Screenwriting : Best script ever by Martina Cook

It depends on what kind of script I want to write. If I'm writing a dark comedy, I'd aspire to something like "In Bruges". If it's a horror comedy, I'd aspire to something like "An American Werewolf in London". If I'm writing a gritty thriller, I'm thinking of "Se7en". An ideal gritty western is "The Proposition", while an ideal romanticized Western is "Tombstone". And so on.

"All about Eve" is a great film. I've screened it several times. (Always look forward to the Marilyn Monroe cameo.) I've always enjoyed Mankiewicz' follow up too, People Will Talk, but Eve was lightning in a bottle good. I guess I wish I'd written Casablanca the most. Or North by Northwest. Or Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Oh, I could go on.

Kyle, interesting that you mentioned In Bruges... I just watched it yesterday and revisited it again this morning.

Ah! Casablanca! Another of my favourite. "In Bruges" is a great movie.

Love Billy Wider too!

Breaker Morant!

Depends on the genre, but my short list includes La Strada, Dr. Strangelove, On the Waterfront, Guys and Dolls, Pocketful of Miracles, The Producers, The Exorcist, Glengarry Glen Ross, Sweet Charity, As Good As It Gets, Nights of Cabiria, Pulp Fiction, Blue Velvet, Cinema Paridiso, Silence of the Lambs, The Godfather, Enemy of the State, Psycho, and U-Turn.

The Hurt Locker is high on my list along with Jaws. I'm mostly impressed by the braiding of the multiple story lines.

Aliens from a writing execution point of view.

Back to the Future.

Mel Brooks "History of the World"

I'm inclined to just name some of my favorite films:

Casablanca, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, English version of Cinema Paradiso

Too many to list but maybe The Shawshank Redemption. For a less known one, perhaps Snow Falling on Cedars. Blade Runner was pretty good (all revisions).

In Bruges was brilliant. I aim for "No Country For Old Men" which I felt was absolute poetry.

Also Sling Blade, great combination of drama, humor and human tragedy. Also great supporting performances by JT Walsh, John Ritter and Dwight Yoakam.

Ah Sling Blade. That movie broke my heart.

In Bruges WAS brilliant! I do have to agree, "No Country" set the bar so high. It's the Coen's best film hands down.

Did you ever see the short film that Sling Blade is based on - Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade? Molly Ringwald plays the reporter interviewing Karl. But that is a great example of how a writer (Billy Bob Thornton) worked hard to get his project made, and went on to have a long career as a result.

The Usual Suspects and Seven...

Anything written by the Bolt brothers.

I'm an 80s movie watcher and of course script reader. I love the Breakfast Club and 16 Candles...back when movies were simple.

A Man For All Seasons. The Bolt brothers were the Coen's of the 50's/60's.

That's a great question, Martina. Nick, I too love In Bruge....but Cormac McCarthy should have been given the Oscar for best adapted for No Country because the Cohen's lifted the film right off the pages, verbatim in some cases. Because they're filming their own scripts, most of them make no sense. FARGO is unreadable. It's shit on the page, but brilliant on the screen. In contrast, reading Ondaje's The English Patient ( a tour de force) and seeing how Minghella (spent two years) reimagining that work into a film, was an achievement like few others. Dylan once said that some songs couldn't have been written by human beings. He cited Tupalo Honey as an example. Some films couldn't have been written by human beings....I cite The Deer Hunter as one example (FWIW), The Pawnbroker as another. What impresses me the most in books or film is daring and authenticity. In recent years, WINTER'S BONE has few peers by that measure (Hawkes performance still haunts me), in my opinion; and Heath's performance as the Joker will stand for all time. I was asked to write about that performance for the NYT's...it weren't easy to come up with the words. And you can't count out CHINATOWN. I have a little saying -- in this industry, even if you're very very very lucky and committed 100%, you only get one Chinatown. Even if your name is Robert Towne. Just one. And if you get that one, then one is enough.

LA Confidential and Chinatown.

Chinatown? The Kurt Russell movie?

No, the Jack Nicholson noir classic

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/?ref_=nv_sr_1

You are thinking of Big Trouble in Little China

Yes Anthony thanks, but I was being fuh-see-shush (no way I can spell that correctly). I was mocking those who say they love movies but have no clue. We all have a cousin or uncle or something that says they are movie buffs and then you ask them their favorite and it's some piece of crap. I applaud you for correcting me so kindly. You have good manners.

Don't see a single movie mentioned that doesn't belong on a list of the best of the best. Something to be gleaned from every one. So many genres, so many flicks....

Does anyone else feel kinda fanciful when you say the word "genre"? I like to pretend I'm holding a glass of wine at a Gatsby party and then over exaggerate the word with a Kelsey Grammer like tone.

The above comment is an example of why I shy away from live pitching.