Goldman takes newspaper clippings and other ideas and asks the reader to diagnose their cinematic possibilities. Goldman also gives us a new screenplay he's written The Big A , which is analyzed--with brutal honesty--by other top writers. William Goldman: Mit is hazudtam? William Goldman. Tara Bennett. My Life with Cleopatra.
Walter Wanger and Joe Hyams. Peter Bogdanovich. Titan Magazine. The James Bond Film Guide. Hystericizing Germany. Manfred Hermes. How To Write a Page Turner.
Jordan Rosenfeld. The Three Stooges. Michael Fleming. Plot Perfect. Paula Munier. A Hundred Years of Japanese Film. Donald Richie. Independent Ed. Todd Gold and Edward Burns. Seagalogy Updated and Expanded Edition. Shades of Noir. Soviet Posters. Sergo Grigorian and Maria Lafont.
Related Articles. Looking for More Great Reads? Download Hi Res. I glanced inside the cover. I knew that there would be interesting tidbits about the writing of The Princess Bride , both the movies and the book. Also discussed is one of my favorite horror films of all time, "Misery. The next day, my friends and I wander the streets again, and I notice just how economically depressed the city is.
There are almost as many storefronts closed as there are open if anything, the former might outnumber the latter , and those that are open and busy are of the "thrift" variety. The rest are just open. Even Art Galleries with chimes on the door have no one working So I return to the little independent bookstore just to purchase this book that has sown seeds in my head. And I'm glad I did. It begins right where the last one ended This is a time when no screenplay he writes gets greenlit and those are the few times he's able to write anything.
This section is full of backdoor Hollywood "how did it get made" stories Goldman is amazing at this type of thing. The second part is an analysis of six scenes well, seven, but six movies. This part is all about the writing of these scenes, why they work and - sometimes - why they were written. This section spoke to the aspiring? The third part is a selection of story ideas. So we've gone from credentials Part 1 to analysis Part 2 to formulation and possible concept creation.
In Part 3, he also discusses limitations. Why doesn't William Goldman just write the screenplays discussed in this section? Well, cause they aren't his bag, baby. He can be inspired by them, but he can also see the difficulties inherent in bringing some of these to the screen ageism in Hollywood, too much repetition with too little variation, etc.
Still, he doesn't think they are impossible to bring to the screen Again, we get a smattering of craft and backdoor Hollywood gossip intermixed with the interesting concept of "when inspiration strikes and what's left is silver". The book ends with an exercise of sorts for the fourth part. A screenplay first draft written exclusively for the book called "The Big A. Second off, it's a rather poor screenplay. The exercise is, what would make it better?
What is worth keeping and what should be excised? Where did you get excited and visualize the imagery and where did you throw the book across the room with boredom. As a way to further help his readers and this book is geared towards the aspiring Screenplay Writer, completely , he sent this script to five screenplay writers for them to tear apart.
The five are in order of presentation : Peter and Bobby Farrelly this book was printed right after the success of "There's Something About Mary" when the two were lauded as amazing comedy writers What they have to say about the draft is just as interesting as everything that came before.
So I'm glad I returned to the little bookshop. I'm glad I picked up this book. I'm really glad I read it. And even if I'm not the intended audience Screenplay Writer , this has changed the way I watch movies and been an engrossing read.
Worth seeking out, especially if you like Goldman's flicks. Apr 18, Pedro Kerouac rated it it was amazing. Fantastic book on the adventures of one of the most acclaimed Hollywood screenwriters, full of insightful information and a very sarcastic sense of humour.
Essential for every movie buff. May 25, Mariel rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: writers. While 'Adventures' is about the happy accidents and why no one really knows anything about how to make movie magic, 'Lie' is a great book about making choices and where to go from there.
I can apply his stories to most things about writing that I've read since. Other things, too. Best of all, it's written as no-nonsense conversational style and the best teacher you've ever had voice. It's probably the most personal thing I've ever read about the loneliness of sitting down by yourself and putting something down on blank paper or screen, whatever. It's not alone when you've got all this that came before you to look back on. That he wrote this second book anyway is pretty cool in my book.
The man genuinely loves storytelling. I've already reviewed 'Adventures' so I'll just include the rest of my thoughts for this book. These are not well known books on gr, I've gathered. How Goldman came up with the ideas for scripts from real events such as Butch Cassidy, the homosexual maneating lions from The Ghost and the Darkness Michael Douglas would probably be one of the people pissed off by Goldman's book. Boy, does he ever come across as a douche bag , and set down to adapting them for the screen made me think about other stories based on real events, the choices the authors make, relying or not on just what actually happened, finding what was interesting about it in the first place the Tsavo lions, for example.
That wasn't natural, happens every day lion behavior. Choosing which aspect to focus on a story out of a big picture like with the 'Bridge' screenplay. These are all things that anyone wishing to write a story should take into account.
Goldman doesn't write a how-to guide but gives you something you can use. He uses his own experiences as examples, and teaches by the benefit of experience.
Goldman is a bona fide raconteur, so his stories are amusing and readable, no matter the interest in finding producers, or the money behind the scenes falling apart. When they do, Mark Wahlberg's career is over. That Goldman deeply loved the man I have no doubt. I'm not crying! I read a gr friends review on 'Princess' that said that Goldman could come off as full of himself, but I have to disagree on that.
