Best Screenplay 1991

[Sabin]

For Best Original Screenplay, I'll cite Defending Your Life as the big miss, a spiritual sister to Groundhog Day that seemingly didn't quite catch on. It's been some time since I've seen many of these films. I would imagine that The Fisher King reads better as a script than it plays on the screen. It's such a wacky, romantic, rich story. Likewise, James Toback's writing in Bugsy is sharp and witty in ways that Barry Levinson and Warren Beatty seem to at times fear so they veer into melodrama. I'll go with Thelma & Louise which has its flaws but was a galvanizing vision and a strong road movie.

I'm not sure anybody's mentioned it yet but Linda Woolverton's screenplay for Beauty and the Beast is a high water mark for animated films. It's witty yet kind, it's romantic yet aware. Those who decry it as a dated case of Stockholm Syndrome forget that Belle is brave and willingly lets herself be taken in place of her Father and her captor has no idea what to do with her. This is a smart, funny, and charming choice (one of many) that's helped the film stay fresh in ways that the rest of the Disney Animated Renaissance has not. Honoring JFK's screenplay feels a bit like honoring a research paper. No matter how much I like the film, it doesn't feel right when there are thin passages like Garrison's meeting with Mr. X (a fucking actual Mr. X!) admittedly carried out with great expertise. Give it then to Ted Tally's adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs. If the final showdown between Clarice and Buffalo Bill isn't quite as exciting as what's come beforehand, it's still a strong, gripping film of good writing. My one lingering doubt is I wish I had seen Europa Europa again before casting my vote.

[Big Magilla]

The only difference between this year's WGA and Oscar nominations in the screenplay categories was the WGA's substitution of the three person collaborative adaptation of The Commitments for Agnieszka Holland's Europa Europa which I'm assuming was ineligible.

I have no issue with the adaptations. The problems with The Prince of Tides are mainly in the direction, not the screenplay. JFK was cleverly written if more than a bit over-the-top. Europa Europa, Fried Green Tomatoes and The Silence of the Lambs were brilliantly written and the right one won which makes it a cause for celebration.

The winner among the originals, Thelma & Louise, was the right pick in that category as well, but The Fisher King and Boyz 'n' the Hood would have been decent choices as well. Bugsy coming as it did at the end of a long cycle of gangster films struck me as just one too many. Grand Canyon I should probably see again, but I found it at the time as too L.A. centric for my tastes. My picks would have been the one-of-a-kind work of Peter Chelsom and Adrian Dunbas on Hear My Song and Neil Jordan on The Miracle, closely followed by the equally wonderful work of Jenny Wingfield on The Man in the Moon and Bob Comfort on Dogfight.