Among excluded originals, I definitely would have included After Hours, such a unique effort in the Scorsese canon, and a surprisingly funny one. I also think Blood Simple, while obviously a warm-up to much greater work from the Coens, was still a fairly blazing debut. But many of the nominees here were far worthier than anything on the Adapted slate, I feel.
My big gripe with The Official Story is that it doesn't really go much of anywhere. Norma Aleandro suspects her adopted daughter's mother might have suffered a grim fate, and scene after scene shows her continuing to suspect this. The journey she goes on to uncover more and more information isn't especially interesting from a plot standpoint, and as Mister Tee notes, the political "revelations" aren't especially revelatory, certainly not when viewed thirty years on. And by the end of the movie, we aren't really left with that much more information than when our heroine set out on her quest. There are some moments of power along the way, but as a whole, I think a lot of it just sort of sits there.
Witness is a popular film school example used to teach basic screenwriting structure. And that sort of makes some kind of sense -- it's pretty immaculately structured, in the way that it all feels plotted out by machine, every story beat coming exactly where you think it will. But all praise for the movie's structure ignores its plentitude of screenplay deficiencies: namely, that it lacks much in the way of inventive writer-ly spark, essentially just dresses up a standard cop movie plot in Amish clothing, and is overall beyond shallow thematically. It's one of very many winners in this category in the 80's that I find far too bland for even a nomination, much less the trophy.
I'm sure the fact that I fell in love with it as a kid is a big part of it, but I think Back to the Future is a pretty entertaining movie. The set-up is hugely inventive (and full of a lot of witty details), the plot rollicks along with both excitement and a lot of laughs, and the use of planting/pay-off is about as rewarding on a narrative level as nearly any big blockbuster ever got. And I guess I have a different take on the movie's politics than Mister Tee -- while Back to the Future is obviously light-hearted, I think its tone is far more of a send-up of stereotypically '50's-era values than an endorsement of them. I find it an exceedingly clever movie, though of course it's more of a pop pleasure than anything hugely profound.
The Purple Rose of Cairo, too, is mostly a souffle, but it's another very inventive one, and a wonderful celebration of the magic of the movies. (Truly, I find it taps into the idea of movies as an escape from the hardships of life far more than any sequence in Kiss of the Spider Woman.) And it's full of delightfully memorable dialogue, like "I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional, but you can't have everything," and perhaps one of my favorite lines Woody Allen ever wrote, delivered by the random moviegoer who gripes, "I want what happened in the movie last week to happen this week. Otherwise, what's life all about anyway?" a piece of dialogue that expresses the primal comfort our favorite, unchanging, movies provide in a world where change is otherwise a certainty. I agree that the movie doesn't hit as many tough truths as some of Allen's greatest scripts, but I still think the level of imagination here puts it well within win territory.
But, like most, I voted for Brazil. Here is a movie whose set-up allowed Terry Gilliam (and his collaborators) to craft a towering cinematic vision, full of dazzling and consistently surprising visuals. But I wouldn't want to celebrate the movie only in terms of its technical craft -- along the way, there is a ton of inventive humor, so many specific details it's almost hard to grasp their collective meaning on one viewing, and a storyline that pulses along in much the same way Back to the Future does. In other words, I think the script is as central to the movie's success as the direction and design are, and I salute the complexity of its ideas, the scope of its ambition, and the outrageous imagination on display in its creation of a freakishly funny and simultaneously frightening dystopia with my vote as Best Original Screenplay.
Best Screenplay 1985
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
Brazil and Out of Africa for me, for reasons Mister Tee already elucidated.
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
Gracias, Elix 
But I guess I'm not THAT technological, so I'll give up - and just say that I voted for Brazil and Kiss of the Spider Woman
But I guess I'm not THAT technological, so I'll give up - and just say that I voted for Brazil and Kiss of the Spider Woman
-
HarryGoldfarb
- Adjunct
- Posts: 1071
- Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2003 4:50 pm
- Location: Colombia
- Contact:
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
About Error 403:Mister Tee wrote:Once it starts happening it seems to continue without end. Maybe try again later today, or tomorrow.ITALIANO wrote:How can I post here? I always get a 403...
