Best Screenplay 1967

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What were the best original and adapted screenplays of 1967?

Bonnie and Clyde (David Newman and Robert Benton)
13
41%
Divorce American Style (Robert Kaufman and Norman Lear)
0
No votes
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (William Rose)
1
3%
Two for the Road (Frederic Raphael)
1
3%
The War is Over (La Guerre Est Finie) (Jorge Semprun)
1
3%
Cool Hand Luke (Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson)
0
No votes
The Graduate (Buck Henry and Calder Willingham)
13
41%
In Cold Blood (Richard Brooks)
2
6%
In the Heat of the Night (Stirling Silliphant)
1
3%
Ulysses (Joseph Strick and Fred Haines)
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 32

The Original BJ
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Re: Best Screenplay 1967

Post by The Original BJ »

The Original side of the roster also had some very strong nominees, though the ultimate outcome was a real bummer. I, too, agree that Persona -- which has inspired countless movies over the decades -- is the key script missing from the list.

I'd probably say that Divorce American Style is the worst of the nominees. Given Norman Lear's involvement, I'd hoped for a comedy with a bit of kick to it -- the way episodes of All in the Family still feel fresh today -- but I found it a pretty vanilla affair. It actually struck me that the rough contours of the plot aren't dissimilar from The Awful Truth (i.e. it's a romantic comedy about divorced spouses), but that movie from thirty years prior has way more bite. Divorce American Style may flirt with contemporary relationship issues, but I found its take on them pretty retro.

Given the available options, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was a dumb choice for a winner, though I don't hate the movie. I think the portion of the script that's a drawing room comedy plays pretty well -- it's often funny, and the individual characters have compelling enough personalities. Of course, as a serious issue movie, I imagine it felt pretty easy listening in its time, and it comes off like a total relic today, though even there, the movie still manages some powerful moments (like Poitier's "You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.") I've seen it twice, and I wouldn't dread watching it again, but I could never vote for it here.

La Guerre Est Finie explores a compelling idea at its core -- what happens when the attitudes and methods of aging revolutionaries start to be replaced by those of a younger group of radicals. The film's hero has spent his life trying to overthrow an oppressive regime, but now he and those like him are starting to feel like dinosaurs, as they realize their tactics haven't actually produced many results. And coming up behind them is another generation, with schemes that seem crazy, and ignorant of their movement's history, but could very well be the next logical step in the long battle towards change. There's a lot of thoughtful dialogue that explores these ideas throughout the film, though I think the plot might be a little too low-key to get my vote. It's a very good nominee, though, one it's nice the writers singled out.

Speaking of films highlighted only by the writers, Two for the Road feels in many ways like the forerunner to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, as the chronology bounces around to various points in one couple's relationship, examining its ebbs and flows over time. I think it's quite marvelous structurally, in an era when time jumping was far more daring than it is now, and full of funny and insightful moments about relationships that make the film still feel pretty hip even today. There's also a ton of memorable dialogue exchanges, from "What kind of people just sit in a restaurant and don't say one word to each other?" / "Married people," to "I'll never let you down" / "I will." This is an exciting and ambitious piece of writing, and I think one of the great romantic comedies of its era.

But Bonnie and Clyde is one of the most influential movies ever, and after passing on it so narrowly in the Picture/Director polls, I have to use this opportunity to give the movie its due. I've become pretty familiar with the actual history of Bonnie and Clyde over the years -- even visited the spot where they were gunned down in Louisiana -- and the film's script definitely takes its liberties with the facts. But even if the movie is more about Bonnie and Clyde: The Myth, isn't that totally appropriate? Bonnie and Clyde WERE a self-made myth, and part of that is what actually made them beloved by a good portion of the American people for a while, for standing up to the systems of capitalism in a time plagued by economic struggle. It's interesting you cite that murder of the bank teller, Mister Tee, because there was essentially ONE murder (though it was a policeman), which caused America to turn on the Barrow Gang, when characters once viewed as exciting rebels suddenly started to be seen as the out-of-control killers they were -- in this way, the tone of the film and the way it shifts actually captures the real-life narrative of Bonnie and Clyde exceptionally well. The film is a blazing work of innovation, full of memorable characters, funny dialogue, moments of great power (like Bonnie visiting her mother for the last time), and shocking moments of horror. That it failed to win here is one of the great outrages of the Original Screenplay category.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1967