His comments about his wife in the additional 'Princess' texts came off as the distantly personal jokes a comedian would make about people they know one could also consider that the two are not married any longer , but when it comes to stories Goldman is all heart.
That's why his examples are not your average "don't do this or that" but relatable 'cause I recognized why I loved the good stuff to begin with. I didn't realize that playwright James Goldman [writer of The Lion in Winter ] was his brother until reading his screenwriting books.
View 1 comment. Not only does he mention the movie and his script throughout the book, Goldman also devotes an entire chapter to his Oscar-winning script. William Goldman had a long and illustrious career, yet he does himself an injustice by harping on "BUTCH" so often that one could easily think him to be a one-trick pony. The structure of "Adventures In the Screen Trade" is very odd. Chapters start with one topic, then go off into tangents in sections that are highlighted in grey.
Why grey? I still don't know. Also, Goldman's short-hand got on my nerves after a while. He'd say "Mr. Warner" instead of Warner Bros. At times he uses one-name monikers as opposed to full names. For reasons beyond me, Goldman brings up the tragic Columbine murders which he annoyingly refers to as "Littleton" Yet does he have to trash and discredit Alfred Hitchcock in the process?
Goldman's idiotic statement told me that Goldman, despite his many years of experience, had no clue what a director does. He is entitled to his opinion sure He is a damn good writer. Even his bad story ideas are good.
When Goldman tries to show examples of dialogue, scenes and other script elements that are wrong and don't work The reason? Goldman does not know how to be a bad writer. He's too good at it. William Goldman, the screenwriter of two of my favorite movies and in my opinion, two of the best movies of all time --"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Princess Bride"--offers an witty, insightful, acerbic and neurotic look at the world of writing in Hollywood.
I haven't read this book's predecessor, "Adventures in the Screen Trade," but I have no doubt it was equally enjoyable and eye-opening. Apart from recounting his own experiences in Hollywood or "Out There" as Goldman calls i William Goldman, the screenwriter of two of my favorite movies and in my opinion, two of the best movies of all time --"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Princess Bride"--offers an witty, insightful, acerbic and neurotic look at the world of writing in Hollywood.
Apart from recounting his own experiences in Hollywood or "Out There" as Goldman calls it from until just prior to the book's publication in , Goldman also analyzes key scenes from films like "Fargo" and "When Harry Met Sally," explaining what makes these scenes work from a filmmaker's point of view. He also introduces several story ideas, presents a potential synopsis that could lead to a "selling script" the script that gets the studio to buy your work and make the movie , and then explains why or why not he personally would be interested in that script.
Finally, he presents parts of an original screenplay "The Big A" and gives the reader the responses of several fellow writers who looked it over to give often harsh but potentially helpful pieces of advice.
Apart from these issues, which are as much about opinion differences as anything else, I loved the book. If you want to learn more about Hollywood, writing, or writing in Hollywood, be sure to grab this one.
You won't be disappointed. Jul 11, James Carter rated it liked it. Mind you, I was just mainly interested for the Hollywood stories but didn't care much for the screenplays or advice in regards with them. Needless to say, I was mostly disappointed in the sequel book for saying nothing much really. Either the stories were already mentioned in the other book, rehashed but in different words, or about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the umpteenth time.
William Goldman finally reaches the lowest point by claiming that he wrote the whole screenplay for Good Will Hunting. That put me in a state of confusion because I couldn't really tell if he was being serious or joking hence, the perfect title Which Lie Did I Tell? After much of "research" on the Internet, it seemed to be the latter case which is a sad, pathetic attempt of trying to make himself relevant. It looks like he had lost a lot of credibility right there. I am going to copy and paste what he wrote: "Doctoring is tricky, particularly when it comes to taking credit for success or blame for failure.
If you go on the net and look up my credits, there it is, the previously uncredited work on that Oscar-winning smash. The truth? I did not just doctor it. I wrote the whole thing from scratch. Jan 11, Annie rated it it was amazing. I want to write a screenplay.
He has the most delightfully conversational style. This book gets pretty technical, but I like that. I don't know if a non-writer would enjoy it quite so much, but maybe if he or she just skipped over the advice in grey, it would be just a book full of dirt on a screenwriter's adventures in Hollywood among other places. This is apparently a sequel, but here are the movies I want to write a screenplay. The third and fourth sections get more into analyzing writing and technique. My fiancee gave up on the final section, about very first drafts and script doctoring, but I found that really fascinating and inspiring.
I think I am going to reread this, pretty soon even. And I am not kidding about writing that screenplay, guys. Dec 28, Jeremy rated it it was ok. I'm surprised this has so many good reviews. It's clearly a case of getting a book deal to do a sequel and then afterwards trying to figure out what to write. I mean, there are some good anecdotes, but the writing is full of unnecessary superlatives of what everyone must know in bold with exclamations!!
And gratuitous swearing to make him sound just so real and honest. And I really have no problem with swearing in writing. It all just seemed forced and he s I'm surprised this has so many good reviews.
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