Welcome to Goldenrod Revisions

Peter Biskin noted in "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" that screenwriters were once considered dispensable "monkeys with typewriters." A lot's changed since the 1970s. It's my own personal truism that in cinema (and TV) good writing will save bad directing, but good directing will never save bad writing. The best acting, special effects and production design is not going to make the third act of a Marvel movie interesting to me -- unless the person who wrote it decided on more than just good guys blowing things up while trying to stop bad guys from blowing things up. That's how most of the Marvel movies I've seen end, and they take too damn long to do it. On the flip side, I can't think of anything more grabbing than Frances McDormand firing her pistol at Peter Stormare running across a frozen lake, or Miles Teller improvising a drum solo to stick it to JK Simmons, or Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy talking about nothing in her apartment. Or the door shutting on Diane Keaton... That's not to say the directing in any of these examples is bad. In each case it is brilliant because it serves the writing.

With new experience comes new perspective, and the more I write and study screenwriting, the more I seek to understand great writing when it crosses a screen in front of me. Just as a cinematographer figures to watch any movie with the lighting in the front of his mind, I'm unable to take in a movie or TV show without venturing into the writer's head, dissecting the purpose of a particular line of dialogue or turn in story. Of course, we never see the pages themselves, yet writing remains the dominant substance of whatever we're watching -- the who, what, where, when and why. Its goal? Manipulate our emotions.

This blog is a product of my increasing expressivity and burgeoning narcissism. I'm no longer content keeping my thoughts to myself, so I plan to analyze the writing in works that catch my interest. I hope my thoughts are worth sharing and perhaps shed new light on a movie or TV show for you.