Post by Kellens101 »

My vote in Original would be Bonnie and Clyde, an amazing, iconic masterpiece that is as startlingly bracing today as it was in 1967. But, Two for the Road is an equally amazing film and an original, dazzling, entertaining and profound examination of the crumbling marriage of one couple. The big omission in Original is Persona, one of Ingmar Bergman's best films and an incredible masterpiece. My vote in Adapted would go to The Graduate, a marvelously funny, poignant and iconic film that also holds up amazingly well today. It's also my pick as best film of the year, as well as Mike Nichols directing, and the great performances of Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1967

Post by The Original BJ »

The Adapted Screenplay race was the last really strong one for some years -- I'd rather vote for most of these than any of the Adapted options in '66 or '65. And, though '64 at least had one gem at the top, these for the most part dwarf that field too.

I'm not sure how to really evaluate the film version of Ulysses. My experience with the book: about six or seven years ago, I read the first two pages and decided the next 900 pages weren't something I wanted to tackle at that moment. (I, too, opted for Portrait of the Artist instead.) So I went into the movie not really familiar with the material, and I have to say I found most of it impenetrable. There was obviously impressive language on display (I'm assuming taken directly from Joyce's prose), but much of it was incorporated in ways that seemed anti-cinematic to me, like the long passages of voice-over placed over the images. And while I'm sure the rebuttal could be "no one READ Ulysses for the plot either," film is a different animal, and though I appreciate the filmmakers' attempt to tackle such a colossal task, I felt pretty much lost in terms of basic story points without the Cliffs Notes.

Cool Hand Luke isn't as revolutionary a movie as some of the very best in this year, but it's a very solid piece of work, not only giving Paul Newman one of his richest and most exciting characters, but allowing a lot of the actors on the edges to have great moments too. (George Kennedy has the scene stealing role, but Jo Van Fleet gets some pretty great beats in her big scene too, and, of course, Strother Martin's most famous line is now legendary.) It's impressive, too, that the film manages to put Newman through some pretty brutal stuff, while still feeling like a crowd-pleaser -- the script's humorous streak doesn't dilute its anger, but gives its anti-establishment sensibility a real kick.

In the Heat of the Night is of course a product of its time in a way that can make it feel dated today -- it's hard for me to feel like the movie's racial ideas amount to much more than the fact that racism exists (especially in the South), that's a bad thing, and it's up to guys like Poitier to teach people otherwise. But once one takes into account that movies that push the bar forward culturally won't always feel as fresh decades hence, it can be easier to acknowledge the script's strengths, which for me are a pretty decent crime narrative, the compelling central relationship between Poitier and Steiger, and moments (like the Poitier slap) that still pack an urgent punch. If the film feels less vital politically today than it did upon release, it's at least worth praising what was always solid storytelling.

I agree with Mister Tee's assessment that In Cold Blood works pretty terrifically as a thriller, as Richard Brooks really leans on the time-hopping structure to create great tension throughout his film. And the film works so well as a character study too, getting at what was always so interesting about Perry Smith as a person, that he never really intended to commit such a horrifying act, but couldn't control his downward spiral into lawlessness, so tragedy was just inevitable. I think these two notable achievements signal that even though the film, like the source material, maintains a journalistic level of detail in its depiction of actual events, these events have clearly been shaped by a writer with a take on the real-life story, and the craftsmanship to convey that point of view with maximum impact.

