Chinatown and the Last Detail: Two Screenplays Review

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(More customer reviews)Robert Towne is easily one of the best screenwriters whose words have ever graced the silver screen. In these two screenplays, Towne displays his mesmerizing talent by fusing all of the integral elements that make a film not only brilliant but fun as well. With his mixture of memorable and unique characters, cutting-edge dialogue and nuanced styles, Towne is able to craft films that play out in the mind as well as they do on the screen. In the mystery thriller "Chinatown" that starred Jack Nicholson, Towne takes us on a nostalgia trip to a thinly disguised water war in 1930s-era Los Angeles. The characters leap off the page as well as they did off the screen in the film. Towne's words build momentum, snowballing through the heavily stylized locales and situations to a climactic sequence. Even without the support of Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston the screenplay is extremely readable and enjoyable. "The Last Detail", also starring Nicholson in the film, tells the story of two Navy lifers who are assigned to transport a buffoonish young recruit cross-country where he will spend the next eight years imprisoned - and the wild "Odyssey"-inspired events that unfold when the two lifers attempt to show the young prisoner a good time before he goes under. Not as intricate as "Chinatown" but the dialogue here is way before it's time and would fit right in with even the more unconventional of 90s movies. The heartfelt emotion needs no musical score or fancy camera movements to show up, and Towne invokes all the feelings by simply putting words into a character's mouth. These films were released in the mid-70s and he won Oscars for both of them, and they have definately stood the test of time. Reading this volume is almost as fun as watching the films, and in these days of reckless abandonment when it comes to screenwriting and throwing formula and paradigm out the window - Towne makes it look all to easy, but his scripts are perfectly layered and unravel before our eyes both in the viewing of the films and in the reading of the scripts. This is a true testament to the fact that screenwriting, while often scoffed as the lowest form of writing, second only to television, is transcending itself as a true and beautiful art form.

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