I just read through the first 12 pages of the LOA screenplay and it has some rather long passages of narrative, like this one introducing and describing the character of General Murray:
CLOSE SHOT. GENERAL MURRAY is one of those regulation officers whose pride is to appear more regulation than anyone else can be. His face is hard and shrewd, his expression exasperated. He is seated at his desk. On the wall behind him is an “Illustrated London News” type pen and ink sketch of heavy artillery on the Western Front. On a ledge under the picture is a collection of empty shell cases of varying sizes. GENERAL MURRAY is addressing DRYDEN, a donnish man with a pale, lined, lively face, wearing civilian clothes who at this moment has his back to us as he stands looking out of a window overlooking the gardens of the Headquarters.
Now, over fifty years later, the Lawrence. Script seems out of touch with many accepted practices for today's screenwriters. So, I've attached a link to the shooting script, so you can take a look.
What say you? Is the LOA script out of touch with today?
MaxXxy:
Thanks for posting your very interesting and insightful information. I watched a short documentary on Lawrence director David Lean, who was a meticulous filmmaker and planner. He would write down what materials and resources he would need to do each scene in a film. And, screenwriter Robert Bolt was the perfect, detailed writer for his epics Lawrence and Dr. Zhivago.
To take this a step further, we don't often go to the movies and view a film that requires an intermission. One of the longest running blockbuster films of the year was Blade Runner 2049, which clocked in at 2 hours and 49 minutes. By today's standards that really long. LOA exceeds that by one hour. The 1963 release of Cleopatra was 5 hours and 20 minutes. A painful 5 hours and 2 minutes.
I'm ready for the next big epic.
Here's a guess: the more streamlined script style of today evolved because execs and reps have to read a lot more material today than in the past.
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Eric
That's an excellent point and one I hadn't even considered. To add to that, it's also that people have much shorter attention spans now. When Lawrence came out, we didn't have the computer age distractions you have today.
A movie over three hours cuts into the total daily gate for theaters. The per seat revenue is reduced so commercial theaters won't request those longer films. If they do, the price per ticket will probably increase - after some marketing hype from both distribution and theater chain. Follow the money.
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MaxXxy
I think releasing the four hour cut of Black Panther could be a revolutionary and really ballsy move on the part of Marvel Comics.
Can't make up my mind about attention spans changing, Phil, in regard to TV/Film. Binge watching whole seasons of TV in a single go takes some attention skills, for example. And when I watch classic flicks from the 40s or what have you they never seem slow to me. On the other hand, the mediocre fare from back in the day can seem super slow ...
Eric
You're right about watching boring fare from back in the day. Last year, I tried to watch* the mid-sixties film Behold a Pale Horse with Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and Omar Sharif. After 45 minutes I was snoring. Another example was Viva Max with Peter Ustinov, which I think was made in 1968. Another sleep fest, yet did pretty well at the box office.
In those olden days, going out to see a film was a glorious event - worthy of getting all gussied up. I recall watching "Gone With The Wind" in its entirety with a fifteen minute intermission (open bar in the lobby). It was an event! Not so much on those little postage stamp sized screens in the Cineplex at the Mall. Sad.
Doug:
When I was a kid, I saw a re-issue of GWTW at the Culver theater in LA in 1969 and loved it. And for a while, it was my favorite movie. Until I saw the Godfather.
The Godfather is even slow by today's standards. I realized that when I tried to make a 15 year old watch it and he fell asleep. :)
Constance: I couldn't be objective about The Godfather. I've seen it too many times.
I would say today's readers are out of touch with the LOA script... and Dances with Wolves and Breaker Morant... and other classic beautifully "written scripts." Concise but not truncated, ah those were the days. Dang that texting and Twitter anyway.
Yep, I think the LOA script format and style is outdated in 2018.
Of course it's outdated, and it's written by someone who was known to HW. Liberties can be taken.