Screenwriting & Film

I like movies. They entertain, transport, inspire , induce laughter, and at times, their unpleasant cousin visits me as tears. Depending on the type of person you are, movies can effect you in a multiple of ways. What can make a movie a winner or a loser is the quality of its screenplay. They should be written with just enough information for a director to envision a scene and allow her "artistic licence" to take hold.

Earlier this week, Mark Boal won the Writers Guild of America award for best original screenplay for the film, The Hurt Locker. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awarded Boal the same achievement earlier this month. Boal appears to be on a roll as his screenplay has also been nominated for best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards next month.

It must have been hard for Boal to hold back in writing a list of detailed descriptions in his screenplay. Boal had been embedded with a bomb-disposal unit in Iraq and he's been quoted as saying there were, "many, many moments of real terror." To sum up this idea rapidly in the average person's mind, the term "hurt locker" is military slang for a bad and painful place. To the soldiers responsible for carrying out the actual work of defusing bombs, the term carries even more weight. If an IED explodes in front of you while trying to disarm it, the "hurt locker" is a white box draped with the U.S. flag shipped home full of military honors. Just try and limit your adjectives writing this screenplay. I'm guessing it wasn't easy.

James Cameron's Avatar, on the other hand, was probably a little easier screenplay to write. I say this only on the opinion of others as I have not seen Avatar, but it's fairly well known that it's claim to fame is visual excellence, not screenplay writing. It's absence from the Oscar nomination list in this category says enough. To be fair, Cameron is more about visual dialogue as even the most limited film buff would know. The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, Dark Angel, and Titanic, all speak to the artistic vision buried in Cameron's mind that screams to be captured on film.

While Kathryn Bigelow's film career is not as extensive as Cameron's, her work is gaining well-deserved recognition in the film industry. She's received awards for directing and nominations for both the Golden Globes and the Oscars. Her film, The Hurt Locker, has been generating buzz for a while for now. Two of her more well-known films include Strange Days and Point Break.

It's interesting to know that two of these Oscar contenders, James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, were once married. What a dynamic movie-making duo they could have been had they stayed together. The pair have been heard to speak highly of each other's recent directing efforts which is just, well, plain nice. Who knows, had they stayed married and collaborated on more films (Cameron produced Bigelow's, Point Break), they probably would've driven each other nuts and ended up hating each other.

But, I digress...

I predict none of these three will go away empty-handed come Oscar night, March 7th.