Francis Ford Coppola, who directed the film and rewrote scenes constantly during the shoot;
Marlon Brando, who disliked the draft he was sent and improvised much of his dialogue.
There can, of course, be no real answer – just as it is impossible to determine creative authorship for a jazz recording whose chord sequence is traditional, but whose performance is the result of every player’s talents.
What Coppola understood above all is that in the hands of a truly visionary director, ‘writing’ is a process that transcends the actual words of the shooting script. Every stage he supervises is transformative, from the initial collaboration with (co)writers to discussions with production designers about mise-en-scène and the casting of actors who may want to improvise their own dialogue. Film editing of imagery as well as dialogue can radically reshape the way the story unfolds.
Although when credits roll it seems clear who is responsible for the screenplay, the actual truth is often murkier. Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams, 1989) warns: ‘No one can trust a writing credit. Nobody knows who really wrote the film.’ Remarkably few projects are taken from inception to delivery by a sole author; directors, producers and actors (depending on their power) may all contribute to changes in the story, although it is rare for any of them to demand acknowledgement since their job is understood to involve a degree of influence. The process of attribution is trickier when a writer is brought in to make substantial changes to earlier drafts – and trickier still when others are added to the mix.
The opening titles for The Wizard of Oz (1939) list the following:
Screenplay: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf
Adaptation: Noel Langley
Based on the book by: L. Frank Baum
The Internet Movie Database lists a further thirteen uncredited contributing writers, including the poet Ogden Nash and the Oscar-winning Herman J. Mankiewicz; at one point Langley, Nash and Mankiewicz were all working on the film at the same time without knowing the others had been hired. The other two formally credited authors, Ryerson and Woolf, were brought on board much later to bring the other drafts closer to L. Frank Baum’s original novel.
Today, the Writers Guild of America has clear guidelines for settling disputes, which affect not only credits but residual payments (royalties) and eligibility for awards. Between 1993 and 1997, they supervised 415 arbitrations – roughly a third of all films submitted.
2000 REMEMBER THE TITANS
An American football coach takes his racially mixed team on a training run to a Civil War battlefield.
HERMAN
Anybody know what this place is? This is Gettysburg. This is where they fought the battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fightin’ the same fight that we’re still fightin’ amongst ourselves today. This green field right here, painted red, bubblin’ with the blood of young boys. Smoke and hot lead pourin’ right through their bodies. Listen to their souls, men. I killed my brother with malice in my heart. Hatred destroyed my family. You listen, you take a lesson from the dead. If we don’t come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed just like they were. I don’t care if you like each other right now, but you will respect each other. And maybe — I don’t know, maybe we’ll learn to play this game like men.
Dir: Boaz Yakin • Scr: Gregory Allen Howard • Cast: Denzel Washington (Herman Boone)
2002 CHICAGO
A woman awaiting trial for murder explains how she found her husband’s body.
VELMA
My sister Veronica and I had this double act, and my husband Charlie travelled around with us. Now for the last number in our act, we did these twenty acrobatic tricks in a row. One, two, three, four, five, splits, spread-eagles, backflips, flip-flops, one right after the other. So this one night before the show, we’re down at the Hotel Cicero. The three of us boozin’, having a few laughs. And we ran out of ice, so I go out to get some. I come back. . . open the door. . . and there’s Veronica and Charlie, doing number seventeen: the Spread-eagle. Well, I was in such a state of shock I completely blacked out, I can’t remember a thing. It wasn’t until later when I was washing the blood off my hands I even knew they were dead.
Dir: Rob Marshall • Scr: Bill Condon • Based on a musical by Bob Fosse, Fred Ebb and a play by Maurine Dallas Watkins • Cast: Catherine Zeta-Jones (Velma Kelly)
Renée Zellweger had no singing or dancing training prior to this film; Catherine Zeta-Jones cut her hair into a bob so her face would always be visible, proving that she never used stand-ins for the complicated choreography.
2004 BEFORE SUNSET
Jesse tells an old lover how he feels about his marriage.
JESSE
I feel like I’m running a small nursery with someone I used to date.
Dir: Richard Linklater • Scr: Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Kim Krizan • Cast: Ethan Hawke (Jesse)
2004 CRASH
Graham, an African-American, and Ria, a Latino woman, make love. The telephone rings. Frustrated, Graham answers the phone.
GRAHAM
Mom, I can’t talk to you right now, okay? I’m having sex with a white woman.
He hangs up. Ria gets out of bed.
GRAHAM
OK, where were we?
RIA
I was white, and you were about to jerk off in the shower.
GRAHAM
Oh, shit. Come on. I would have said you were Mexican, but I don’t think it would have pissed her off as much.
