Rating: 
Summary: a word is worth a thousand pictures in this case
Review: Story by Robert Mckee is one of the best pieces of literature these old bones have had the pleasure of holding. Every single sentence is chalked full of mountains of wealth. It's like reading Beowulf, without the wolf. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then McKee makes a word worth a thousand pictures with his inspiring and thought invoking writing on screenplays. He tells the reader that one must study the craft of screenwriting before attempting any kind of writing that will be worth anything. He likens it to if someone were to listen to a bunch of symphonies, say all 9 of Beethoven's, then say, "you know what, I can write a symphony." McKee says that film watching and life experiences aren't enough, that one must study the art. He says that life in fact is overrated as a form of qualification for writing. Research is key to knowing how life works also. Life plus deep reflection on our reactions to life. After reading this it is hard not to write something of worth--or at least I think this is the case. It hurts not to write after reading this, and not 'hurts so good' like the John Mellencamp song.
Rating:
Summary: The real thing . . .
Review: I have now ploughed through seven different books on screenwriting. Robert McKee's "Story" distinguishes itself as the best in one significant way: It provides real insight into the strucure of story-telling, the techniques that make stories work and the traps that many writers fall into. This is not a paint-by-numbers approach. This book challenges you to think about the ways that people really behave, and how that can be translated in a meaningful way to the silver screen.If you are going to read just one book on screenwriting, this is the one. I am not sure I will mention Robert McKee in my acceptance speech when I receive my Academy Award for best screenplay , but I might send him a case of champagne ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent "Story"
Review: "Story" was used as one of the reference texts in a university-level screenwriting class I took. To this day, I believe it is still the Bible in the field.
I believe there are many reasons "Story" stands out from the rest of the screenwriting books. First of all, McKee knows how to draw his readers' attention. Second, this book covers wealth of information. Beginning with the very basic vocabularies of the trade to the end of the book, I personally felt that I had finished a Jedi Knight course when I was done.
McKee begins the book by stating what elements a good story should consist of, and why Hollywood screenplays lack originality these days. In the major part of the book, he dissected a 2-hour, 3-act screenplay to discuss genre, substance, incident, act, scene, sequence, composition, plot, crisis, climax, or resolution, to name just a few. He analyzed a scene step-by-step to explain how and why a scene works or does not work. Each of them began with a good definition and illustrated by packing good and bad examples from well-known movies. The approach helps me to not only able to analysis a movie in finer details, but also to recognize that even award winning movies have room for improvements. Besides, re-watching these well-known movies to appreciate the better over the good scripts would not be such a torture comparing to watching the bad over the worse scripts.
In the final part of the book, McKee highlighted the importance of characters within a story, which I personally particularly appreciate. The author did not make story writing a mechanical exercise, but an intellectual and emotional exercise to understand humanity. For a good movie screenplay must be from a script writer who understands humanity, McKee spent a fair portion of the book discussing human behaviors in situations that often occur onscreen. To name a few, he stated his viewpoints on human behaviors during life and death situations, under pressure, on a crossroad, or reminded us the importance of subtext, that is, why onscreen characters should not speak out every thought in mind, etc.
McKee transforms the craft of screenwriting into an art form that separates the classics from the clichés. Based on the content, it would be fair to conclude that McKee understands both humanity and screenwriting, and "Story" is recommended for any story writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Take it with a grain of salt
Review: McKee's claim to fame rests on how many successful filmmakers once sat in his course. The assumption is that being in his course caused them to be successful. Was it? Probably successful filmmakers sit in on a lot of courses. Everybody can use one more good idea. Did they learn their craft from McKee? Be wary of assuming they did.
First of all, understand that this book, large as it is, covers only the basics of screenwriting. You may not want to read it first, but do not consider it the last book you'll ever need to read. The book deals with "Structure and Setting", "Structure and Genre," "Structure and Character," "Structure and Meaning," "The Substance of Story," the inciting incident, act design, scene design, scene analysis, composition, crisis, climax, resolution, "the principle of antagonism", exposition, problems and solutions, character.
