Hi to you all. I'm afraid I've been neglecting this forum lately. I've been polishing a new script and trying to resist going online!
One aspect of screenwriting I've been thinking a lot about lately is dialogue. In my last book, I strongly questioned the 'gurus' take on dialogue. They all say keep it short - always. But if you take a look at the most distinctive and powerful films in cinema history you get a very different story.
Here's what I wrote in the chapter on The Power of Language in my book:
"You won’t find any of this in the popular How To books because the First Commandment they insist on is the so-called ‘Screenwriter’s Mantra’ - ‘Show, Don’t Tell.’ I wonder how they would explain this list then...
What The Gurus Say: ‘Show, Don’t Tell’, ‘Keep Dialogue Short’
What Great Screenwriters Do:
560-word continuous dialogue, Brokeback Mountain
WINNER, Academy Award, Golden Globe, Golden Lion Venice Festival, Writers Guild of America
683-word extended monologue, 499-word continuous dialogue, Pulp Fiction
WINNER, Academy Award, Golden Globe, British Academy Film&TV Award, Blue Ribbon. Film awarded highest honour at Cannes: the Palme D’or.
686-word monologue, 25th Hour
NOMINATED for the Berlin Golden Bear
460-word extended monologue, Good Will Hunting
WINNER, Academy Award, Golden Globe.
430-word extended monologue, Magnolia
WINNER, Academy Award, Berlin Golden Bear, Writers Guild of America.
376-word extended monologue, Adaptation
WINNER, British Academy Award, Writers Guild of America
377-word extended monologue, Memento
WINNER, Academy Award, Golden Globe.
201-word extended monologue, American Beauty
WINNER, Academy Award, Golden Globe, Writers Guild of America
576-word extended monologue, Network
WINNER, Academy Award, Golden Globe. Paddy Chayevsky’s superlative script has been voted one of the TOP TEN SCREENPLAYS OF ALL TIME
It makes you wonder: Do the 'screenwriting 'gurus' ever watch great films when they write their manuals?
What are your favourite dramatic monologues in movies?