Great Screenplays for Film Students to Study
Examples of Quality Scripts including Chinatown, BTTF and Unforgiven
Before writing a screenplay it’s wise to examine some of the great film scripts that are out there.
What Makes a Great Script?
Whilst opinions may differ on what makes a great scripts a common factor that exists between all successful screenplays is that they manage to combine plot, character and ideas so that they become and almost unified whole.
Chinatown (1974) written by Robert Towne
All budding filmmakers and writers will at some point be encouraged to watch and study Chinatown and for good reason. It seamlessly combines Plot, Character and Ideas in the context of what would be described as a classic film noir. Except of course, Towne, subverts some of the noir conventions. The most startling being the transformation of the supposed Femme Fatale Evelyn Mulray into the Heroine.
Chinatown is also one of the few films that successfully employs symbolism. Robert Towne weaves the central image of water and what it’s meanings re throughout the script.
Students should also examine how Robert Towne uses revelation to create movement in Chinatown. For more information on creating movement in Screenplays please read Defining Conflict in Screen and Play Writing.
Back to the Future (1985) written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis
BTTF is a underrated screenplay which has only recently begun to gain the recognition it deserves. It exemplifies what can be achieved in a movie screenplay that isn’t possible within a play script.
Students should study the excellent use of “cause and effect” in Back to the Future. Bob Gale manages to economise his script so much so that there is barely a wasted word within it. Every line of the script is somehow relevant to either the plot or central metaphor of time.
The final sequence is also superb example of how to write an exciting action scene.
Unforgiven (1992) written by David Webb Peoples
In Unforgiven washed up gunslinger William Munny decides to go on one last job to earn some money to support his family and finds himself sucked back into the brutal world of violence and murder he has tried so hard to escape.
Unforgiven Screenwriter David Peoples already had a track record of being a great script writer because of his previous work on films like Bladerunner. Unforgiven is an outstanding script because it cleverly uses the genre conventions of the Western to question the nature of violence both in a cinematic and cultural context.
For more great articles on screenwriting please read the Writing for Stage and Screen Homepage and Defining Three Act Structure in Screen and Play Writing.
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