Great Writing In TV And Film

[ian.64]

Most times, a film or TV series lives or dies by the quality of its writing, and credit must be given to those writers whose words (and the panache and imagination with which they're conveyed) fill schmucks like me with envy. For instance, Steven Moffatt's writing for Doctor Who can irritate a lot of people, but I find myself being impressed by swift, witty bits and bobs that wouldn't be out of place in better scripts.

Some (slightly obvious) candidates for the Blimey, That's Impressive Award:

Dalton Trumbo for his crisp, literate script for Spartacus.

Robert Bolt for Lawrence of Arabia. David Lean's direction is achingly beautiful, but Bolt's screenplay manages to gather up the potentially messy sprawl of an epic and channel it into a clear, controlled character piece. Not one word seems wasted, while every other hits home.

I'd give a nod for Amy Jump's script for A Field In England. I've only seen it once, and while it both confounded and impressed me in equal measure, I found myself similarly impressed by a script that didn't go the theatrical medieval-sounding route and instead went for a feel of earthy, characterful tone.

Jack Pulman for I, Claudius. Come on, an old, old favourite of mine and I'm biased that way, but upon every return to it, it's clear that Pulman's writing is the star of the show. Portentousness at a barely-noticed minimum, genius at full power.

Yep, I probably shove these usual suspects in most 'Best Of' thread lists, but enough of my flannel - your choices?

[Snake Plissken]

Great Writing In TV And Film

Die Hard. Seriously, the writing in Die Hard is among the best movie writing ever.

[ian.64]

Great Writing In TV And Film

I can understand that, because Die Hard was the highpoint of the Joel Silver action juggernaut and the script was almost a textbook of action genre one-liners and smart-ass dialogue that worked wonders. To that extent, I'd give a nod to the original Predator, whose testosterone-heavy dialogue turned into - in my opinion - a witty pisstake of macho behaviour.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Great Writing In TV And Film

Very little film — and less TV — writing is the work of a single hand. Often it's hard to know who should get the credit, as opposed to who does.

Given that, I'd credit Matthew Weiner for being the creator and principle writer of Mad Men. Which will surely stand as one the most significant writerly productions in this, so-called, "golden-age" of long-form TV.

The rest come from, maybe the equivalent period, in Hollywood.

Dashiell Hammett & John Huston for The Maltese Falcon

Ben Hecht & Charles Lederer for His Girl Friday

Preston Sturges for The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Anita Loos, Charles Lederer & Joseph Fields Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

One relative latecomer:

Robert Towne Chinatown

[Lucia Lanigan]

Great Writing In TV And Film

ian.64 wrote: I'd give a nod for Amy Jump's script for A Field In England. I've only seen it once, and while it both confounded and impressed me in equal measure, I found myself similarly impressed by a script that didn't go the theatrical medieval-sounding route and instead went for a feel of earthy, characterful tone.

Ooh yeah, good call. Part of why I enjoyed that film so much is the familiarity of the feel of the dialogue. I don't know if that's an East Anglian thing or something universal.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Great Writing In TV And Film

snakeplissken wrote: Die Hard. Seriously, the writing in Die Hard is among the best movie writing ever.

This too. Whenever something goes off at work, I think or say (depending on the company), "The Mayor is gonna have my ass!"

[Lucia Lanigan]

Great Writing In TV And Film

I do think the best writing is probably invisible in TV and film, probably partly for the reasons Amor raises. There's been a tendency in the last couple of decades, perhaps ushered in by Tarantino's success, to make every line a "line", often at the expense of the overall tone of a piece. Zombieland was the last one I saw where I thought, "Stop telling me what you're doing and just do it."

For one-person writing and line-for-line value, though, I don't think you can beat Withnail & I. It's so concentrated, original and completely free of smarm. Treats its audience as its equal, trusts its events and characters to tug your heartstrings.

[Tony C]

Great Writing In TV And Film

Two of the finest examples I instinctively refer to when considering the writing of great story, characterization and dialogue in film are the Coen Brothers' 'Miller's Crossing' and Diablo Cody's sensationally good 'Juno' screenplay.

I think Aaron Dorkin has run out of fashion now, but his work on 'West Wing' shouldn't be underestimated.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Great Writing In TV And Film

I'd put The Big Lebowski up there with Withnail too, although there isn't the same emotional connection.

[Bored Of Education]

Great Writing In TV And Film

Just to put here that the greatest line ever was:

"The old man was right. Only the farmers won. We lost. We always lose"

[ian.64]

Great Writing In TV And Film

I'd chuck in Walon Green and Deric Washburn's The Wild Bunch as a good example of finely-written, unsentimental, hard-ass Western scripting. Melancholy humanity reveals itself as the film progresses, thanks to that dialogue. And it remains Peckinpah's finest couple of hours.