But, even in a very solid field, The Graduate is still my easy choice in this category. The dialogue is superb throughout, with too many great lines to even count -- a personal favorite of mine is the "What are you going to do now?" / "I was going to go upstairs for a minute" exchange, which resonated with such profound hilarity when I saw the movie shortly before my own college graduation. The romances -- both Benjamin/Mrs. Robinson AND Benjamin/Elaine -- perfectly capture the kind of "What are we doing here?" nature of so many human relationships, in ways that were both deliriously silly and deeply poignant as well. And the ending, full of both hope and uneasiness, strikes just the perfect level of ambiguity to make it feel as exciting and frightening as most adventures in life often are. One of the funniest and most human comedy screenplays ever, and the deserving winner here.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1967

Post by ITALIANO »

Bonnie & Clyde is a very good movie and, back then, certainly a revolutionary one. And I won't deny that its screenplay is original in more ways than one. I'm not sure that it's really a GREAT screenplay though - I've always felt that this is more an editor's movie (incredible that Dede Allen wasn't even nominated) and a director's movie than a writer's movie (I know that this is just me, but I'm not sure that Benton and Newman KNEW they were writing what would turn out to be a masterpiece - which, of course, doesn't mean that the finished movie isn't, if not a masterpiece, extremely important in the context of American cinema). I would have still probably voted for it, but it's obvious that it doesn't need my vote, and there are I think two very interesting scripts in this race: Two for the Road and La Guerre est Finie. Both, by the way, have an approach to conventional filmic storytelling that is also quite revolutionary - in some ways even more so for Two for the Road which is, at least officially, a "romantic comedy", and an American movie. But La Guerre est Finie is really an endlessly fascinating, complex effort, almost kaleidoscopic in form, yet prevented from being a purely intellectual exercise by the writer's obvious personal knowldedge of the subject. A great screenplay.

There are some good scripts in Adapted - though it's true that Ulysses is an impossible novel to turn into a movie (I guess the writers appreciated the courage). But it's impossible not to vote for The Graduate, for its insight and energy. The fact that both Bonnie & Clyde and The Gradute lost to much more conventional scripts shows, of course, how "behind the time" the Academy was back then - it's quite conservative today, too, but less than it used to be in the late 60s (admittedly a period of change).
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Re: Best Screenplay 1967

Post by Mister Tee »

My two ultimate votes for this year are pretty much no-brainers, but, despite that, the slates in full are well worth examining.

In terms of original alternates, Persona is the clear should-have-been-there, but it fell in what was a black hole period for Bergman with the Academy – he was embraced by the writers in the late 50s/early 60s, and by most everyone in the 70s/80s, but somehow he was left out here for, arguably, his greatest creation. I’ll also echo Precious Doll’s advocacy for Bedazzled.

The actual nominees were fairly solid, though of course the voters managed to choose the worst of them in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? As I’ve mentioned here before, I enjoyed Dinner (except for the Katharine Houghton scenes) when I first saw it, at the age of 15. However, the grown-up me sees it as a shallow bit of 60s liberalism, with a few decent comedy-of-manners scenes, but mostly excellent actors working valiantly to camouflage their film’s cheesiness.

I saw Divorce – America Style only once, in the late 70s, and maybe it’s worse than I’m recalling. But my impression at the time was of an effort that, while clearly commercial, at least had some aspiration beyond the mundane and didn’t fall completely on its face in the attempt. I’m not giving it my vote or anything, but, from that one viewing, I’m not inclined to view its nomination as an outrage.

Two for the Road has wit and insight, and was stylistically daring for an American film in the era. I’m not sure there’s that much more to say about it; its subject matter doesn’t re-invent the wheel or anything. But it’d be a mistake to pigeonhole it as romantic comedy. It covers a lot more ground than that, and it’s a very solid, intelligent film. I pass on voting for it, but offer great respect.

Like Magilla, I’ve never seen La Guerre Est Finie called by that American translation; it was advertised at the time by its French title (which wasn’t true of things like A Man and a Woman just prior). The film tackles a (for the time) very unusual subject: the committed revolutionary who’s spent much of his life on the run, and who sees very little hope of his ideals ever being realized. What the film conveys most vividly is the bone-weariness of such a character – he must go on, as he’s devoted his whole life to this cause, but he senses the futility and has to come to terms with it. A quite intelligent, well-written film, and a candidate for my vote.

