Adventures in the Screen Trade

by William Goldman

There are three kinds of movies— (1) movies that aspire to quality and succeed (2) movies that aspire to quality and don’t succeed (3) movies that never meant to be any good at all. The third group, alas, comprises the majority of commercial films. It’s hard to define this kind of film, but try this: movies for which the original pulse was either totally or primarily financial. Rip-offs, spinoffs, sequels, etc. This is the sort of film that we want to avoid, but few of us are so lucky. And in this third group, subtext is not a word much bandied about. You don’t fret a whole lot about subtext if you’re writing Halloween VI or Conan the Barbarian. But if you, as a writer, aspire to quality, it must be alive under every page you’ve done. Look at what you’ve written: If all that’s going on in your scenes is what’s going on in your scenes, think about it a long time. Then repack your snowball….