If we could only figure out why it happens, we might be able to fix it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245758
"If you place an object in a museum, does that make this object a piece of art?" - The Square (2017)
-
Mister Tee
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8648
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
I was literally just about to propose the same. It's taken me till now to catch up on last week's group; I know I'm going to be offering reaction to SAGs and Globes in the next two days, plus whatever movie(s) I happen to see over the weekend; and the pressures of the season are starting to crowd in on me. In that context, putting together reactions to ten films a week seems overwhelming -- if not cease altogether till New Years, can we at least slow the pace?The Original BJ wrote:A question: is everyone interested in keeping these running throughout the awards season? I'm feeling a lot more interested in writing about this season's movies (and awards) than the past races right now, and I'll probably fall far behind if we keep up at the current pace. Which is fine -- I'm not the only person who writes here, and can always catch up whenever -- but wanted to at least open that up to discussion.
-
Mister Tee
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8648
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
At some point in Butch Cassidy, Katharine Ross says “I’m a 26-year-old, unmarried school-teacher, and that’s the bottom of the pit”. Respectfully, Ms. Ross, you’re wrong: 1985 movies are the bottom of the pit. Everything that made the 80s a crap decade came together in one worthless year. (On the bright side, it was the year I started seeing my wife, so I didn’t care quite so much.)
So, take my substitutes lightly. Under adapted, The Falcon and the Snowman was at least a respectable true-life-espionage story. In original, I can offer mild endorsements for After Hours, Lost in America and Wetherby -- not to say you should run out to catch them, but they’re painless – and a bit more for Dennis Potter’s inventive, moving script for Dreamchild.
Witness was indeed the least distinguished of the original nominees, but don’t blame the Academy for that: blame the critics, who inflated this nothing-burger of a movie into some kind of major social statement. I saw a routine thriller mixed with antiquated city-slicker-on-the-farm jokes; a movie that professed to be a meditation on violence, but got its biggest jolts from its violence. I certainly didn’t see a praiseworthy piece of screenwriting.
We’ve discussed Back to the Future earlier. I think the plotting has a primal appeal, and there are some nice touches (like passing the 1955 sign advertising the not-yet-built development that will become the family’s home). But there’s a ton of crude humor (culminating in the manure truck-dump), and a lot of it’s written with such obviousness it seems they were afraid the mouth-breathers would miss something (“Lightning struck here in 1955 – 30- years ago TODAY!”). And, as I mentioned earlier, I find the film’s politics retrograde: the father punches out a bully, and it’s such a life-turning event, when he returns to 1985 he’s rich and popular. With those values, he should have stayed in the 50s. All this is to say, no: I’m not voting for it.
The Official Story was a popular pick in certain circles – those who think subtitles always make a movie better. I thought its foreign-ness obscured the fact it was essentially a Jane Fonda movie of the period: sheltered woman discovers “the truth” about her society/life thanks to a lefty explaining it to her. What was particularly insulting about this rendition of the tale was, the woman in question was a history professor. Not to say every history professor knows everything, but they’ve certainly done the reading – for this character to be so ignorant of her own country in areas that were her field of endeavor seemed ridiculous to me. I couldn’t take the film seriously.
The Purple Rose of Cairo was an early instance of what over time became Woody Allen’s dominant, lighter style. Absent were the punchy NY rhythms of Annie Hall and Manhattan; the comedy was more high- than situational – played at an airy, lyrical level. Some of it was quite lovely, but I found I responded at more chuckle-level than the laugh-out-loud to which Woody has accustomed me. And I found the ending rather more bleak than I wanted for such a light-as-a-feather vehicle; it seemed to me Woody could have found a way to make the same point without grinding an audience’s face in misery. A decent effort – certainly better than the preceding three – but not one of my Woody votes.
Brazil DID find a way to offer a bleak ending and yet make the audience depart elated by the art on display. It’s not as if Brazil is completely original: anyone can see it lifts its primary story from 1984 (or, as Pauline Kael wrote, from an impression of 1984 derived by someone who’s never read it). But the wild details and the story energy made it feel fresh, and it clearly towers over the rest of this piddly list. How nice to be in the screenplay category, where I can vote for my actual favorite film of the year.
My thought looking over the adapted slate is, I have to pick one of these? This group of films makes clear just how dreary a year it was – even the movies that weren’t bad were very much on the dull side.
The Color Purple is the one of the group I DO think is bad. The film as a whole is played at a broad, hokey level (ha!: watch Harpo fall through the roof!), and the narrative disintegrates entirely in the last reel. Once Celie boarded the train, the film started to feel choppy – like key scenes had been cut. And, as I’ve noted here all too many times, Margaret Avery’s musical confrontation with her father at the church is a moment of stupefying badness – as awful a moment as any in the Spielberg canon (and I include Hook). For this film to be nominated by writers is a joke…or, just a sign of how hopeless 1985 was.
