Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique

Rating:
Summary: Check it out at the library
Review: This book analyzes 10 movies -- their structure, plot points, etc, protagonists, antagonists, etc. It didn't take me long to get through the book because several of the chapters focus on movies I didn't like.

Once through the book and I think you'll find all you need. This isn't one that you pick up again and again to get you through the rough spots. Borrow it from your local library, spend a day or two pulling out what you need and then return it. There are many other books that will be more useful to you as references.

Rating:
Summary: Check it out at the library
Review: This book analyzes 10 movies -- their structure, plot points, etc, protagonists, antagonists, etc. It didn't take me long to get through the book because several of the chapters focus on movies I didn't like.

Once through the book and I think you'll find all you need. This isn't one that you pick up again and again to get you through the rough spots. Borrow it from your local library, spend a day or two pulling out what you need and then return it. There are many other books that will be more useful to you as references.

Rating:
Summary: Shatters The Myth of "3-Actitis" And Other Hollywood Fables
Review: While this book covers some of the same ground (if not the same exact screenplays) as Thomas Pope's well-written GOOD SCRIPTS, BAD SCRIPTS, Ms. Thompson clearly knows her stuff.

Just to have an educated author present an argument against 3-Act structure is provacative (Hollywood wants formulas, not new paradigms). In the rush to collapse the shelves of bookstores across America, too many "how-to-write-a-screenplay" tomes have twisted the 3-act structure into a cliched checklist far removed from any aesthetic considerations. This book shows the limitations of not only the 3-act philosophy, but other screenwriting "rules" as well.

While the critiques of all the films were full of insights, I preferred the chapters which discussed the differences/similarities between "old Hollywood" and "new Hollywood" with regard to "classic" storytelling and today's movies' cookie-cutter-characters with every-plot-point-in-its-place.

For both writers and the viewers this book proves to be a thought-provoking read not only about film, but the nature of story itself. You'll never look at movies, or your own memories, the same.