As a student of the screenwriting craft, I'm constantly looking for the best examples to learn from. Many of the best are films from the '60s, '70s, and '80s, reflecting those eras' Hollywood studio culture. The script, "September 5' co-written by Tim Fehlbaum, has been nominated for a 2024 Oscar for best original screenplay and is available online as a pdf. It is a fantastic read on many levels and conveys the moment-to-moment intensity of the ABC Sports producers and TV crews capturing the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, when it suddenly turned into a terrorist hostage crisis and the biggest news story on the planet.
The script works on many levels, including the technical challenges of dealing with the primitive video technology of the time, the commercial competitive fight over access to the new satellite feed, legal and moral issues broadcasting a potential mass murder event, and especially, the chaos of communicating between the English-speaking crews and the German authorities. One brilliant choice was to write the dialog for the German characters in German without the customary English with subtitles convention. This forces the script reader to wonder, like the audience, what are they saying and anticipate the translation from one pivotal character who translates either afterword or in parallel dialog blocks.
Of course, it helps to have a story that was based on true events and hours of video tape and interviews to research. The flow and pacing of this script "puts you in the room" and the action descriptions are concise and dynamic with just enough voice to add punch but not stand out. If you're looking for a great example of professional style and technique, "September 5" is a must read. I will be catching the film while it's still in theaters, although I only found it at Angelika and not any of the AMC theaters in San Diego.
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Thanks for the script rec, David B. Wright. I'm gonna check out SEPTEMBER 5.
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Agreed, read it the other night. It's a great example of how to do a chamber piece that doesn't feel like one by utilizing various screens and cycling through different points of view to constantly add conflict and context. Really great script
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Having now seen the film itself, I'm convinced this should have been nominated for Best Picture as well. It is as close to a perfect movie as you could hope for. I've seen all the other nominees and "September 5" tops them all.
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I'm sure it's a great script, but I do wonder how many people would be gushing over it if it wasn't nominated, and I wonder what the response would be if some unknown posted it for feedback on the likes of Reddit.