Join our community of over 1,700,000 Screenwriters! From beginners to professionals, we come together to teach, learn, and share everything about Screenwriting. Please view our rules and wikis before posting. Scroll down for resources, mod and verification applications, and more.
My list of "Must Read" screenplays for screenwriters and what makes them important, with links to the ones I have!
RESOURCE
I just read Max Landis’ screenplay Deeper, and that inspired me to make a post of what I consider “Must Read” screenplays for a screenwriter. Without further ado, here’s the list!
-
Deeper by Max Landis - Writing suspense, and putting your own spin on screenwriting.
-
The Big Lebowski by The Coen Brothers - Dialogue
-
Die Hard by Jeb Stuart - Action
-
Boyhood by Richard Linklater - Character Development
-
American Beauty by Alan Ball - Just the best screenplay ever written.
-
Adaptation by Charlie Kaufman - Action Lines
-
Alien by Walter Hill, David Giler, and Dan O' Bannon - Suspense.
-
The Princess Bride by William Goldman - Comedy
-
Rushmore by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson - Interesting Characters
-
Goodfellas by Nicolas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese - Drama
-
12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose - Dialogue and Suspense
-
2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke - Suspense
-
The Shining by Stanley Kubrick - Suspense and Horror
-
Raising Arizona by The Coen Brothers - Dark Comedy
-
Moneyball by Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian - Dialogue
-
Chinatown by Robert Towne - One of the best screenplays ever written.
-
The Prestige by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan - Dialogue
-
Aliens by James Cameron - Suspense
If there's anything I missed, please say so in the comments! :)
Archived post. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
There's a thread on here at the moment about how watching a great film can cause us to doubt our own talents. I look forward to these scripts ruining my life.
But thank you very much nonetheless. This is great.
Art is a mix of "Pffft! I could do that but better" and "Oh my, I could never do that BUT I MUST TRY!"
Read Chinatown. It is considered by many to be the greatest script ever written.
For those who need a link: http://www.public.asu.edu/~srbeatty/394/Chinatown.pdf
Added!
I watched the movie a few days ago, but it didn't click with me. :/
That's okay, but definitely read the script. You'll realise that for a detective story, we don't learn anything that Jake doesn't learn. We follow the story beat by beat along with him and don't know any details that he doesn't. It really is an amazing script when you understand this particular aspect of it.
I think the "why" is important.
I love the movie "Snowpiercer". Because everything is perfect about it, except for the script.
But I have to explain that, otherwise people actually believe I think it's a good movie.
The 21st-century equivalent of a "well-made play". And I'm including production value in that definition too.
I thought the first half of Snowpiercer was amazing. It loses itself after the battle in the dark in the tunnel.
Mazin and August did a detailed analysis of the Unforgiven screenplay on their podcast. Previously they've done Groundhog Day, Aliens, Raiders of the Lost Ark. They looked at Devil Wears Prada recently with writer AB Mckenna. They've proposed doing Ferris Bueller's Day Off in the future.
Mazin and August are the Buddha and Christ of screenwriting, respectively.
Oddly enough, John's the straight man
They did Frozen too, with writer Jennifer Lee in the room.
Yes, that's the one. Thanks.
https://johnaugust.com/podcast
What's their podcast called if I may ask?
https://johnaugust.com/podcast
Thank you.
Which podcast is that?
'Withnail and' I by Bruce Robinson - Characterisation, Quoteability.
Deffo my fave read so far.
Cool list - Can't wait to check out Die Hard and American Beauty!
I feel like we can't have a list without a Sorkin screenplay for dialogue. Maybe Moneyball?
Added!
Fallen and The Prestige are two of my favorites.
Added!
Sorry, which year Fallen? There seems to be more than one.
1998
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119099
Hello, I'm a bot! The movie you linked is called Fallen, here are some Trailers
No Uwe Boll scripts here, this list is crap.
Kiss kiss bang bang by Shane Black is a good one for comedy as well
I'd add some McDonagh. [In Bruges] (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-kD65Xes9PPRDQ4T3hIOTBPYU0/view) or [Seven Psychopaths] (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-kD65Xes9PPOEw1QjkyNjZkTlk).
Ahem...
WGA 101 list
Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet
Thanks, this is great!
Aliens is a great script.
I agree. I think Aliens is better than Alien.
Added!
A great list.
My only add would be Casablanca for being so damn near perfect.
There's a curious lack of classic films on this list. Films that, arguably, paved the way for many of those scripts.
I mean, c'mon, no: Sunset Boulevard, The Godfather, or North by Northwest?
And leaving off Pulp Fiction?! Love it or hate it, that film inspired everything for the next decade.
Seems more like a list of movies OP (and most folks including me) likes than a list of must read scripts.
Hey u/QuinC__, great list, thanks for sharing.
I think The Social Network also serves as a very good example of dialogue.
I really enjoyed the DEEPER. Been reading a lot of Max's stuff lately. Currently reading THE GOODTIME GANG.
Out of curiosity, do you know why the American Beauty script is formatted all weird? The pages look 1.5X longer than normal, or thereabouts.
It's A4 paper.
No, I hadn't even noticed! Probably just copied weirdly in this particular one.
I'm partway through it now, and I see how you could miss that. It reads like a breeze.
Thank you for putting this together
Pulp Fiction - subtextual dialogue.
Back to the Future - dialogue, characters, pacing and structure
I don't think any other movie nails satire quite like Network does.
Outstanding! Great list. I agree with your thought on “American Beauty”.
Comment deleted by user
Oh, sorry. I'll try to find the original
Comment deleted by user
Found the play script here, but couldn't find the 1957 screenplay anywhere, must be legal troubles.
The Nice Guys by Shane Black and Anthony Bagarozzi
I actually came here just now to post a question about the "Must Watch" TV shows for television writers, so this was particularly relevant and much appreciated. Thanks!
I just read the original Moneyball script, and it's very different from the finished product. Billy is much more violent, a womanizer (even though in real life he's gay), and the family aspect isn't as prominent.
I've read some reports that Brad Pitt actually had a big part in rewriting the script.
It's my favorite baseball movie and it's a good read, but it's not even close to what you see onscreen.
Whomever did the final script took this from good, with a lot of promise, to great.
I think Zaillian wrote the script, then Sorkin did a rewrite iirc.
Not sure who else was involved.
Yeah I know Sorkin did a rewrite. According to IMDB Stan Chervin did "story" whatever that means.
Someone, probably Sorkin, got in there and retooled it and made it a lot tighter. What's amazing to me is it's a "sports" movie that isn't really about sports.
I'm focusing on this because it's a movie unlike any other I've seen.
Save
Does anyone know of a similar list for TV pilots?
Not pilots, but TV shows overall:
http://www.wga.org/writers-room/101-best-lists/101-best-written-tv-series/list
Top ref material! Thanks mate!
Can someone please share the script for Spy Game(2001) Robert Redford Brad Pitt
I just read Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain and I feel like it has some of the best transitions I have read in a screenplay.
Needs more Charlie Kaufman. Adaptation is good, the first draft is better than the shooting draft. I believe there’s an entire website dedicated to him with almost if not all his written works on it in pdf form. It’s right here
Whiplash is great.
Linklater's Slacker is a masterclass in connecting dots.