The Trip to Bountiful is very minor play – I was going to say, “minor Horton Foote”, but I don’t know I view any Foote play as more than minor. There are nice moments in the film – Page’s flirtation with the bus ticket salesman, her conversation with DeMornay. But the overall story is wispy, and, for my taste, rather too neatly divides the world into practicing Christians and lesser folk. I was all for Page’s career win (in the absence of anyone else all that great), but the screenplay nod was a stretch.
I’ve thought of taking another look at Kiss of the Spider Woman, 30 years on, but I’m afraid it’d only confirm my feeling at the time, that the film was greatly over-praised by critics, desperate that summer for something vaguely grown-up. Molina is an interesting character (or was, for the time), and the story wasn’t the same old thing. But the plot isn’t that engaging, and, in the key climactic scene, it verged on incoherence. A worthy try, but not special enough.
I’d really like to vote for Prizzi’s Honor here – not least because the OTHER Condon adaptation, the one I’d vote for in a millisecond, won’t be available in 1962. And it’s not as if there aren’t clever things about Prizzi, starting with the Nicholson and Huston characters, and including some funny moments. But I just don’t think the thing holds together as any kind of full work; at the end, it felt to me something like a shaggy dog story. So, though I’d much prefer to vote for something in the cool range like this, I find I can’t give it my support.
I recognize I risk ridicule for picking Out of Africa – the same ridicule I’m offering the other candidates – and I can’t offer much argument. Out of Africa is not a film I like terribly much, or would ever want to propose as my champion in any category beyond pretty photography. But I do find it intelligent, tasteful, an impressive synthesis of Dinesen’s work translated into traditional movie form. Nothing in that preceding sentence is part of my credo for great cinema; it’s often the earmark of the most stultifying work, and Out of Africa does indeed skirt that category. But, by a hair, I think it qualifies as more praiseworthy than damnable, and, in this awful, Hobson’s choice of a category, I have to cast my ballot its way.
So, take my substitutes lightly. Under adapted, The Falcon and the Snowman was at least a respectable true-life-espionage story. In original, I can offer mild endorsements for After Hours, Lost in America and Wetherby -- not to say you should run out to catch them, but they’re painless – and a bit more for Dennis Potter’s inventive, moving script for Dreamchild.
Witness was indeed the least distinguished of the original nominees, but don’t blame the Academy for that: blame the critics, who inflated this nothing-burger of a movie into some kind of major social statement. I saw a routine thriller mixed with antiquated city-slicker-on-the-farm jokes; a movie that professed to be a meditation on violence, but got its biggest jolts from its violence. I certainly didn’t see a praiseworthy piece of screenwriting.
We’ve discussed Back to the Future earlier. I think the plotting has a primal appeal, and there are some nice touches (like passing the 1955 sign advertising the not-yet-built development that will become the family’s home). But there’s a ton of crude humor (culminating in the manure truck-dump), and a lot of it’s written with such obviousness it seems they were afraid the mouth-breathers would miss something (“Lightning struck here in 1955 – 30- years ago TODAY!”). And, as I mentioned earlier, I find the film’s politics retrograde: the father punches out a bully, and it’s such a life-turning event, when he returns to 1985 he’s rich and popular. With those values, he should have stayed in the 50s. All this is to say, no: I’m not voting for it.
The Official Story was a popular pick in certain circles – those who think subtitles always make a movie better. I thought its foreign-ness obscured the fact it was essentially a Jane Fonda movie of the period: sheltered woman discovers “the truth” about her society/life thanks to a lefty explaining it to her. What was particularly insulting about this rendition of the tale was, the woman in question was a history professor. Not to say every history professor knows everything, but they’ve certainly done the reading – for this character to be so ignorant of her own country in areas that were her field of endeavor seemed ridiculous to me. I couldn’t take the film seriously.
The Purple Rose of Cairo was an early instance of what over time became Woody Allen’s dominant, lighter style. Absent were the punchy NY rhythms of Annie Hall and Manhattan; the comedy was more high- than situational – played at an airy, lyrical level. Some of it was quite lovely, but I found I responded at more chuckle-level than the laugh-out-loud to which Woody has accustomed me. And I found the ending rather more bleak than I wanted for such a light-as-a-feather vehicle; it seemed to me Woody could have found a way to make the same point without grinding an audience’s face in misery. A decent effort – certainly better than the preceding three – but not one of my Woody votes.
