went out with him but it ended badly and no one really likes him and he's a vulture but funny. He felt real.

- Glenn Close and Kevin Kline. Decent people. Some adultery. They work. Grounded centre.

- Tom Berenger. Funny. Poor little rich guy. Radical, though? No one is really radical. Danny Peary thought they old out but I get the sense they were all middle class.

- JoBeth Williams. Very believable. The love for Berenger. Her essential mediocrity. 

The Big difference the script has... a flashback to the characters in 1972. Not in the film. Way too late to bring into the film. But what this does flesh out is:

* the toxic romantic relationship between Jo beth Williams and William Hurt and William Hurt and Mary Kay Place

* Tom Berenger's radicalism

Interesting. But even on the page - I'm trying not to be smart here - it didn't work.

Script review - "When Harry Met Sally" by Nora Ephron

 This was mocked on a podcast by two males making fun of the premise, but it does operate as a decent thesis and also is a film of its time. This material has been much mined since by TV. It copied a lot of Woody Allen, but does offer a female point of view. It also feels, well, Jewish, in its emphasis on the importance of being married. But it's simple yet effective, smart, two contrasting characters, and the plot develops logically. I'm not sure how long they'll last married -Harry's got too many issues.

Sidebar: Meg Ryan really made the film go next level. Billy Crystal is absolutely fine but I get the feeling a bunch of other stars could have played the role but Meg is the heart.

Script review - "Bros" by Billy Eichner & Nicholas Stoller

 A brilliant script. Bawdy, heartfelt, touching. Two really interesting characters - consservative bro and more flamboyant angry type - who have a genuine reason to be attracted yet also a genuine reason to stay apart (so hard to do). Brilliant satire of gay "community" - generation gap, inter-community divides. Funny support cast.

Script review - "Attack of the Crab Monsters" by Charles Griffith

 Not sure of the date of this. Mark Hanna's name left off it. Better than the film. Artfully structured. Spends more time on the romance. The film could've been longer. Probably could have indicated more where scenes were meant to be dragged out/full of romance/sexual tension. Also characters did blend in, there's a lot of them. But terrific script.

Script review - "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" by William Goldman (re-reading)

 A script of set pieces ending in a revearsal gag. Sundance's intro. The fight with Logan ending in the kick in the balls. Meeting Etta the reveal that he knows her. Train robbery sequence. Bike riding musical number. Etta's departure. Final shoot out. Some catch phrases don't land - "I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals" etc. In hindsight, wonderful material - two friends, time running out, manage to repeat the past, a woman comes along for both to be in love with and she's part of the gang giving it female appeal, moving ending.

Script review - "13 Lives" by William Nicholson

 They try not to make it a white saviour movie but it's about white heroes in the third world - that is unavoidable. This is still a gripping tale. I actually didn't know how they rescued the kids -this shows that. It's especially hard to watch as a dad seeing the kids be knocked out. I maybe thought they could have shown the unsuccessful rescues the leads took part in.

Script review - "Mr Horn" by William Goldman

 Goldman refers to this as a "bad experience" in his memoirs. It was filmed, as a TV movie. This script is better than that. I haven't done a comps analysis. This film is really good.

It's long - over 200 pages - and splits into two. I could see where it could be edited. You could get going with the story quicker. Sometimes Goldmans' prose is deceptive - you read it and go "wow this is a movie" but it doesn't necessarily play. But I think most of this would played.

It's in two parts. Part one is about the search for Geronimo, focusing on Horn's relationship with Al Sieber, and sub relationship with an officious army officer, plus the side bars of Crook and Miles. Part two is Horn as a bounty hunter/hired killer for the rich.

Lots of finicky changes in the TV movie. For instance, when Horn and Sieber first encounter Indians in the script it's at night and Horn senses Indians first before we see them. In the movie, we see a cut of the Indians and it's in the less scary day. It cuts a scene where Horn hears Geronimo's two lieutenants talking in Apache, unaware he can hear - this was a dumb cut. So too was reducing the stupidity of Lt Lawton. The suspense is reduced. Horn's achievement in the first battle is reduced. That sort of thing.

Script review - "The Yakuza" by Paul Schrader (warning: spoilers)

 Based on a novel by Leonard Schrader, says the cover page - I thought both were to work together. A great yarn. Interesting set up. Good star part for the old American soldier called back to Japan; flashy support roles for Dusty, the young Yank who goes with him, Tanner, the guy who calls in Tanner. Terrific co starring part for Tanaka Ken, the bass ass lone wolf who gets involved to his regret. 

There's a pace slump after the girl is rescued but it recovers. Lots of expositiony dialogue and interesting asides - easy to edit.