There is no ‘right’ answer except the one that you feel makes it ‘play’. Makes it ‘work’ as a movie! “(I am smiling as I wrote that last sentence because you probably think I know how [the scene should go from here]. And the truth is: not a clue.)” This work is fascinating, but it's only about a third writing manual. It's really three books: 1) a witty and insightful skewering of Hollywood, 2) personal stories from the trenches about each of Goldman's pre 1982 films, 3) the Butch Cassidy screenplay, discussions of its strengths and weaknesses, and an adaption of a short story into a screenplay. Adventure' pissed off tons of big movie people and pretty much fizzled out his career. Goldman went from writing the big ones like All the President's Men and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to not much of anything. That he wrote this second book anyway is pretty cool in my book. The man genuinely loves storytelling. [Of course he does, he wrote The Princess Bride.]) This is definitely one of them. Fascinating stories about ups, downs, hits and flops, and how it affected him as a person. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-01-22 12:07:26 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA40334723 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

Part Two: Adventures" has stories from 11 projects that Goldman has been involved with, from Charly and Masquerade, to the Academy Award-winning Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men, to some projects that remained unrealised, such as a musical remake of Grand Hotel. The last section of the book is a particularly helpful exercise where he takes one of his short stories, wrestles it into a screenplay, and then interviews a cinematographer, a production designer, an editor, a composer and a director about what they would do with his finished product. (The director's critique is withering, and hilarious.) He admits that those interviews were the first time in his career that he had spent more than five minutes alone speaking with any of those film professionals, with the exception of the director. The final section is an original screenplay where he examines the writing process and asks other famous screenwriters for their opinions. Actors in interviews always present themselves as charming, poised, and self-deprecatingly humorous. It’s an act. They’re actors, acting.I’m starting to see a pattern. If I really like a book, I don’t bother writing notes about it cause I just like to read it. It’s amazingly raw but also helpful because you’re reading him go through the pain as ‘practice’ for you going through the same pain! I know that when I am writing I have to constantly search for those plot holes and then find ways to plug them and it’s really hard without outside help. If you haven't, I highly recommend "Adventures In The Screen Trade" as a book with very similar structure that was honestly better than this one. The breakdown in "Butch Cassidy and Sundance" from that book alone...

Part Three: Da Vinci—A screenwriting workshop that takes one of Goldman's early short stories, adapts it into a screen treatment, and then runs it by colleagues on their thoughts on taking the script to production.WOW! Bill’s friends dump all over him - and they are absolutely right! I wish I had friends that honest! This is really the most badass thing I’ve ever read in a script writing book (and I’ve read a few).

What I love about this book is that he shows you good scripts, but he doesn’t just leave it at “Write like that!”. He also goes into the specifics of what makes it work. He also shows examples of scripts and ideas that DON’T work and explains why — at least why HE can’t make them work and that’s an important point he makes throughout the book. That there is no ‘one-true-way’ that will work for every idea and every scriptwriter. Though he hasn't been active on the scene for many years now, William Goldman remains one of the most famous and influential screenwriters in Hollywood history. The former Pentagon staffer turned two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter has penned some of the most iconic, lauded and cherished movies of all time, including Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, All The President's Men, Marathon Man, The Princess Bride, Harper, Misery and A Bridge Too Far. He has written, co-written or consulted on vehicles for towering movie stars including Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Michael Douglas, Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Matt Damon, James Caan, Clint Eastwood and Anthony Hopkins.

Customer reviews

Its author is William Goldman. You might know him as Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman. Or author of The Princess Bride. He’s also the creative genius behind Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, and Misery. Aaron Sorkin, creator and writer of The West Wing called Goldman, ‘the dean of American screenwriters.’ Without Goldman, we never would have heard the lines Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. Or As you wish.

Goldman has a gift for writing amiable anecdotes about Hollywood. They read very conversational and fun to read, and are aided by Goldman's insight into historically significant figures from film and stuff. It's so interesting to see insights into Michael Douglas' skills as a producer, or Clint Eastwood's stiff cool as a director, and numerous other examples. And he replied after some thought, “They claim Eastwood? Eastwood’s the biggest star?” Finally, after another pause, he nodded. “They’re right.” And the grand experiment of the last part of the book, where Goldman wrote a new script for the sake of publishing it in this book and having famous screenwriters critique it. The script, "The Big A", about a PI and his relationship with his ex-wife and his kids who want in on the family business, is pretty flat in its writing. You may even consider it predictable, but that’s a subjective view that you can only have AFTER READING THE SCRIPT. And you can always rewrite it to change it. And the critiques from the Farrelly Brothers, Callie Khouri, and other fellow screenwriters felt very flat and redundant. And oddly truncated.

Customer Reviews

I’ve written this before and please tattoo it behind your eyeballs: we are all at one another’s mercy…”