Brazil DID find a way to offer a bleak ending and yet make the audience depart elated by the art on display. It’s not as if Brazil is completely original: anyone can see it lifts its primary story from 1984 (or, as Pauline Kael wrote, from an impression of 1984 derived by someone who’s never read it). But the wild details and the story energy made it feel fresh, and it clearly towers over the rest of this piddly list. How nice to be in the screenplay category, where I can vote for my actual favorite film of the year.
My thought looking over the adapted slate is, I have to pick one of these? This group of films makes clear just how dreary a year it was – even the movies that weren’t bad were very much on the dull side.
The Color Purple is the one of the group I DO think is bad. The film as a whole is played at a broad, hokey level (ha!: watch Harpo fall through the roof!), and the narrative disintegrates entirely in the last reel. Once Celie boarded the train, the film started to feel choppy – like key scenes had been cut. And, as I’ve noted here all too many times, Margaret Avery’s musical confrontation with her father at the church is a moment of stupefying badness – as awful a moment as any in the Spielberg canon (and I include Hook). For this film to be nominated by writers is a joke…or, just a sign of how hopeless 1985 was.
The Trip to Bountiful is very minor play – I was going to say, “minor Horton Foote”, but I don’t know I view any Foote play as more than minor. There are nice moments in the film – Page’s flirtation with the bus ticket salesman, her conversation with DeMornay. But the overall story is wispy, and, for my taste, rather too neatly divides the world into practicing Christians and lesser folk. I was all for Page’s career win (in the absence of anyone else all that great), but the screenplay nod was a stretch.
I’ve thought of taking another look at Kiss of the Spider Woman, 30 years on, but I’m afraid it’d only confirm my feeling at the time, that the film was greatly over-praised by critics, desperate that summer for something vaguely grown-up. Molina is an interesting character (or was, for the time), and the story wasn’t the same old thing. But the plot isn’t that engaging, and, in the key climactic scene, it verged on incoherence. A worthy try, but not special enough.
I’d really like to vote for Prizzi’s Honor here – not least because the OTHER Condon adaptation, the one I’d vote for in a millisecond, won’t be available in 1962. And it’s not as if there aren’t clever things about Prizzi, starting with the Nicholson and Huston characters, and including some funny moments. But I just don’t think the thing holds together as any kind of full work; at the end, it felt to me something like a shaggy dog story. So, though I’d much prefer to vote for something in the cool range like this, I find I can’t give it my support.
I recognize I risk ridicule for picking Out of Africa – the same ridicule I’m offering the other candidates – and I can’t offer much argument. Out of Africa is not a film I like terribly much, or would ever want to propose as my champion in any category beyond pretty photography. But I do find it intelligent, tasteful, an impressive synthesis of Dinesen’s work translated into traditional movie form. Nothing in that preceding sentence is part of my credo for great cinema; it’s often the earmark of the most stultifying work, and Out of Africa does indeed skirt that category. But, by a hair, I think it qualifies as more praiseworthy than damnable, and, in this awful, Hobson’s choice of a category, I have to cast my ballot its way.
-
The Original BJ
- Emeritus
- Posts: 4312
- Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2003 8:49 pm
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
A question: is everyone interested in keeping these running throughout the awards season? I'm feeling a lot more interested in writing about this season's movies (and awards) than the past races right now, and I'll probably fall far behind if we keep up at the current pace. Which is fine -- I'm not the only person who writes here, and can always catch up whenever -- but wanted to at least open that up to discussion.
To the Adapted screenplay race: it's hard to muster up any enthusiasm here, as this is basically a retread of the wan Best Picture field we've covered. Had it been an option, I'd have chosen Ran over any of the actual nominees (and even that was a greater visual achievement than a scripted one).
I saw the recent Cicely Tyson revival of The Trip to Bountiful on Broadway, and my reaction was basically the same to the play as it was to the film: it offers a strong role for the actress at its center, and has some touching moments (it's hard not to feel something at the sight of a woman returning home and seeing her boarded up childhood home for the last time). But on the whole, it's fairly bland material, and just not all that much happens in it. The script doesn't offend me, but I find it mostly half-hearted, and once again, I have resistance to voting for play adaptations here.
