Balls and Walnuts
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Writers Guild of America’s top 101
Writers Guild of America, West, has published their ranking of the top 101 screenplays. Here’s the top 10:
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
I don’t have many quibbles with that list, until I look at the next ten. Suddenly, Annie Hall and Citizen Kane (fine cinematography — but a great screenplay?) seem out of place.
11. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
12. Dr. Strangelove
13. The Graduate
14. Lawrence of Arabia
15. The Apartment
16. Pulp Fiction
17. Tootsie
18. On the Waterfront
19. To Kill a Mockingbird
20. It’s a Wonderful Life
Dr. Strangelove, Lawrence of Arabia, The Graduate: each of these is, I think, more deserving of a top ten ranking. But Tootsie — how the hell did that even make it into the top 101? That movie is crap. It took an easy target (soap operas) and satirized it with all the edge of a wooden spoon. Moreover, the movie is sexist, since the basic premise is that Dustin Hoffman makes a better woman than all the other women who surround him. (Yeah, I know that’s not the party line on the movie — ‘Dustin Hoffman becomes a better man by pretending to be a woman,’ that’s the party line. But think about it. Am I wrong?)
I have lots of other quibbles with that list. The Maltese Falcon deserves to be higher than #47, for example, and there’s entirely too much Woody Allen. Also: The Silence of the Lambs? ET? Rocky? What were these guys thinking?
Go. Have a look. If you love movies, there will be plenty to spark your ire.
D.
“Pulp Fiction” could probably be moved down the list a few notches, don’t you think? Over “On the Waterfront”?
The best Brando line ever (delivered to Eva Marie Saint while she’s on the swingset):
“I don’t like the country…the crickets make me nervous.”
Agreed. As much as I like the “get medieval on his ass” line and the story’s unconventional chronology, I wouldn’t put Pulp Fiction in the top 20.
The weird ones on the list give me hope for my future screenplay – heh.
BTW, Doug, I accidently came across a way to get lots of people to visit one’s blog. I posted a link to one of the main experts on the gospel of Judas story and he listed everyone linked to his page … yesterday more people came to my blog in one hour than usually come in a week, from places like South Africa, Malaysia, Korea, Brazil, Croatia, etc 🙂
Thanks, Crystal. And I even have an angle: I can summarize Jorge Luis Borges’ story about Judas.
I’m sympathetic to the Gospel of Judas, since (as you know) I’m fond of Gnosticism.
Some gnostic stuff is interesting. I’ve read the gospel of Thomas – some neat sayings there.