"Structure is a selection of events from the characters' life stories..." (p.33). "A story event creates meaningful change in the life situation of a character..." (p.33) "Story values are universal qualities of human experience..." (p.34) "To plot means to navigate through the dangerous terrain of story and when confronted by a dozen branching possibilities to choose the correct path." (p.43) And so it goes. Such truisms make the book read like Spinoza, except that Spinoza distinguished between theorems and postulates, and all of McKee's propositions are postulated. McKee then jumps from these bland truism to discuss movies that most people would have mixed feelings about (at best). He assures us that these movies exhibit the desirable properties he is talking about, and the vagueness with which his truisms are stated make this sleight of hand possible. But none of this is helpful to the would-be screenwriter.
Second, the book, throughout, is based on the assumption that you (meaning everyone) agree with McKee on his value judgments of movies. If you were less than thrilled with some of the movies he cites, you should be wary of the advice he gives. His value prejudices are usually subtle but are sometimes blatant. For example, he cites "Tender Mercies" as an example of plot (p.43-44). This movie did appeal to some viewers (though not to others), but whatever its appeals, plot is not one of its strong points. More generally, he cites every movie that attained any degree of fame as a successful example-though he does not tell us in what way they were successful or how many viewers regarded them as such. So, we have "Un Chien Andalou", "Last Year at Marienbad," "Paris, Texas", etc. as exemplary films.
One reason people read this book is to find out how the people who run the film industry currently think. But the book may not be as au courant as one might think. McKee says that "writers rush to their typewriters" (p.15). No writer has rushed to a typewriter in over 20 years.
Also, some of McKee's tastes are one-sided. For example: "Comedy is at heart an angry, antisocial art." (page 360). Well, for some people it is. You might call these films, "ill-humored comedy". But there are many other comedies that are not angry, nasty and hostile. Are these comedies therefore bad?
By not recognizing audience differences, McKee can be dogmatic about how to write a screenplay (and he is). His main support for his value judgments is in the movie examples he cites. But if you were less than thrilled with some of these movies, you'll have to take his advice with a grain of salt.
Still, there is a lot of basic information that few could quarrel with. If you are a beginning screenwriter, you could well invest in this book. You need to read a number of books anyway, so that the tastes of one author are counter by others.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Screenwriting Book
Review: When I moved to Los Angeles in 1999, my first boss (in film and television development) told me to read this book. It's the one everyone in the industry uses to measure scripts, she said. Five years later, I finally read it. Now I know why it's so respected.
Robert McKee lays out a detailed form -- not formula -- for a good script. His arguments and examples are clear and convincing. At the end of the book, he even offers step-by-step on the mechanics of how to actually put your ideas into script form.
I would like for him to have included the rules for the actual formatting of a script, but you can easily find those online. Other than that, this book is absolutely amazing and inspirational. If you have an idea for a script but are having trouble organizing it into a good story, this book will help. If your scripts tend to be mediocre, this book will tell you why and how to fix them.
This not a "write a screenplay in 10 weeks" book. It's for people who want to study their craft and take their time to write memorable scripts of lasting quality. Mr. McKee's grasp of story is so insightful that I expect it to help me in my acting career, as well. I know better how to analyze a screenplay scene by scene.
Don't wait to read this book like I did. Pick it up now.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book once, then read it again
Review: Read this book once, then read it again.
I bought it two years ago, studied it avidly and then wrote (full-time) for seven months and completed my first two screenplays off the back of it while refering back to the book. The screenplays were good, but not great. What I was doing was learning a craft (I have a language and literature degree - that's a help but doesn't mean I didn't have to learn a lot).
Over the course of writing these first two, I was internalising a lot of the principles McKee writes about. Then I stopped reading him and wrote a third - much better - screenplay, then a fourth one I am sure about. Does that mean I got better when I stopped reading McKee? No. It means I was developing my ability and worked 40 hours a week for 18 months to get to the place I wanted to be. But I am convinced that by reading McKee and working very hard you can lay down some very healthy tracks in your psyche which will help you go on to do good work.