Kiss of the Spider Woman is another movie that I find quite lackluster overall -- I just don't find the relationship between Molina and Valentin to be all that deep, between their obvious cultural/sexuality differences. Perhaps thirty years ago, this felt like a more fresh dynamic, but seen today, it was hard for me to find it any kind of revelation. I also think the movie fantasies are pretty tepidly realized -- for a movie in which the escapist power of the cinema is a major theme, these sequences are surprisingly deficient in spark for me. Overall, I just felt it amounted to something very minor.
The Color Purple is the other nominee here whose source material I'm familiar with, and I have to say I think the screenplay is basically a misfire in terms of actually translating the content of the novel. Alice Walker's book is brutally dark, tackling issues of rape and unrequited lesbian love in a manner that's often startling to read. It's not that the novel didn't have its uplifting moments, but somehow the movie turned all of this into a triumph of the human spirit. Spielberg got a lot of (deserved) criticism in some circles for being the wrong director for this material, but Menno Meyjes can't escape all of the blame for the miscalculated nature of the adaptation.
Out of Africa's script is less obviously problematic, but like the slate as a whole, it's just kind of dull, if in a tasteful way. The elements of most interest in the movie are the gorgeous African scenery and that sweeping score, not any inventive aspects of the writing. The romance is fine -- the last reveal to Streep about Redford's fate is undeniably moving -- but isn't conceived in any especially unique manner. And the movie's politics seem dated even for the '80s, with its depiction of a white woman in Darkest Africa not much more enlightening than a '50s adventure flick. Given the options, it's hard to object too much to its win, but even here, I'll vote elsewhere.
That leaves Prizzi's Honor, which isn't exactly any kind of banner choice either -- I'd happily vote for most of the Original Screenplay nominees over this. It has its problems in the writing, mainly in terms of tone; I think the movie is too facetious to be a great crime drama, but too grim for black comedy, so different elements of the script constantly feel at odds with each other. But...I think the plot, despite too many twists, is the most ambitious of these nominees. And the dialogue sparkles with more imagination than anything else on the slate. And the Jack-Anjelica relationship is more exciting than the character drama in any of its competitors. And its blend of violence, comedy, and romance made it feel like the most originally conceived script on the ballot. And I have to vote for something.
To the Adapted screenplay race: it's hard to muster up any enthusiasm here, as this is basically a retread of the wan Best Picture field we've covered. Had it been an option, I'd have chosen Ran over any of the actual nominees (and even that was a greater visual achievement than a scripted one).
I saw the recent Cicely Tyson revival of The Trip to Bountiful on Broadway, and my reaction was basically the same to the play as it was to the film: it offers a strong role for the actress at its center, and has some touching moments (it's hard not to feel something at the sight of a woman returning home and seeing her boarded up childhood home for the last time). But on the whole, it's fairly bland material, and just not all that much happens in it. The script doesn't offend me, but I find it mostly half-hearted, and once again, I have resistance to voting for play adaptations here.
Kiss of the Spider Woman is another movie that I find quite lackluster overall -- I just don't find the relationship between Molina and Valentin to be all that deep, between their obvious cultural/sexuality differences. Perhaps thirty years ago, this felt like a more fresh dynamic, but seen today, it was hard for me to find it any kind of revelation. I also think the movie fantasies are pretty tepidly realized -- for a movie in which the escapist power of the cinema is a major theme, these sequences are surprisingly deficient in spark for me. Overall, I just felt it amounted to something very minor.
The Color Purple is the other nominee here whose source material I'm familiar with, and I have to say I think the screenplay is basically a misfire in terms of actually translating the content of the novel. Alice Walker's book is brutally dark, tackling issues of rape and unrequited lesbian love in a manner that's often startling to read. It's not that the novel didn't have its uplifting moments, but somehow the movie turned all of this into a triumph of the human spirit. Spielberg got a lot of (deserved) criticism in some circles for being the wrong director for this material, but Menno Meyjes can't escape all of the blame for the miscalculated nature of the adaptation.
Out of Africa's script is less obviously problematic, but like the slate as a whole, it's just kind of dull, if in a tasteful way. The elements of most interest in the movie are the gorgeous African scenery and that sweeping score, not any inventive aspects of the writing. The romance is fine -- the last reveal to Streep about Redford's fate is undeniably moving -- but isn't conceived in any especially unique manner. And the movie's politics seem dated even for the '80s, with its depiction of a white woman in Darkest Africa not much more enlightening than a '50s adventure flick. Given the options, it's hard to object too much to its win, but even here, I'll vote elsewhere.
