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This may come as a massive shock to the average moviegoer, but oftentimes, a remarkable and memorable movie can actually be made from an unremarkable screenplay. Keep in mind that unremarkable doesn’t necessarily equate to being “bad” per se.
In this context, an unremarkable screenplay just means that it doesn’t look as special on paper as its onscreen potential may imply. Be it because of an unoriginal and atypical plot or because of a slow-moving storyline or even because of consistent flaws in a screenplay. But miraculously, either the performances or direction—or both—elevate the script into a great movie.
10 In The Heat Of The Night Is Elevated By Its Performances
1967 is viewed as one of the greatest years for movies ever. Such classics released that year like The Graduate (Best Director winner), Bonnie and Clyde, In Cold Blood, Wait Until Dark, Cool Hand Luke, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. All extremely exciting movies on paper, yet the Best Picture winner that year was In the Heat of the Night.
Compared to other movies from this year especially, In the Heat of the Night isn’t particularly visually impressive nor is its story particularly complicated or unique. What makes this such an excellent movie is the performances which elevated it, especially from Best Actor winner Rod Steiger and a show-stealing Sidney Poitier.
9 Drive Is Certainly No Fast & Furious
When Drive first hit theaters, it was advertised as an action thriller in the same vein as a movie like The Fast and the Furious. Anyone who read the script for Drive knows it’s anything but a Fast and the Furious movie, hence why the production was sued for not being a Fast and the Furious movie.
The script follows a much more slower-paced crime-romance art-house vibe. It doesn’t even look all of that exciting on paper, but director Nicolas Winding Refn infused a unique iconography and synth-wave aesthetic to help his movie stand out.
8 My Dinner With Andre Is The Most Extraordinarily Ordinary Movie
My Dinner with Andre is practically Seinfeld before Seinfeld, as far as its “the show about nothing” approach to its plot. My Dinner with Andre is exactly what the title implies: Wallace Shawn having dinner with Andre Gregory. The two actors play fictionalized versions of themselves while just talking over dinner. No conflict to speak of. Just dinner.
On paper and in summary, that sounds like a snoozefest, but the reason why My Dinner with Andre has been so widely celebrated is that their conversation is so fascinating to dwell on in terms of its philosophical implications.
7 Ridley Scott’s Direction Makes Blade Runner Feel Special
The script for Blade Runner isn’t necessarily bad. It’s just not very spectacular, especially compared to the phenomenon of a cult following it created once the movie came out. On paper, the script lacks the style that would suggest this becoming a visual marvel to behold.
On paper, Blade Runner reads as a basic by-the-numbers neo-noir movie with some sci-fi elements in the mix. In some respects, that’s exactly what Blade Runner is, but it’s the work that Ridley Scott does behind the camera that makes the movie feel like it is much more than that.
6 No Country For Old Men Is The Best Kind Of Anti-Climactic
Usually, anti-climactic is a word used to describe a movie that winds up being pretty disappointing, but in the case of No Country for Old Men, the anti-climax comes from The Coen Brothers constantly doing the opposite of what audiences expect with more traditional westerns.
Throughout the script, The Coens build-up towards moments that seem inevitable in regards to classic storytelling, but wind up subverting expectations by doing something completely different. The most memorable case comes with its ending, where audiences expect antagonist Anton Chigurh to meet his maker at the hands of either Sheriff Bell or (most likely) main protagonist Llewellyn Moss. Instead, Moss is killed off-screen, Chigurh gets away scot-free, and Bell retires without ever meeting Chigurh face to face. Instead of being disappointing, this compelling, thematically symbolic movie won Best Picture.
5 The Raid Barely Has A Script Or Plot To Speak Of
Anyone who has seen The Raid: Redemption would not be remiss to think that the movie was working without a script. It’s not like there’s much of a plot to speak of to suggest a script ever existed.
The bare minimum of a plot—or vague semblance of a plot—focuses on a 20-man police squad unit raiding an apartment block to capture and arrest a crime lord. Nothing to the story beyond that, but there doesn’t have to be. This movie is for the action enthusiast purists who fast forward the talking bits of action movies in favor of the extremely well choreographed, exciting fight scenes. And that’s exactly how The Raid earned its critical praise worldwide.
4 Signs Is Even Slower On Paper
There’s often a dissonance between M. Night Shyamalan’s scripts and the movies they spawn. In the case of Signs, though, the dissonance spurns from the slow pace. Signs admittedly is a slow-paced movie (aliens aren’t properly seen onscreen until the very end) but it’s even slower on paper to the point that there are huge lulls in between pages where it feels like nothing happens.
However, M. Night makes up for this by producing unbelievably effective amounts of suspense that keep viewers on the edge of their seats. The way he directs tone and atmosphere is why Signs is so beloved despite aspects that may not hold up as well.
3 Tree Of Life’s Script Doesn’t Do The Movie Justice
The first line of Tree of Life’s script is, “an ordinary house in central Texas. A neighborhood at the edge of town.” A lot of sentences in Terrence Malick’s script contain these kinds of short, dry sentences that extrapolate dry, mundane actions. Truthfully, most of Malick’s scripts play out like this because he’s very much a visual director.
The scripts don’t have to say much when he has a vision in his head. Out of his head, he produced The Tree of Life as one of the most visually gorgeous movies to ever grace a big screen. That’s why he was nominated for Best Director for his work, along with a Best Picture nomination and other awards.
2 Avatar Isn’t A Landmark Achievement For Its Writing
In fact, most criticisms towards Avatar are directed at its screenplay. Comparisons to Dances with Wolves and convenient terms like “Unobtanium” kept audiences from taking the movie seriously from a story perspective. If the movie was merely a book, viewers likely wouldn’t have given it the time of day.
But Avatar didn’t need to be anything special when its visuals are. It is a landmark achievement in visual filmmaking. Those same visuals are what make Avatar worth the price of admission and worthy of its several award nominations, not to mention being the biggest box office success ever made.
1 & Neither Is Titanic
Really, this same assessment can be applied to most of James Cameron’s filmography as a director. Much like previously mentioned filmmakers like Terrence Malick, James Cameron is a visual filmmaker. His scripts can (literally) afford to be bland and/or lackluster when he can generate some superb imagery on screen.
Take Titanic, for example. Titanic was a major cinematic event because of the sheer spectacle of the movie, even if the substance was nothing more than a basic romance story. It stands out due to the grand scale on which the basic romance stands atop.
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