Before I Forget
My Pre-Oscar Movie... Thing: Part Two
Having awarded Star Wars best achievement in visual effects in the history of everything, I now move on to a less technical category, mainly because I can't be bothered writing stuff up on the wonders of movie make-up and sound editing.
Best Original Screenplay
Unlike the visual effects category, there's no doubt in my mind that one era can be fairly compared to another when you're talking about the quality of original ideas and writing. So here, once again, are my picks.
Winner:
Ernest Lehman, North By Northwest (1959)
Nominees:
Alan Ball, American Beauty (1999)
Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction (1994)
Dan O'Bannon, Alien (1979)
David S. Ward, The Sting (1973)
Others Considered:
Charlie Kaufman, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Charlie Kaufman, Adaptation (2002)
Richard Kelly, Donnie Darko (2001)
Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich (1999)
Paul Thomas Anderson, Magnolia (1999)
Joel & Ethan Coen, The Big Lebowski (1998)
Vincenzo Cerami & Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful (1997)
Joel & Ethan Coen, Fargo (1996)
Chrisopher McQuarrie, The Usual Suspects (1995)
Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale, Back To The Future (1985)
Lawrence Kasdan, Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
George Lucas, Star Wars (1977)
Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones & Michael Palin, Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975)
Robert Towne, Chinatown (1974)
Orson Welles & Herman Mankiewicz, Citizen Kane (1941)
I went with one of the few oldies in this category. Alien is the pinnacle of cinematic horror and its characters are so realistic that they're the type of people you might actually run into on the street if they hadn't been torn to pieces. American Beauty is funny, beautiful and tragic. Pulp Fiction and The Sting are brilliant slices of entertainment. But what makes North By Northwest's script so terrific is that it's so fresh and original to watch even today - 45 or so years on. It's a thrilling adventure, an intriguing mystery, comical entertainment - and features THAT crop-duster scene you may have seen a clip of or seen spoofed (as it has been thousands of times). You know, the one with the the plane shooting down at the guy running alongside the wheat fields and then swooping over him? Anyway, this is my favourite Hitchcock film and while the movie itself doesn't quite rank in my Top 10 I firmly believe nonetheless that in terms of writing there has never been an original script like it.
Having awarded Star Wars best achievement in visual effects in the history of everything, I now move on to a less technical category, mainly because I can't be bothered writing stuff up on the wonders of movie make-up and sound editing.
Best Original Screenplay
Unlike the visual effects category, there's no doubt in my mind that one era can be fairly compared to another when you're talking about the quality of original ideas and writing. So here, once again, are my picks.
Winner:
Ernest Lehman, North By Northwest (1959)
Nominees:
Alan Ball, American Beauty (1999)
Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction (1994)
Dan O'Bannon, Alien (1979)
David S. Ward, The Sting (1973)
Others Considered:
Charlie Kaufman, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Charlie Kaufman, Adaptation (2002)
Richard Kelly, Donnie Darko (2001)
Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich (1999)
Paul Thomas Anderson, Magnolia (1999)
Joel & Ethan Coen, The Big Lebowski (1998)
Vincenzo Cerami & Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful (1997)
Joel & Ethan Coen, Fargo (1996)
Chrisopher McQuarrie, The Usual Suspects (1995)
Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale, Back To The Future (1985)
Lawrence Kasdan, Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
George Lucas, Star Wars (1977)
Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones & Michael Palin, Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975)
Robert Towne, Chinatown (1974)
Orson Welles & Herman Mankiewicz, Citizen Kane (1941)
I went with one of the few oldies in this category. Alien is the pinnacle of cinematic horror and its characters are so realistic that they're the type of people you might actually run into on the street if they hadn't been torn to pieces. American Beauty is funny, beautiful and tragic. Pulp Fiction and The Sting are brilliant slices of entertainment. But what makes North By Northwest's script so terrific is that it's so fresh and original to watch even today - 45 or so years on. It's a thrilling adventure, an intriguing mystery, comical entertainment - and features THAT crop-duster scene you may have seen a clip of or seen spoofed (as it has been thousands of times). You know, the one with the the plane shooting down at the guy running alongside the wheat fields and then swooping over him? Anyway, this is my favourite Hitchcock film and while the movie itself doesn't quite rank in my Top 10 I firmly believe nonetheless that in terms of writing there has never been an original script like it.
posted by Steve @ 2:04 PM
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