There are those who say languages can be learned without learning grammar, you should just go to the country and start picking it up. Those people make swift progress, but they are never sure of their knowledge. If you learn grammar, if you drum the rules into your head and then work hard you will overtake the short-cut merchants every time in the long run. McKee is your grammar school. But when you've got those patterns, those aspects down to the level of your unconscious, you can allow yourself to run more freely. It doesn't mean the rules do not apply anymore. It means you have absorbed them.
Same with databases. At first you learn theory (or you should). You read Codd, Date and Chen and go almost blind from boredom. You learn the rules of normalisation and relations. Then you plot out your database and then build it. It's tedious and the end result won't be so great, but it will work. After a few months you don't have to think about it any more and your work will be a lot more inspired.
So back to McKee. "Story" is the grammar and relational theory of drama. A boot camp for people who like to work that way. Not everyone does. I do.
It's excellently written and carries some of the best arguments I have read anywhere. McKee's thinking is crystalline and even if you disagree with him (which you will - or should - here and there) you will still be richer for having heard him out.
Also, full marks for not cluttering up the text with copious polit-bureau sanctioned pronoun nomenclature (the American "he or she" obsession).
Rating:
Summary: Great book on writing
Review: This isn't just a good book for screenwriting - it's a great book for writing, period. If you're a novelist or a short story writer, simply think in terms of the type of story that you're writing, as opposed to a screen play, and you'll find that all of the valuable information contained in this book will work for you as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Valuable but not enjoyable.
Review: As a beginning screenwriter (and by beginner I mean I've been writing for years without any real method) who plans to produce my work, I found this book very valuable. That is I can definitely benefit from applying to my writing the principles that Robert lays out in great detail.
What I CAN'T say is that I enjoyed this book. At times it felt like the book was sucking out of me all of the joy and excitement that I got just from the prospect of putting an idea on the page. It scared me and made me think that nothing I did would be good enough and there was no way I would be able to internalize all the minute details he points out. I've never been afraid of criticism in anything that I do, but at points "Story" made me afraid to do something I once enjoyed. BUT, it will not stop me.
In fact I feel that making it through this book and tirelessly highlighting every passage I wanted to come back to for later reference (and boy were there a lot of them) was a sort of test. How bad did I really want it? (If I can make it through a thousand-page book on programming then dammit I can do this!) I breathed a sigh of relief when I made it to the final page and my desire to write was not stripped from me. I feel like I faced a fear that probably a lot of writers don't. That is, how can I tell if my writing is REALLY good enough? I realize that it's possible to write with enjoyment and also intelligence. Who knows, maybe the intelligence will make the enjoyment even greater.
Since I plan to make my movie I knew at the start that in the absence of "Hollywood money" I had to have a story and a screenplay that was not just good but great. At the end this book gave me what I needed and I'm glad I braved its pages. If it can get me even one step closer to my dreams then I owe its author thanks. Right now I feel like the millipede that falls from the tree in the fable he quotes on the last page. My pride is a little hurt and I'm nervous but after I've worked at it and straightened out my limbs, prepare to be dazzled.
Rating:
Summary: He's an arrogant person - but the book is excellent
Review: I had the opportunity to meet Robert McKee in the Melbourne International Film Festival and he was arrogant, cocksure, and too proud of himself. That being the case, he was nice enough to sign my book and carry on a boring half-hour conversation with me -- answering my questions that I could have looked up in the "Story" book myself. This book is excellent for every professional and aspiring screenwriter -- or anybody else interested in the mechanics of story design. All in all, a great reference, a good read, and worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: The real thing . . .
Review: I have now ploughed through seven different books on screenwriting. Robert McKee's "Story" distinguishes itself as the best in one significant way: It provides real insight into the strucure of story-telling, the techniques that make stories work and the traps that many writers fall into. This is not a paint-by-numbers approach. This book challenges you to think about the ways that people really behave, and how that can be translated in a meaningful way to the silver screen. If you are going to read just one book on screenwriting, this is the one. I am not sure I will mention Robert McKee in my acceptance speech when I receive my Academy Award for best screenplay , but I might send him a case of champagne ;-)
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