Oscar-Winning Screenwriters on Screenwriting: The Award-Winning Best in the Business Discuss Their Craft

Rating:
Summary: good stuff here
Review: The conversations with Alan Ball & Stephen Gaghan are especially nice, since these guys are fresh off the award show parade. I really appreciated their candor.

Rating:
Summary: good stuff here
Review: The conversations with Alan Ball & Stephen Gaghan are especially nice, since these guys are fresh off the award show parade. I really appreciated their candor.

Rating:
Summary: A motivational work, not a how-to
Review: This is not a book which will tell you how to write or market a screenplay. It will not discuss format, camera instructions, plotting, etc. It quite simply comprises extended interviews with eleven Oscar-winning screenwriters - men (and they're all men) who've given you "All the President's Men", "Bonnie and Clyde", "Rain Man", "Dances with Wolves", "Cider House Rules", "Dead Poets Society", "Cool Hand Luke", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Shakespeare in Love", "American Beauty", and many more ... plus innumerable television series up to and including "Six Feet Under". There's an intimacy to the book, as if you've eavesdropped on traded secrets.

Now, clearly, these guys are capable of writing a pretty good script ... but you've probably never heard their names before. That says a lot about the role of the contemporary writer. Much of the discussion in the book touches on their relative anonymity - the writer is indispensable but unwanted ... and good writers are unnoticed: actors and directors get the star credits ... the words seem to be a seamless medium through which the celebrities can demonstrate their skills.

The fascination of this book is in the stories these men tell. Joel Engel interviewed them, but their responses are written as long essays, each of the subjects exploring significant features of the screenwriter's craft.

Hollywood studios sanitise stories, make demands for happy endings, dumb down the overly sophisticated, endlessly search for a formula and scripts which are mere vehicles for named stars. There are engaging accounts of the struggle writers face in selling a script, the pressures they face to change it. The advice not to give up the day job comes shining through.

Many of these men come across as free spirits, outsiders, guys who have drifted, following their dreams. A number have clearly struggled long and hard before success came their way. A number present their writing as a therapeutic experience. It's a fascinating exploration of the mind of the screenwriter, supplemented by glorious little insights into particular films ... and occasional snippets of information which will help the would-be screenwriter avoid a mistake or two.

The major value of this book, its major success, is in providing you with inspirational models. Writing is a lonely business, fraught with rejection and failure. Reading about the struggles and tribulations of men who have succeeded is life-enhancing and inspiring. A very readable and enjoyable little volume, it will raise your spirits, bring a chuckle or two, and inspire you with ideas.

Rating:
Summary: very disappointed
Review: While the book is useful on a superficial level, the presentation is weak, and the first-person narrtive offered by the screenwriters sounds edited and forced. Much of the material offered here sounds gleened from published interviews, rather than directly from "the horse's mouth." As a chronic collector of books on, by, and for screewriters, I was very disappointed, both in the quality of the book (cheaply produced; poor quality paper, blurred printing) and by the lack of insight promised. There are many better books out there!

Rating:
Summary: very disappointed
Review: While the book is useful on a superficial level, the presentation is weak, and the first-person narrtive offered by the screenwriters sounds edited and forced. Much of the material offered here sounds gleened from published interviews, rather than directly from "the horse's mouth." As a chronic collector of books on, by, and for screewriters, I was very disappointed, both in the quality of the book (cheaply produced; poor quality paper, blurred printing) and by the lack of insight promised. There are many better books out there!