<div class="seriesmeta">This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/1994/" class="series-4210" title="1994">1994</a></div><div class="seriesbox"><div class="center"> <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/1994/" class="series-4210" title="1994">1994</a></div><ul class="serieslist-ul"><li class="serieslist-li"><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/1994-was-a-very-good-year-for-film-television-part-1/" title="1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 1)">1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 1)</a></li><li class="serieslist-li-current">1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 2)</li></ul></div><h3>Crime &amp; Punishment</h3>
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Crime was a huge problem in the 90s. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 attempted to address the rise of crime by throwing tons of money at the problem. Although world events were fairly calm, most in America were railing against the seemingly uncontrolled mayhem in the streets.
Like in the 70s, Hollywood responded with many crime-based films in 1994.
The Last Seduction, Leon The Professional, Natural Born Killers, and more reflected the fears and stresses. Sugar Hill, part II of Barry Michael Cooper’s Harlem Trilogy revealed a tough and gritty in-your-face style of crime film that was popularized in 1994.
From the screenplay of Natural Born Killers:
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INT. DINER &#8211; DAY
Sonny gurgles out a laugh.
SONNY 
Hey, I think she&#8217;s sweet on you.
Otis turns to Mallory as she punches him hard in the 
face, spinning him around.
Sonny spews a mouthful of Highlife.
Mallory grabs the back of Otis&#8217;s head and smashes it 
down on the table, cracking the linoleum.
Otis buckles, dropping to his knees.
Sonny jumps off the counter stool, but Mickey&#8217;s hand 
clutches hold of his shoulder.
Sonny spins around toward Mickey, loaded for bear, 
and points his finger at him, threateningly.
Before any threat can be made, Mickey whips a large 
buck knife out from its sheath, and in a flash, slices 
off Sonny&#8217;s finger.
Sonny&#8217;s finger drops on his boot. He grabs his aching 
hand. Blood flows from the wound.
MICKEY 
Just because my woman&#8217;s mopping up 
the floor with your buddy is no 
reason for you to join in.
Mickey makes five lightning quick slashing swings. The 
buck knife slips back into its sheath. At first, there 
seems to be no difference with Sonny. Finally, blood 
flows from the slices made in his face and chest. Sonny 
collapses.
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<h3>Happy Endings</h3>
&nbsp;
Stressful times always bring out both a reflection of those times and a repudiation of what we live with.
Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels (1942) details a film director who won’t do a comedy because he says people are too worried about their lives to laugh. He hits the road as a hobo to support his findings and discovers he’s wrong. People love to laugh, to forget their worries for a short time and just enjoy themselves.
Although there was a lot of hope in abundance in 1994, Bill Clinton ran on an “It’s the Economy Stupid” slogan (only semi-seriously) to defeat George H. W. Bush in the election. The country was emerging from a deep recession, and even with better days on the horizon, people still were profoundly frightened about their financial health.
So we laughed.
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Dumb and Dumber, The Mask, True Lies, Clerks &#8211; over one hundred comedy or dramedy films flooded the box office in 1994 and made people forget their woes.
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<div id="attachment_46286" style="width: 781px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-46286" class=" wp-image-46286" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/wp3651958-1024x576.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="771" height="434" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/wp3651958-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/wp3651958-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/wp3651958-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/wp3651958-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" />Jim Carey as Ace Ventura. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.</div>
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<h3>What We Didn&#8217;t See</h3>
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It seems impossible now, but comic book movies were not a thing in 1994. Why? Previous attempts (except for Superman (1978-1987) and The Crow (1994)) had failed to chart and although the technology that makes these movies possible was coming, it still wasn’t good enough to deliver on some of the amazing effects we see today.
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<div id="attachment_46287" style="width: 780px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-46287" class=" wp-image-46287" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/The-Crow-1024x538-1024x538.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="770" height="405" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/The-Crow-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/The-Crow-1024x538-150x79.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/The-Crow-1024x538-250x131.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/The-Crow-1024x538-768x404.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px" />Brandon Lee as Eric Draven in The Crow. Photo courtesy of Dimension Films. Miramax</div>
Alex Proyas The Crow had be finished by animators and camera tricks after he was tragically killed on the set during a stunt gone wrong. And only very dark images were used to fill in the blanks because the tech was so raw. People loved Superman, but being one of the most iconic superheros of the time made that success mostly a one off. Almost all the effects in both films were ‘practical effects’  meaning actual ropes, pulleys, chains, and explosions. CGI does all the now for the most part but in 1994 computers were slow, expensive, and required teams of programmers to do anything like a special effect.
Apple was selling Power Macs and PCs were running Windows 3.1 or if you were lucky Windows NT. The computers that special effects companies used, like George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, were custom built models and few and far between as far as availability was concerned.
