Backstory 5: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1990’s. Patrick McGilligan. London, UK. University of California Press, 2010. 252 pages.
By Patrick Charsky
Patrick McGilligan’s Backstory 5: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1990’s is shorter than his previous works. And the interviews are shorter, sometimes too short, to really provide insight into screenwriting or what it was like to be a Screenwriter in the 1990’s. Many of the scribes interviewed in Backstory 5 got their start in other decades and seem to be out of place. The book still does retain qualities to educate and appeal to aspiring or established Screenwriters.
Backstory 5 was published ten years ago and may be McGilligan’s swan song to the Backstory series. McGilligan has published widely in Film Studies. He teaches at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Through Oral Histories McGilligan delivers another Screenwriting seminar in book form. From advice about breaking into Screenwriting, working with Directors, and adapting other material into Screenplays, Backstory 5 is replete with anecdotes and examples about working as a Screenwriter in the 1990’s.
Breaking into Screenwriting is as hard as ever in contemporary Hollywood. In Backstory 5, veteran Screenwriters talk about how to get started in the industry. Jean-Claude Carriere recommends that novice Screenwriters join a group of filmmakers. He says that writing a screenplay and sending it off to technicians is a very bad way to work. Carriere is French and his opinion seems to be more of a European way of looking at filmmaking. Still, his years of experience and legendary status as a Screenwriter makes his advice as good as gold.
Nora Ephron, one of two women Screenwriters interviewed in the book, advises would be filmmakers to study Journalism like she did. Developing a knowledge of a wide variety of subjects is the best way forward to make great films. Rudy Wurlizter, perhaps the most independent Screenwriter interviewed for the book, recommends adopting the beat ethos of seeing the World by endless travel. Both Ephron and Wurlitzer criticize Film Schools as teaching students nothing of value. Wurlitzer says “Film schools have been a disaster for writing.”
These are some of the best examples from Backstory 5 about breaking into Screenwriting. Whether it was working as a Journalist, meeting the right person, making short films, or writing novels or plays; each person had some big break which led them into the A-list class of Screenwriters. All of the Screenwriters worked for years developing their craft and steadily advancing up the ladder of success.
In previous editions of the Backstory series there has been plenty of discussion of the process of adaptation. In Backstory 5 the insights about the process of adaptation have never been clearer. In the interview with Ronald Harwood, he talks about his process of adaptation. According to Harwood the most important bit of advice is to “avoid literary pretensions in screenplays.” In one of his first adaptations for A High Wind in Jamaica he talks about how the director told him to cut down almost all of his description and let him “do the rest.”
In addition to Harwood, Richard LaGravanese has worked on some of the most memorable adaptations of the 1990’s. He talks about how it takes him a rather long time, around a year, to create the screenplay from a famous novel such as The Horse Whisperer. LaGravenese talks about how he worked closely with Robert Redford on the script. Another great interview that talks about working with big budget adaptations is with Tom Stoppard. Stoppard worked with Steven Spielberg on Empire of the Sun, a novel by J. G. Ballard. The movie was a triumph. The sad part of all these interviews with A-list Screenwriters is that none of them has made any effort to write “spec” scripts. Spec scripts sold well in the 90’s, but have since declined with the advent of “tent poles” and franchise flicks. It is a shame that writers like Stoppard don’t see any value in coming up with original screenplays. It is sad to say that writing on spec has become an anachronism, reserved only for the very few.
Another great subject that the interviews in Backstory 5 discuss is working with Directors. For some Screenwriters it proves a big break in their careers. Jean-Claude Carriere’s collaboration with Luis Bunuel is the stuff of legend resulting in films like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and That Obscure Object of Desire. It was also a big stepping stone for Carriere who made some of the most memorable films to come out of Europe like The Tin Drum and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
David Koepp received his big break by meeting with Steven Spielberg and working on several films together, including Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds. Koepp talks about his anxiousness at first working with the super-star Spielberg. He says he eventually got over being star struck and gets along fine with Spielberg. Another example of a writer getting ahead by working with a Director comes from Barbara Turner. Turner worked with Robert Altman who was a leading Director of the New Hollywood. She says that working with Altman was at times combative, but always friendly.
These interviews show that working with a Director can be very good for a Screenwriter. Often a Director is established and is able to push a project forward to completion in a way that a Screenwriter, who is often just starting out, never could. Most people don’t recognize Screenwriters, but they do know big name Directors like Spielberg, Luis Bunuel, or Robert Altman.
Backstory 5 succeeds as a history of Screenwriters and screenwriting. The interviews are on a par with the other books in the series. The questions sometimes veer into repetition, but the interviewer, whether McGilligan himself, or someone else, is always well prepared. And the interviews are always well conducted and done with utmost preparation. The insights into contemporary Hollywood or Indiewood are edifying for any Screenwriter. Only one question remains; it is 2020, Backstory 5 was published 10 years ago, will McGilligan be so kind as to create another edition to his excellent series?
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