But Benton & Newman’s Bonnie and Clyde script helped change America cinema forever, and is a work of such originality and achievement that it demands to be chosen. This is another film I’ve written about in so many different places here that I hardly have the energy to recap now. In brief: the film dove deep into the outlaws-on-the-run genre, viewing its characters as not just thieves (and victims of the Depression) but, equally, as media celebrities. This is a commonplace topic now, but was startlingly fresh then –to view Bonnie and Clyde as creators (and consumers) of their own myth was something brand-new. Also new was the way the film blended comedy with violence. The legendary scene of C.W. Moss struggling to pull the getaway car out of its parking space, leading to Clyde’s point-blank shooting the bank teller in the face, was genuinely shocking – no American film had ever juxtaposed laughs with horror in quite that way. And it marked a turn in the film: prior to that, it had all been a bit of a lark, despite the gunfire. From there on, it was deadly serious, in the most literal way. Bonnie and Clyde is one of the great movies of the 60s, and an easy choice in this category it shamefully failed to win from the Academy.

It’s been established here that adaptations of Shakespeare are laughable for nominations, but might we make an exception for Chimes at Midnight, which synthesizes parts of both Henry IV’s, along with bits of Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor, and knits it all around Falstaff? Denied that option, if I had to offer alternates under adaptation, I’d come up with The Deadly Affair –a somewhat forgotten LeCarre effort -- and Far from the Madding Crowd. But I couldn’t in conscience recommend either of them replace anything on the ballot as-is. I haven’t spent the time/energy to be sure, but it strikes me this set of five may be as strong from top to bottom as any screenplay category in any year.

In fact, it speaks volumes that it’s between Cool Hand Luke and In the Heat of the Night for weakest entry of the bunch…since both those are films I’ve watched with pleasure, multiple times. Cool Hand Luke takes a subject (life on a chain gang) that you’d have thought Paul Muni had retired forever, and makes of it a completely absorbing, surprising creation that offered Paul Newman one of his best screen roles. It also introduced a phrase (“What we got here…”) into the language – a phrase that couldn’t have been more in tune with the a-changin’ times. I’m not voting for the film, but there are years in the 60s when I easily could have.

In the Heat of the Night is, as we’ve said here many times, a film whose historical reputation has suffered because it won prizes in a year it shouldn’t have. Had it triumphed in 1965 or 1966, I don’t think anyone would begrudge the film… but for it to have won out over the two era-igniting films that were Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate make people punish it with retroactive condescension,as if it were no more than a Stanley Kramer film. In fact, the film is quite solid middle-of-the-road filmmaking, with far more barbed humor than this year’s Kramer effort. The mystery itself isn’t anything special, but the observation of Southern small town life is incisive (and more nuanced than most films in the era, where generally Southerner equaled troglodyte). And the relationship between the Poitier and Steiger characters is beautifully calibrated – touching but not cloying, with touches of irony throughout.

Confession: I’ve never worked up the effort to read Ulysses. I did Portrait of the Artist in college, but this intimidating 900-pager just seemed like a homework assignment I couldn’t put myself through (the one friend I know who did read it said all he felt at the end was relief he’d got through, not any literary pleasure). Of course, since I’ve absorbed book culture over the past half century, I’ve long been aware, by osmosis, of the novel’s outline and general tenor. When I saw this film version – back in the 70s – it struck me that Strick/Haines had pretty well captured what seemed to be its essence. The Irish atmosphere felt authentic; the language flowed beautifully (and didn’t feel prosaic); the film seemed of a piece. As a non-reader, I can’t convincingly vouch for the work as great adaptation, but my feeling at the time was they’d done a solid job at what appeared an impossible task.

