filmlover Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 Here are the top ten: 1. "Casablanca" 2. "The Godfather" 3. "Chinatown" 4. "Citizen Kane" 5. "All About Eve" 6. "Annie Hall" 7. "Sunset Boulevard" 8. "Network" 9. "Some Like It Hot" 10. "The Godfather II" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 WGA is Writers Guild of America Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHaft Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 if this is what the WGA thinks are the ten best of ALL TIME, then i guess the list is emblematic of why screenplays are so lousy today. there are some good ones on here, but also some real clunkers. two godfather movies?? it's a fun franchise, but that's all it is. that's like saying a commercial for crest toothpaste deserves to be in the hall of fame. and casablanca as the best screenplay of all time? give me break. it's got one of the worst opening two minutes ever.... The Third Man (Graham Greene) isn't even on here!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 Oh, I can't let that go unchallenged. I think it is a great choice. Certainly no other script ever had more great lines. And don't be concerned. Third Man came in at around #33 or #38. That's still a nice little respectable number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeanddaisy666 Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Oh, bull dinkys. Godfather TWO over His Girl Friday? Phui. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Hmm.... I?ll have to think about this for a while. A screenplay is not the same as a ?movie?. I?m not sure if I?m qualified to judge the best ?screenplay.? That is almost like asking someone to judge the best fiction novel. I think Double Indemnity had an excellent screenplay. In fact, Hallelujah of 1929 had an excellent screenplay, and so did Sunset Boulevard. Out of the Past is pretty good. The Petrified Forest is fantastic. How about All Quiet on the Western Front, and Hell?s Angels, and Birth of A Nation? The Third Man has an excellent screenplay, but without all the great photography, fantastic lighting, and Dutch tilts, and without Welles and Cotton, it could have been turned into a very boring movie. Let?s see, what are the most famous lines of Casablanca? ?Play it Sam. I?m shocked SHOCKED! Here?s looking at you, kid.? While Double Indemnity had lines like, ?There was no way in all this world I could have known that murder sometimes can smell like honeysuckle...? and ?It sounds crazy, Keyes, but it's true, so help me: I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man.? In that movie, even the line, ?Accident insurance? Sure, Mrs. Dietrichson,? is quite brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Hey! What about Treasure of the Sierra Madre? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 Fred, try these lines from Casablanca: Rick: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Ilsa: No. Rick: Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life. Ilsa: But what about us? Rick: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have it, we'd lost it, until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night. Ilsa: And I said I would never leave you! Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Not now. Here's looking at you, kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I?ve heard similar smaltzy lines in hundreds of romance movies, especially in war movies. We must be brave, we can?t think about ourselves, sacrifice for the greater good, it?s a far far better thing I do now... etc., etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 Here's a link to the entire list: http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=1807 Treasure is #48, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I?m not saying it?s a bad screenplay, because it isn?t, but the perfect casting had a lot to do with that film?s success, and the excellent directing. If we switch out any of the cast, we could have a dud on our hands, even with the same screenplay. Suppose Orson Welles had played Rick and Katharine Hepburn had played Ilsa? Those same lines would sound pretty silly coming from them. The Big Sleep has a terrible screenplay, but the movie is great because of the actors and the director?s work with them. The Lady From Shanghai has a lousy screenplay, and the head actor (Welles) was too fat to play the romantic lead, but the director (Welles) and the other actors make that a fine film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 I agree with you, Fred, about everything just having worked in the film from casting to timing to music to everything, but the script is excellent in the way it was done. Proof of the script being terrific can also be seen in how many of the same cast were in Passage to Marseille but it just didn't have a great script. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Well, I'll agree with you on that. I can't even remember Passage to Marseille, although I think I've seen it a few times. Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 And there is one thing about this list, it was voted on only by screenwriters, so they should be considered experienced enough to choose well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHaft Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 oh, puh-lease. screenwriting for the last two decades has reached an all time low. hence, this list. i'm surprised they didn't put "doc hollywood" on there because of its opening weekend gross. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHaft Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Thank you, stoneyburke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 lol, 'course if someone we know had their say, it would be The Third Man from #1 through #100. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHaft Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 :-) I'm shocked -- shocked! -- to read this post.... (here are your winnings, sir...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I think they are confusing the scripts with the entire finished movie. Substitute other actors for this list and see what you get in Casablanca: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. How about Randolph Scott and Bette Davis in the lead roles? How about Jack Lemmon as the Nazi and Jack Webb as the police official? I think ?Invasion of the Body Snatchers? had one of the best film scripts ever, but it certainly took just the right actors and the right director to make it work. ?The Thing? had an excellent script, with the unusual overlapping dialogue. Another excellent screenplay was Battleground. That?s fer surr, that?s fer dang surr! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHaft Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 You are 100% right. And what a tantalizing image you paint in that alternative casting of Casablanca. I nearly spilled my grapefruit juice from laughter. Ironic that screenwriters would confuse the finished product with the raw materials....surprised there isn't more billy wilder on there, for instance. boy, could that guy write a screenplay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 lol. Billy Wilder has two scripts in the top 10. Three in the top 15. That's more than anybody else in that area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHaft Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 These lists are always pretty specious, anyway. Do you know anyone who agrees with the AFI's Top Films, for instance....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 No, I think this is a bit different. I have respect for writers because I am one. And I am sure a lot of them have also read many of the scripts, not just based it on the final film. But, of course, the final film will have a choice in the decision. As to AFI, my respect for the AFI lists went way down when they started asking politicians, etc. their choices and included them in it. Ah, well, I am delighted with Casablanca being chosen the best, and it is my favorite film, so everything is okay with the world as far as I am concerned. : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I think it may be less about the number of memorable lines in Casablanca as a testament to the tortured screenplay process the film went through. From "Everyone Comes to Ricks" to Rick's Cafe" to "Casablanca" , the screenplay was a daily work in progress with no one really knowing where the story was going and who Ilsa would end up with. Out of all that chaos, they crafted a film that sixty years later, people love, revere, still quote, and is the epitome of an American love story set in WW2. It may not amount to hill of beans, but most movies with the tortured production of Casablanca go on to be major league duds and find themselves on the worst movies of all times lists. Casablanca, however, became a cinematic masterpiece, a treasured American film and an Academy Award winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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