Rating: 
Summary: Best book to start
Review: This book will open your eyes to look at movies in a new and different way. Syd Field demonstrates that movies can be broken down into 3 acts and contain story twists that occur at surprisingly similar times in all good films. Even Shakespeare's plays seem to be structured this way even though Shakespeare, who obviously could not have read Syd Field's book, happened upon its concepts intuitively.
I've noticed that some people reading this book for the first time claim that Syd Field is too formulaic and that this somehow strangles creativity. This is just not true unless you believe that Shakespeare and probably all your favorite films are unimaginative and lack creativity. This book shows you a "structure" that is incredibly helpful. It does not give you story ideas. Structure doesn't prevent originality or creativity. Think of the English language in which every sentence has structure and grammar that you learn when you're young; that doesn't mean you can't be creative with the English language within its own structure.
It's true that many of Syd Field's examples are old films like Chinatown because that's when he originally wrote this book, but that doesn't mean that the concepts in it are dated. Let me put it this way: Every vice president of production I've ever met at any studio has read this book and uses the terminology in it when talking to writers. If you're interested in writing screenplays to sell in Hollywood, you MUST read this book.
After you've read it, you can read Robert McKee's "Story," which is a little more complex and talks about conflict, story crisis, deeper aspects of character, story rhythm, subtext in dialogue, the inciting incident that triggers the story, etc. But read Syd Field's book first.
Lastly, some believe that since Syd Field has never, himself, sold a screenplay, that you shouldn't take his book too seriously. Do you know how many great novelists have had writing teachers who have never sold a book? The same is true of great musicians and great artists. Even Vincent Van Gogh took painting lessons to learn basic structure and balance in painting. This also means, however, that reading this book and mastering its concepts is not by itself going to make you a great screen writer. It simply provides you with knowledge and tools. How you use them is up to you. But knowing them is essential.
Rating: 
Summary: A crude formula
Review: If you're just beginning to fulfill your fantasy of becoming a screenwriter, read this book with several grains of salt. Field's paradigm formulation is unpolished, incomplete and not well thought out.
Or better yet, don't read this book at all.
But if you are curious about his paradigm regardless of the return on the investment of your time and money, I suggest reading instead the sequel "The Screenwriter's Workbook" where he fleshes out his paradigm with some additional ideas and movie references.
Rating: 
Summary: a good starting point
Review: Apart from this book being too formulaic in tone and content for my taste, I was surprised to notice at the bio excerpt at the end of the book that the author doesn't seem to have any screenplay credits to his name. Now that by itself doesn't necessarily disqualify someone from being a screenwriting instructor. For example, you can;t expect every creative writing teacher to have a book out. But one would expect a guy who is called "the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world" and a self-professed screenwriter himself to have at least one produced screenplay. It would add weight to his reputation by showing that his system works. However, I must give credit where credit is due. He gets praise from the screenwriter of the movie "Like What For Chocolate" and the director of the shows L. A. Law and NYPD Blue. Also, even though his various screenwriting rules are not written in stone for me, I think they are generally good ideas. Furthermore, I find his teaching style clear and easy to follow and his instructions fairly easy to incorporate. I would recommend this as a good screenwriting how-to book, but not the only one, not the bible of screenwriting. Learn from it, but don't take it as "the only right way to do it." True and spontaneous originality can never be found in a formula.
David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"
Rating:
Summary: A WUNDERFUL BOOK FOR SCREENPLAY RIGHTERS!
Review: I red SCREENPLAY many years ago before righting my own movie, BILLY 'N' BILLIE. Iliked the book. It was reel good at showing you what elimints are need in construkting a movie that will cell.There was only one thing that buged me and that was he says that all good movies follow a certin pairadime. But then on page 118 he says "What about NASHVILLE? Is that an exception?" He then shows how it doesnt seem like it but NASHVILLE reely does follow the pattern. Then he winds it up by saying "Robert Altman...films may look randomly composed but in reality they are executed with sculpted finesse. NASHVILLE fits the paradigm to a tee." (It seems I mispelled paradigm earlyer but you knew what I ment right?) But what bugs me is that NASHVILLE reely doesnt fit the paradigm to a tee at all and SYD FIELD didnt have the curage of his conviktions to come out and say so. and ferthermore NASHVILLE is not a good movie at all. I tryed to watch it three times and never made it. But the rest of this book is good. My movie BILLY 'N' BILLIE nobody bought but even tho that happened to me I still think this book is good and I wreckamend it. My copy is totaly dogeared! I still dont no why my movie didnt cell but I might re-right it today on my lunch brake and try it again. Goodluck everyone!!!
