When there's a very well-received movie, who are the most remembered people
responsible for the movie? It's by far mostly recognized by its lead actors.
For example everybody remembers the Rocky and Rambo movies because of
Sylvester Stallone, the Terminator movies because of Arnold Schwarzenegger,
and so on.

  In fewer cases a movie is popular and remembered for its director.
Alfred Hitchcock would be the quintessential example, but more recent
examples include George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick,
Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson, and so on.

  In even fewer cases a movie is remembered by its producer, but mostly
if said producer is also a known director (or sometimes a known actor).
(That's the reason why so many movies are advertised with "from the
producers of <such and such other movie>" rather than "from <person>".)

  However, what is the single most important aspect of a movie? The actors?
Very important, but not the *most* important. The director? Likewise.
No, the most important aspect is the script. Without a good script you
don't have a movie. You can gather the best actors and directors in the
world, but if you don't have a script you don't have anything.

  What makes the movie great? Often good acting and directing are essential
for its greatness, but it's the script that makes it great. Without a story
you can't have a great movie. Somebody has to come up with the story and
write it down so that a movie can be made from it.

  Yet who remembers movies for their writers? Almost nobody. I certainly
don't. Often movies are adaptations of books, and the authors of those
books are sometimes well known. Even then someone else usually wrote the
movie script from the book. This might be understandable: It was the book
writer who came up with the story, not the script writer. However, with
original scripts this becomes more puzzling. Why do we not remember them?

  On the other hand, this is also good for the script writers: If the movie
flops completely, it's the actors, directors and producers who will get the
flack, seldom the script writer. The writer enjoys an almost complete
anonymity and nobody will remember him for the flop. He can go and write
other scripts for other movies.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message