Ernest Lehman's North By Northwest, meanwhile, balances comedy and thriller elements so perfectly it continues to stand the test of time effortlessly.

I'd endorse the Coen brothers' work, too. I have to admit that there are times when they, frankly, bloody irritate me, but their style of scripting - which is wholly unlike any conventional scriptwriting - does catch the ear in a strange and fascinating way.

[Tony C]

Great Writing In TV And Film

Indeed, Ian, the Coen's have always veered from the sublime to the ridiculous, but I think with 'Miller's Crossing' they hit the jackpot.

As concerns Stoppard, his screenplay for 'Shakespeare In Love' is a wonderful piece of work also.

[Snake Plissken]

Great Writing In TV And Film

ian.64 wrote: I can understand that, because Die Hard was the highpoint of the Joel Silver action juggernaut and the script was almost a textbook of action genre one-liners and smart-ass dialogue that worked wonders. To that extent, I'd give a nod to the original Predator, whose testosterone-heavy dialogue turned into - in my opinion - a witty pisstake of macho behaviour.

Predator is one, but Die Hard is just so many light years ahead of most action films. It is the character beats, like the look of disgust on Rickmans face when he spots his henchmen paying off a bet, the way small things become big (McLeans wife covering the photograph, the bloke on the plane telling McLean to take his socks off), the battle of wits between Gruber and McLean. So, so good.

Anyway, one show that I've always loved the writing in is Due South. The first season culminated in an absolute gut punch of a double header, and one that was hinted at in an earlier episode with a comedic punchline. In between we some standout moments - Ray vs his childhood bully, Ray and the FBI cop - which showed that it was about characters you cared about rather than big scary situations.

Although it never quite kept up the quality over four seasons, it still had flashes of brilliance. The way Ray is killed off for Fake Ray is an object lesson in resetting a situation mid-series.

While I'm at it, Firefly. Specifically "Out of Gas", which ends with a visual punchline that had me just yelling in delight.

[Patrick Thistle]

Great Writing In TV And Film

Oh, yeah, Firefly has some great lines.

The absolute stand out one.

Commander Harken: "Seems odd you'd name your ship after a battle you were on the wrong side of."

Captain Reynolds: "May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

[matt j]

Great Writing In TV And Film

Mitchell Hurwitz and company did such a good job on Arrested Development, that there are probably jokes still to be discovered.

Having just watched it today, I have to give a lot of credit to the writers of the 1935 Tale of Two Cities, quite a lot of good biting lines for the character actors, and Ronald Colman gets quite a lot of choice stuff to work with.

" He's going to pay the forfeit. In just a few minutes, it'll be paid. Let him be at peace. "

Also, (nearly) every Preston Sturges film qualifies here. The Lady Eve for instance:

"You see, Hopsi, you don't know very much about girls. The best ones aren't as good as you probably think they are and the bad ones aren't as bad. Not nearly as bad. "

[ian.64]

Great Writing In TV And Film

To switch tone utterly and completely, I've been watching reruns of A Bit Of Fry And Laurie (yeah, Gold, stick them on at midnight, why don't you?) and can honestly say that some of the comic writing on display is up there with the best. The framework of sketches is deceptively mundane yet gives rein to some blinding dialogue and wordplay the quality of which may never be visited again. It only suffers at times from the age-old problem of how to end sketches and some just meander a little, but the writing (and the performances of National Treasure and House) compensate wonderfully.

I've often thought that Fry and Laurie should come back and do a genuine one-off, but in sketches that acknowledge the passing years since they performed together. More Peter and John, sure, but Peter and John aged and greying and still demonstrating their go-getting cluelessness before a commons committee investigating strange financial shenanigans in the fiscal powerhouse that is Uttoxeter.

[Ginger Yellow]

Great Writing In TV And Film

Whedon in general is a good shout. He's not to everyone's taste, it seems, but there's no denying his films and TV shows are packed with "swift, witty bits and bobs".

My favourite Firefly (technically Serenity) line: "This is your captain speaking. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then... explode." But there are so many.

[Thierry Ennui]

Great Writing In TV And Film

ian.64 wrote: Robert Bolt for Lawrence of Arabia. David Lean's direction is achingly beautiful, but Bolt's screenplay manages to gather up the potentially messy sprawl of an epic and channel it into a clear, controlled character piece. Not one word seems wasted, while every other hits home.

This is precisely what makes Lawrence such a brilliant film. On the one hand you've got a colossal epic guided by Lean, but on the other you've got a script that allows for a tight character study chronicling Lawrence's emotional struggle.

The best example for me of (fairly) recent years is The Sopranos. Nobody has ever perfected naturalistic dialogue in any medium like David Chase and company managed to. It's also uproariously funny, which certainly helps.