Rating:
Summary: Don't listen to the frustrated reviewers
Review: Enough with the negative reviews. Syd Field writes from the perspective of a reader who makes decisions to recommend movies to be made. It would be foolish to totally dismiss his advice on structure just because a few movies were successful (e.g. Pulp Fiction) in flouting the 3 act structure turning on 2 plot points. Read your Aristotle. It is a tested formula for a dramatic structure that will help keep an audience's interest.The difficulty that most people will have with Syd Field's writing is that he is not writing from the perspective of a writer, but of a consumer of writing. He is not going to give you advice on how to invent your story - to express your soul - so to speak. There are other texts you can use to help you put your thoughts on the page. After reading this book, I would recommend reading his Screenwriter's Workbook. It will flesh out the three act structure even further. Note: You will need a style guide to help actually format your document correctly.
Rating:
Summary: Start here . . .
Review: Syd Field's SCREENPLAY is a great book for a beginner. The author takes the reader through the basic steps of writing a screenplay, from the first idea to fleshing out the characters to the structure of the entire piece. He explains what a set-up is (and what it needs to be) and tips for beginning and ending the screenplay, two of the more difficult tasks a writer will face. Perhaps most importantly for those who have never written a script before, he devotes a chapter to the screenplay format, showing indentation and capitalization rules, defining terms used within the script, and explaining abbreviations. Novices to the form should start with this book before moving to more advanced books. I also recommend studying actual professional screenplays in their entirety.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading reviews
Review: I frankly purchased this book based on the 5 star rating offered by a 'Top Reviewer' and feel quite disappointed. Although, I would give it a two star rating because there are some useful points to ponder and use in this book. The main reason I got disappointed: the author insists very many times that movie-goers will like/dislike any movie during the first 10 minutes (not necessarily so in my and others experience) and that, to entice their interest, the first 28-30 pages of the screenplay should be interesting enough; he follows it up in almost every chapter about how the movie 'Chinatown' is a splendid example of what screenplay is all about. What stumped me is his admission in a later chapter that he fell asleep after the first few minutes when he watched 'Chinatown' for the first time! And that, it was only during his third viewing that he realized that it was an interesting movie and it was only later on - when examining some paintings during a Europe trip - that he realized what a great screenplay it was. I am baffled that he praises a movie so much and uses that as an example frequently while happily confessing that he had to see it three times to realize that it had a great screenplay. What happened to his theory that the first 10 minutes is crucial to interest the audience?
Rating: 
Summary: I am a teacher of screenwriting
Review: I am a professional screenwriter and I also teach advanced and beginning screenwriting at a prominent Bay Area university. Field is the benchmark teaching text, and I used it last semester to teach Screenwriting 1, the Basics. For this class, Field is as good as any text. I don't particularly like texts and don't usually use them to teach as I have a wealth of my own experiences to guide me and my students. But I did find Field useful, at least at this stage of the teaching process. Field gives new students a good overview of what is important in a screenplay: formatting; setup, confrontation, resolution, known as the "arc;" and he is helpful in creating characters. But it is my considered opinion that the best way to learn to write screenplays is to read screenplays. Personally, I would say that the person desirous of learning how to write a screenplay get his or her hands on as many screenplays as they possibly can. Reading them is what taught me to write them. And I had several bought, produced and shown in theaters and on TV. There is really no need to fill your shelves with textbooks on the subject. So I give Field three stars. Not so much because his book is faulty (in some places it is out of date: the screenplay today should be closer to 100 pages long, not the recommended 120 pages in Field), but because I doubt the need for books to learn this craft. Still, one book, like Fields, can be useful as a quick reference for a problem.
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