Writers Guild Names 101 Best Screenplays

The Writers Guild has announced the winners of the greatest screenplays ever. Among the ones that I thought were pretty good:

2. The GodFather
22. Shawshank Redemption
45. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
55. Apocalypse Now (The horror…)
61. Silence of the Lambs (All time favorite!)
89. Forrest Gump (Surprised that this didn’t score higher)
98. Grapes of Wrath

Now, here are a couple that I disagree with:

1. Cassablanca (Number one? Eh..I’m really going to hold my tongue here.)
16. Pulp Fiction (Good movie, but come on. How did this beat out Silence of the Lambs, Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption?)

I’ll stop there. There were a lot of great entries in this list. As to how some beat out others is beyond me. Now, remember, I’m basing most of my opinions on watching the movies, not the actual writing. We all know how big of a difference there is between the two.

Comments

[Jillian]

I have a girlfriend whose husband makes a living doing Forrest Gump impersonations around the country.

I kid you not.

And they named their son..... Forrest.

Yep.

And when Forrest's daddy is all rich and famous, I will be able to say I knew him when....

[1ConfusedWriter]

Hated Forrest Gump? Blasphemy! Actually, I think most of us made fun of Gump back in school. But damn, it's still a good story, at least that's what Mama always said... ;)

[Jillian]

Ahhhh...

20. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Absolutely! :)

AMADEUS made the cut, too....that was my all-time favorite movie of the 80's (saw it 3 times in the theatre -- that was before the days of DVDs for rent!).

Interesting post -- thanks!

[kalbzayn]

I think I'm one of only two people in America that hated Forest Gump. When I saw it we walked out at the end making fun of it before we realized that everybody else was in awe. Oh well.

[Jamie Ford]

This is a hard one. Especially since many screenplays are altered in the filmaking process. Are we to judge the finished movie then?

Casablanca? Great flick, but screenplay?

[1ConfusedWriter]

Oh yeah, no doubt about that. I've always agreed that writing (whether as a novel or screenplay) is most always better than the movie. This has got to be the reason why some of these made the top 101 list, while others didn't.

As far as free scripts/screenplays, I found a pretty good listing (if you can navigate it) over at:

http://www.script-o-rama.com

Mind you, I just found it, and I only looked through a few, so surf at your own risk. ;)

Vic

[Bryan D. Catherman]

Although the article says "best script," I have to question how much the movie that was made from it came into play. I'm sure there have been some really good scripts that were overlooked because the movie its self was so bad, and poor scripts that the movie or start power of the actor gave a boost.

Do you know a good location to read scripts in their original form on-line?