That leaves Prizzi's Honor, which isn't exactly any kind of banner choice either -- I'd happily vote for most of the Original Screenplay nominees over this. It has its problems in the writing, mainly in terms of tone; I think the movie is too facetious to be a great crime drama, but too grim for black comedy, so different elements of the script constantly feel at odds with each other. But...I think the plot, despite too many twists, is the most ambitious of these nominees. And the dialogue sparkles with more imagination than anything else on the slate. And the Jack-Anjelica relationship is more exciting than the character drama in any of its competitors. And its blend of violence, comedy, and romance made it feel like the most originally conceived script on the ballot. And I have to vote for something.
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
I see... I've even tried to cut the post, make it shorter, etc - but nothing... I can only post one-lines like this...
-
Mister Tee
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8648
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
Once it starts happening it seems to continue without end. Maybe try again later today, or tomorrow.ITALIANO wrote:How can I post here? I always get a 403...
If we could only figure out why it happens, we might be able to fix it.
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
How can I post here? I always get a 403...
Re: Best Screenplay 1985
Can't vote for Brazil in Best Original Screenplay because I haven't seen The Official Story. That it stands at zero tells me that Italiano hasn't voted yet. Witness is fine. I hate to dog it because it'd be great if more thrillers were this level of competent. Brazil ranks among my favorite movies ever and would doubtlessly be my choice. Back to the Future and The Purple Rose of Cairo are wonderfully imaginative films and all three tap into a similar vein of irresistible day-dreamy escapism that is infinitely preferable to anything nominated for Best Picture.
I haven't seen The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider-Woman, Out of Africa, or Prizzi's Honor in at least fifteen years or The Trip to the Bountiful at all, so I pass on Adapted as well.
I haven't seen The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider-Woman, Out of Africa, or Prizzi's Honor in at least fifteen years or The Trip to the Bountiful at all, so I pass on Adapted as well.
"How's the despair?"
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19336
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Best Screenplay 1985
Somehow the Academy managed to reward the dullest contenders in both categories this year.
In Original, Back to the Future, Brazil and The Purple Rose of Cairo were all more complex and inventive, and The Official Story more heart-pounding and dramatic than Witness but for some reason the Amish community set thriller, which had opened way back in February, 1985 and whose greatest asset was probably its cinematography, caught the fancy of the voters having received the same award from the WGA despite not having been awarded by any of the other major precursors. L.A. went for Brazil, N.Y. and the Globes for The Purple Rose of Cairo and the National Society for the non-nominated Lost in America , originals all. Among the high=profile contenders that might also have been considered were Cocoon and Mask which the WGA had nominated over Brazil and The Official Story. My pick: Brazil.
In Adapted, WGA winner Prizzi's Honor was a joy, The Color Purple may not have been the book but it was a well-written screenplay, Kiss of the Spider Woman was a one-of-a-kind screenplay and The Trip to Bountiful was a decent, if only slightly, opening up of the play. The WGA's nomination of Agnes of God over Kiss of the Spider Woman was an even better opening up of a stage play. Out of Africa, on the other hand, was a long slog of a sit-through that grows more tedious with the passage of time. My pick: Prizzi's Honor.
In Original, Back to the Future, Brazil and The Purple Rose of Cairo were all more complex and inventive, and The Official Story more heart-pounding and dramatic than Witness but for some reason the Amish community set thriller, which had opened way back in February, 1985 and whose greatest asset was probably its cinematography, caught the fancy of the voters having received the same award from the WGA despite not having been awarded by any of the other major precursors. L.A. went for Brazil, N.Y. and the Globes for The Purple Rose of Cairo and the National Society for the non-nominated Lost in America , originals all. Among the high=profile contenders that might also have been considered were Cocoon and Mask which the WGA had nominated over Brazil and The Official Story. My pick: Brazil.
In Adapted, WGA winner Prizzi's Honor was a joy, The Color Purple may not have been the book but it was a well-written screenplay, Kiss of the Spider Woman was a one-of-a-kind screenplay and The Trip to Bountiful was a decent, if only slightly, opening up of the play. The WGA's nomination of Agnes of God over Kiss of the Spider Woman was an even better opening up of a stage play. Out of Africa, on the other hand, was a long slog of a sit-through that grows more tedious with the passage of time. My pick: Prizzi's Honor.