In Cold Blood was of course a journalistic/literary landmark, and Richard Brooks’ adaptation lived up very well to his source material. Capote (working from life) supplied great detail and atmosphere, and Brooks selected those elements most important, while streamlining things so the film played as intense thriller. It was Capote who made the most important narrative decision – to delay depiction of the crime till the final section – which Brooks wisely stuck to: it kept the tension level almost unbearable throughout the latter reels. When I saw In Cold Blood, just before Christmas in 1967, I thought it was easily the year’s best film; that evaluation changed in January, when I saw both Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate. But I’ll stick to my guns to this degree: barring those two late additions, In Cold Blood was the best American film made in the three-year period 1965-67…and the solid script is very much part of the reason.

But The Graduate is The Graduate – a movie everyone my age fell in love with in 1967, and one that’s impossible to desert even now. And, though Mike Nichols directed with enormous flair, the script is most definitely a great part of the film’s success. How many lines from the film are instantly recognizable? -- “You’re trying to seduce me…aren’t you?”; “I’m a little worried about my future”; “Plastics”; “No – it’s completely baked”; “Tell him to save a piece for me…of the wedding cake”. Not to mention the hilarious dialogue Hoffman and Bancroft share, and the dozens – maybe hundreds -- of memorable throwaway lines sprinkled throughout (a favorite: Mr. Robinson’s “You’ll forgive me if I don’t shake hands with you”). Bosley Crowther, the old fud who was NY Times critic at the time the film opened, wasn’t right about much, but I think he nailed it when he said The Graduate was as close to a Preston Sturges movie as the cinema had seen since the 40s. That being among the highest words of praise I can offer a film comedy, it’s impossible for me to resist casting my vote for Buck Henry’s work.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1967

Post by Precious Doll »

Original

Bonnie and Clyde is the clear winner here, though The War is Over would be a respectable winner. I like Two For the Road , whilst the other are also runs.

Adapted

In Cold Blood is my clear winner here. Love the book by one of my favourite authors, which I have read a couple of times. I do like The Graduate but don't have the level affection for it that so many people do. The others are also runs.

The only English language omission is Bedazzled. 1967 was not one of the better years of English language cinema.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1967

Post by Big Magilla »

Original

I don't know where the title The War Is Over comes from. True, it's the literal translation of the French La Guerre Est Finie, but the film was released in the U.S. under its original title and was nominated for an Oscar under that title. All home video releases have been under the original title. IMDb. is the only other place I've seen the translated title used.

The film is well-made, and certainly caused a stir in 1967, but is not as fondly remembered as Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour or Last Year at Marienbad. Sempron's screenplay skills would reach their zenith with Z a few years later. Still, it's a very good nomination.

Divorce American Style is a labored comedy lucky to be nominated.

Two for the Road is very well written, but an also-ran this year.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, which won the Oscar, has some very good scenes but the whole doesn't hold a candle to the brilliantly written, directed and performed Bonnie and Clyde, which gets my vote.

Adapted

Not a slug in the bunch. These are all very fine nominees.

Ulysses, which I recently re-watched, remains a fascinating transfer of an all but impossible novel to adapt, much of it being stream of consciousness. Strick and Haines do a masterful job of translating Joyce to the screen.

A bit of trivia: Barbara Jefford, who played Molly to perfection, was the actress who played the nasty, elderly nun in Philomena.

Cool Hand Luke was a great warm-up for Frank Pierson who would get his Oscar eight years later for Dog Day Afternoon.

In Cold Blood was a terrific adaptation of Truman Capote's best-seller, but most of the dialogue was in the source material. Richard Brooks' genius here was in his direction.

In the Heat of the Night, which won the Oscar, was a first-rate murder mystery as well as an absorbing study in race relations. It was a worthy winner, but...

The Graduate is such an iconic film, much of it thanks to the witty dialogue written by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry. I did read the novel by Charles Webb. If "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me" was in it, I don't remember it, but I sure do remember it and others from the film. It gets my vote.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1967

Post by ksrymy »

I feel like the "Ulysses" screenplay was only included for being the first film to say, "Fuck."
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Best Screenplay 1967

Post by Kellens101 »

What were the best screenplays of 1967?
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