RIA
Why do you keep everybody a certain distance, huh? What, you start to feel something and panic?
GRAHAM
Come on, Ria. You’re just pissed ’cause I answered the phone.
RIA
That’s just where I begin to get pissed. I mean, really, what kind of man speaks to his mother that way, huh?
GRAHAM
Oh, this is about my mother. What do you know about my mother?
RIA
If I was your father, I’d kick your fucking ass.
GRAHAM
OK, I was raised badly. Why don’t you take your clothes off, get back into bed, and teach me a lesson?
RIA
You want a lesson? I’ll give you a lesson. How ’bout a geography lesson? My father’s from Puerto Rico. My mother’s from El Salvador. Neither one of those is Mexico.
GRAHAM
Ah. Well then I guess the big mystery is, who gathered all those remarkably different cultures together and taught them all how to park their cars on their lawns?
Dir: Paul Haggis • Scr: Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco • Cast: Don Cheadle (Detective Graham Waters), Jennifer Esposito (Ria)
2004 ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Joel tells his girlfriend he fears the spark has disappeared from their relationship.
JOEL
Are we like couples you see in restaurants? Are we the dining dead?
Dir: Michel Gondry • Scr: Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman, Pierre Bismuth • Cast: Jim Carrey (Joel Barish)
The film’s title is taken from the poem by Alexander Pope about two devoted lovers, Eloisa to Abelard: ‘How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.’
2005 MR & MRS SMITH
A married couple — both contract killers — discover they have both been hired to murder the other.
JOHN
We have an unusual problem here, Jane. You obviously want me dead, and I’m less and less concerned for your well-being.
Dir: Doug Liman • Scr: Simon Kinberg • Cast: Brad Pitt (John Smith)
2008 IN BRUGES
Two hit-men waiting for an assignment in Bruges find the excitements of the city are quickly exhausted.
KEN
We shall strike a balance between culture and fun.
RAY
Somehow,
Ken, I believe that the balance shall tip in the favour of culture, like a big fat fucking retarded fucking black girl on a see-saw.
Dir: Martin McDonagh • Scr: Martin McDonagh • Cast: Brendan Gleeson (Ken), Colin Farrell (Ray)
2008 REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
Frank and April dream of rekindling their passion for life until Frank confesses he has been unfaithful.
APRIL
No one forgets the truth, Frank. They just get better at lying.
Dir: Sam Mendes • Scr: Justin Haythe • Based on a novel by Richard Yates • Cast: Kate Winslet (April Wheeler)
2010 THE KING’S SPEECH
A speech therapist tries to cure the reluctant king of his stammer.
LOGUE
Would I lie to a prince of the realm to win twelve pennies?
GEORGE VI
I have no idea what an Australian might do for that sort of money.
Dir: Tom Hooper • Scr: David Seidler • Cast: Geoffrey Rush (Lionel Logue), Colin Firth (King George VI)
The film contains seventeen uses of the word ‘fuck’ and was originally given a 15 certificate.
The producers wanted a less restrictive rating; after some negotiation the expletives remained but the certificate was relaxed to 12A with the bizarre warning ‘contains strong language in a speech therapy context’.
The First World War setting of The African Queen seems almost peaceful compared with the skirmishes between a gin-swilling Humphrey Bogart and a Bible-toting Katharine Hepburn.
The elegant set and costume design in John Boorman’s Point Blank (1967) only serve to heighten its icy violence.
The timeless wartime romance of Casablanca showed Ingrid Bergman at her most beautiful and Humphrey Bogart in perhaps his tenderest role.
Love
1936 THE PETRIFIED FOREST
ALAN
Any woman’s worth everything that any man has to give: anguish, ecstasy, faith, jealousy, love, hatred, life or death. Don’t you see that’s the whole excuse for our existence? It’s what makes the whole thing possible and tolerable.
Dir: Archie Mayo • Scr: Charles Kenyon, Delmer Daves • Based on a play by Robert E. Sherwood • Cast: Leslie Howard (Alan Squier)
1939 THE WIZARD OF OZ
Dorothy says goodbye to her companions as she returns home to Kansas.
DOROTHY
Goodbye, Tinman. Oh, don’t cry! You’ll rust so dreadfully. Here’s your oil can.
TIN MAN
Now I know I’ve got a heart, ’cause it’s breaking.
Dir: Victor Fleming • Scr: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf • Based on a novel by L. Frank Baum • Cast: Judy Garland (Dorothy Gale), Jack Haley (Tin Man)
1942 CASABLANCA
Rick tries to persuade Ilsa she must flee Casablanca with her husband.
RICK
Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you’re getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.
ILSA
But, Richard, no, I. . . I...
