All Time Best Pictures--#1 [Part 1]

Well, we’re coming to the end of our list—the #1 film on the WGA greatest screenplays list— Casablanca [1942] by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. And if you look at most “best movies of all time” lists, Casablanca is usually number one. So it’s particularly interesting to look at how this script came about.

In 1940, Murray Burnett and Joan Alison wrote a play, Everybody Comes to Rick’s, that was never produced. But in 1941, that play arrived at the Warner Bros. story department because the studio had bought it. In 1942, screenwriter Robert Buckner—whose credits included Jezebel and Yankee Doodle Dandy, both highly successful films, wrote a memo to producer Hal Wallis bemoaning the fact that the studio had purchased the play:

“I might feel much freer in my opinions of this play, Everybody Comes to Rick's, if we hadn't paid such a sizable chunk of cash for it. Somebody must like it an awful lot and my criticisms will hardly be helpful to them. I do not like the play at all, Hal. I don't believe the story or the characters. Its main situations and the basic relations of the principals are completely censorable and messy, its big–moment is sheer hokum melodrama of the E. Phillips Oppenheim variety; and this guy Rick is two-parts Hemingway, one-part Scott Fitzgerald, and a dash of café Christ. Reading this back, I sound free enough, don't I?”

What I love about this, is that it’s such a great example of what screenwriting is all about—telling a story that probably will be hated by half the people who read it.

It’s kind of like art. Two people can look at the same painting and one can love it and the other can think it’s a travesty. Who’s right? Well, there is no right. And that’s true with film as well. A film can win best picture of the year and there will be people who hate it.

Case in point number one: 1995. The films up for best picture were Forrest Gump,Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show and The Shawshank Redemption. OK. Which of those is truly the best film? Well, I don’t think many people would argue that it’s not Quiz Show or Forrest Gump. Neither is in the same league with the other three. In terms of standing the test of time, both Shawshank and Pulp Fiction are thought to be masters of filmmaking. And even Four Weddings is still seen as an iconic film. But what won? Forrest Gump.

Looking back, with only 25 years' hindsight, it’s a nice little film, but best picture of the year? I can’t see it.

Case in point number two: 1982. The films up for best picture were Atlantic City, Chariots of Fire, On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Reds. OK, on this one there’s no doubt in my mind—Reds was the best picture. Atlantic City was a moving, lovely film, and On Golden Pond was touching, and Raiders was an iconic movie thrill ride but Chariots of Fire? The best thing about it was its music—otherwise, it was ultimately forgettable. Reds, the true masterpiece, didn’t win though. What did? Chariots of Fire. I can still remember being at the Academy Awards party with friends in NY where I watched the ceremony. I was dumbstruck. What was wrong with people?! How could they not see genius? Because for me, to this day, Reds is something really special.

So when that great screenwriter said he really hated Casablanca, I get it. We’re all different and we’re allowed to like what we like. And, at the end of the day, Casablanca remains the #1 film of all time… more next week on why that’s the case.

Copyright © Diane Lake

31May20

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