I mean this affectionately: he was the most talented hack of his time. He did nothing to expand the horizons of what a film could be -- if you read his chapter on trying to adapt The Right Stuff, you'll see he actively worked against it -- but within the bounds of the hired-by-studio system, his glib use of dialogue and action made him a terrific entertainer. He's what Aaron Sorkin seemed to be prior to The Social Network (I know: some of you don't think Sorkin ever improved, but let's argue that elsewhere).
Butch Cassidy, for good and ill, is probably his most influential screen-work, but All the President's Men is surely the most accomplished. We'll never now how much of that was him and how much was what Pakula pushed him to. But it's a wonderful film.
However, like Sabin, I most treasured him as observer of the scene. His Oscar previews were often hilarious, even when I disagreed with everything he said. And his book The Season, 50 years on, remains the most entertaining book I've ever read about Broadway. There are phrases/memes in that book I've been quoting ever since. A writer can ask for no more flattering tribute.
R.I.P. William Goldman
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Re: R.I.P. William Goldman
I was just thinking about him the other day. Like Stan Lee, I'd already made peace with his passing. I was prepared to say he hadn't written a movie since Dreamcatcher in 2003, but apparently an old script of his called Wild Card was produced in 2015 starring Jason Statham. But his work for hire days were behind him.
He wrote movies that skewered notions of what it meant to be a man, although he became publicly famous as a Hollywood skeptic. But let's be frank. He liked to bitch and he did so with a warm, curmudgeonly voice that made Premiere magazine the thing to grab every Oscar season.
RIP
He wrote movies that skewered notions of what it meant to be a man, although he became publicly famous as a Hollywood skeptic. But let's be frank. He liked to bitch and he did so with a warm, curmudgeonly voice that made Premiere magazine the thing to grab every Oscar season.
RIP
"How's the despair?"
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