A Better Film List

When doing a list of greatest screenplays, essentially all you are doing is a list of greatest films. Evidence, this list compiled by the WGA.

The top ten is the usual suspects
1. Casablanca
2. The Godfather
3. Chinatown
4. Citizen Kane
5. All About Eve
6. Annie Hall
7. Sunset Blvd.
8. Network
9. Some Like It Hot
10. Godfather II

(what no Godfather III?)

The more interesting list to attempt to compile (especially from the perspective of working screenwriters) would be the list of best scripts ruined by crappy execution.

You can't make a great film without a great script, but can you turn a great script into a lousy film?

My five nominees for scripts that were probably much better than the films that ended up being made are as follows (not in order, and not necessarily the 'best' five examples of this effect, but they are the five that I could come up with off the top of my head).

The Hulk (Ang Lee director, John Turman, Michael France, James Schamus screenplay)
The film was a muddle, the script may have been the cause, but I suspect that the confluence of Ang Lee's ponderous direction and Eric Bana's lackluster portrayal doomed what could have been a fantastic comic book film into a less than exciting mess.

Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher director, Lee Batchler, Janet Scott Batchler, Akiva Goldsman screenplay)
Why isn't the far worse Batman & Robin on this list? Cause that script was as terrible as the rest of the film, whereas the script in this case had a modicum of potential and the ham-handed, godawful direction by the worst director (Lost Boys, excepted, that's a decent film) not named Uwe Boll lead to the craptacular crapatation that was this crappy excuse for a comic book film.

Artificial Intelligence: AI (Steven Spielberg director, Steven Spielberg screenplay)
How can I put a script by someone that directed the film on this list as a film that was screwed up by that same someone? It's the Stanley Kubrick effect. Stanley Kubrick had this picture on his 'to do' list for close to two decades, he was waiting for technology to catch up with his vision, and then when it did, Waterworld happened, and he fretted that the rising oceans prologue would cause audiences to equate the two pictures. So it sat and sat, and Kubrick died unexpectedly. Spielberg had developed a friendship with the great director and took it upon himself to realize Kubrick's vision. In so doing he created a script that for the most part feels like a Kubrick film, but the hackneyed, emotionally cloying director within Mr. Spielberg overtook and destroyed the screenwriter who was attempting to honor Kubrick. The picture that was made discredits both Spielberg and Kubrick (especially the coda, if you choose to watch this film, do yourself a favor and stop it 20 minutes before the end). This could have been a fantastic Kubrick picture, instead it was two thirds of a decent Spielberg picture, oh well.

1941 (Steven Spielberg director, Bob Zemeckis, Bob Gale screenplay)
What have I against Steven Spielberg? This film could have been a great, snarky masterpiece, the script has many great touches, but the direction is too big, and too broad. Sometimes smaller is better. Spielberg has no touch for comedy, he had a great cast, a fine script, and he turned what could have been riotous and dark into something that was far less than the sum of its parts. Reverse synergy at work. Imagine how much better this film would have been had John Landis (at the time still good) or Ivan Reitman, or Zemeckis himself had directed.

Mr. Deeds (Steven Brill director, Tim Herlihy screenplay)
It's probably a stretch to put this film on this list, but hey, it's off the top of my head, give me a break. Waterboy is a fantastic film, Herlihy can write well for Adam Sandler. So why was this film a boring mess? I blame the director. The source material was good, using Winona Ryder as the foil had potential, and Adam Sandler properly channeled can be funny, but this wasn't that. The tone was wrong and uneven, painful even. The timing was off, and in comedy timing is everything. Comedy is where you are most likely to find good scripts ruined by poor chemistry between the leads or poor timing from the director. I think this film possibly exemplifies that (though, it's also possible that this script is really as bad as this film was, and everyone else was doing the best they could).