RICK
Now, you’ve got to listen to me! You have any idea what you’d have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we’d both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn’t that true, Louie?
CAPTAIN RENAULT
I’m afraid Major Strasser would insist.
ILSA
You’re saying this only to make me go.
RICK
I’m saying it because it’s true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You’re part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
ILSA
But what about us?
RICK
We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have. . . we’d lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
ILSA
When I said I would never leave you.
RICK
And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.
Ilsa is crying now.
Now, now...
He lifts her face and holds her gaze.
Here’s looking at you, kid.
Dir: Michael Curtiz • Scr: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch • Based on a play by Murray Burnett, Joan Alison • Cast: Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine), Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund), Claude Rains (Captain Louis Renault)
The Naked Gun (1988) contains a hommage to the classic line: ‘It’s a topsy-turvy world, and maybe the problems of two people don’t amount to a hill of beans. But this is our hill. And these are our beans!’
1946 A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (AKA STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN)
A radio operator receives a message from a stricken bomber pilot.
JUNE
Are you receiving me? Repeat, are you receiving me? Request your position. Come in, Lancaster.
PETER
You seem like a nice girl. I can’t give you my position, instruments gone, crew gone too — all except Bob here, my sparks, he’s dead. The rest all bailed out on my orders, time 03.35. Did you get that?
JUNE
Crew bailed out 03.35.
PETER
Station Warrenden, bomber group A, G George, send them a signal. Got that?
JUNE
Station Warrenden, bomber group A apple, G George.
PETER
They’ll be sorry about Bob — we all liked him.
JUNE
Hello, G George, hello G George, are you all right? Are you going to try to land? Do you want a fix?
PETER
Name’s not G George, it’s P Peter — Peter D. Carter. D’s for David, Squadron Leader Peter Carter. No, I’m not going to land — undercarriage is gone, inner port’s on fire. I’m bailing out presently. I’m bailing out.
JUNE
Received your message, we can hear you. Are you wounded? Repeat, are you wounded? Are you bailing out?
PETER
What’s your name?
JUNE
June.
PETER
Yes June, I’m bailing out. I’m bailing out but there’s a catch — I’ve got no parachute.
JUNE
Hello, hello Peter — do not understand. Hello Peter, can you hear me?
PETER
Hello June, don’t be afraid. It’s quite simple, we’ve had it and I’d rather jump than fry. After the first thousand feet what’s the difference? I shan’t know anything anyway. I say, I hope I haven’t frightened you.
JUNE
No, I’m not frightened.
PETER
Good girl.
JUNE
Your sparks, you said he was dead — hasn’t he got a chute?
PETER
Cut to ribbons — cannon shell.
Pause.
June? Are you pretty?
JUNE
She sounds surprised.
Not bad, I...
PETER
Can you hear me as well as I can hear you?
JUNE
Yes.
PETER
You’ve got a good voice. You’ve got guts too. It’s funny, I’ve known dozens of girls — I’ve been in love with some of them, but it’s an American girl whom I’ve never seen and never shall see who’ll hear my last words — it’s funny, it’s rather sweet. June, if you’re around when they pick me up, turn your head away —
JUNE
Perhaps we can do something, Peter, let me report it.
PETER
No, no one can help, only you. Let me do this in my own way. I want to be alone wi
th you, June. Where were you born?
JUNE
Boston.
PETER
Mass.?
JUNE
Yes.
PETER
That’s a place to be born, history was made there. Are you in love with anybody? No, no, don’t answer that.
JUNE
I could love a man like you, Peter.
PETER
I love you, June — you’re life, and I’m leaving you. Where do you live? On the station?
JUNE
No, in a big country house about five miles from here — Lee Wood House.
PETER
Old house?
JUNE
Yes, very old.
PETER
Good, I’ll be a ghost and come and see you. You’re not frightened of ghosts, are you? It would be awful if you were.
JUNE
I’m not frightened.
PETER
What time will you be home?
JUNE
Well, I’m on duty until six. I have breakfast in the mess and then I have to cycle half an hour. I often go along the sands. . . this is such nonsense.
PETER
No it’s not, it’s the best sense I’ve ever heard. I was lucky to get you, June. Can’t be helped about the parachute — I’ll have my wings soon anyway, big white ones. I hope they haven’t gone all modern — I’d hate to have a prop instead of wings. What do you think the next world’s like? I’ve got my own ideas —
JUNE
She interrupts him.
Oh, Peter —
PETER
I think it starts where this one leaves off, or where this one could leave off if we’d listened to Plato and Aristotle and Jesus. With all our little earthly problems solved, but with greater ones worth the solving. I’ll know soon enough anyway. I’m signing off now June, goodbye. Goodbye, June.
All the Best Lines Page 9