The Mask which featured Jim Carey as a maniacal character was mostly done with sleight of camera and rotoscoping-like techniques. It cost $23 million to make ($48 million in today’s dollars), so not cheap to do.
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<h3>Animated Gems</h3>
&nbsp;
Animation seems bulletproof today but in 1994 only The Lion King made a box office splash. Again, because of (the lack of) technology traditional methods of doing animation, one hand-drawn cel at a time and 24 frames per second were still in place.
Given this, an animated film could take more than two years to make and in 1992 everyone was economically straddled. Film companies just weren’t willing to dump millions into and tie up production teams with an animated piece.
Sure, some animation was around but it wasn’t until The Lion King made the ticket windows roar (so to speak) that other companies got involved.
Dreamworks, 20th Century Animation, Fox Animation Studios, Warner Bros. Feature Animation, Sony Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and a slew of foreign studios all were founded or got into the animation business big time after seeing the overwhelming response to just one movie from Disney.
As it sits, that film still holds the record for highest grossing animated film over thirty years later.
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<h3>No Social Media</h3>
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We don’t know a world without social media anymore. We rely on many apps and platforms to deliver cultural and political news and experiences. In 1994 Netscape Navigator was just releasing its first Internet browser and it had nothing like Facebook, TikTok or even a Google search app.
I remember standing in the offices of Cinetel Films waiting for my meeting with Catalaine Knell and hearing that “Juice was on the loose” from one of the interns. O.J. Simpson’s white Bronco chase became infamous, but only on radio and television. Like everyone else, I had to wait to find a TV or radio to be further informed. I had a cell phone but that’s all it was &#8211; a phone. No browser or news app.
How amazing the films of 1994 must have been when there was no ‘viral’ then &#8211; at least in the way we understand it today. We watched Siskel and Ebert to get the 411 on films. Bought books &#8211; actual paper books or newspapers &#8211; to read summaries of films.
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<div id="attachment_46288" style="width: 780px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-46288" class=" wp-image-46288" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MV5BNTYxOTYyMzE3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTMxNDY3Mw@@._V1_-1024x692.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="770" height="521" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MV5BNTYxOTYyMzE3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTMxNDY3Mw@@._V1_-1024x692.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MV5BNTYxOTYyMzE3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTMxNDY3Mw@@._V1_-150x101.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MV5BNTYxOTYyMzE3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTMxNDY3Mw@@._V1_-250x169.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MV5BNTYxOTYyMzE3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTMxNDY3Mw@@._V1_-768x519.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px" />Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) &amp; Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman) in The Shawshank Redemption. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.</div>
Here’s an excerpt from Roger Ebert’s review of The Shawshank Redemption:
“The movie is as deliberate, considered and thoughtful as Freeman&#8217;s narration. There&#8217;s a feeling in Hollywood that audiences have short attention spans and must be assaulted with fresh novelties. I think such movies are slower to sit through than a film like &#8220;Shawshank,&#8221; which absorbs us and takes away the awareness that we are watching a film. “
The entire review is about two thousand words and as one of the premier reviewers of the time, his take was positive enough to get people to want to watch it.
I enthusiastically relish the ability to look something up online on the spot. I’m hitting that tech dozens of times a day. It’s made my life as a writer (and teacher (and know-it-all)) so much easier. But what have we lost in the deal?
Is instant better when a movie (or TV) review is retweeted and tens of thousands of people instantly knee jerk their responses to something they’ve never seen? In 1994 film (and TV) had a puncher&#8217;s chance to find their audiences. Not so today. How many times has a streamer released a ‘dog’ that crashed and burned at the box office, and we discover on our streamer channels that it’s not so bad after all? Not really the horrible misstep an X review made it out to be.
We regurgitate information so quickly that it’s a minor miracle any film becomes a hit today. Not so in 1994 when information was slower and there weren&#8217;t a thousand outlets of entertainment. Things got increasingly more complex after that so 1994 may be the beginning and end of an era.
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The Greatest Year?
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Would you pick 1994 as the greatest year in movie history? Many have, no doubt not only for the quality of the films produced, but the insane box office records set during that time. As mentioned, nine movies with over $100 million in box office, some of which still haven’t been surpassed thirty years later.
Amazing.
There are watershed years and decades for films. 1994 must be one of them.
<fieldset><legend>Series Navigation</legend><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/1994-was-a-very-good-year-for-film-television-part-1/" title="&lt;&lt; 1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 1)">&lt;&lt; 1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 1)</a></fieldset>

1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film & Television (Part 2)

<div class="seriesmeta">This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/1994/" class="series-4210" title="1994">1994</a></div><div class="seriesbox"><div class="center"> <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/1994/" class="series-4210" title="1994">1994</a></div><ul class="serieslist-ul"><li class="serieslist-li-current">1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 1)</li><li class="serieslist-li"><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/1994-was-a-very-good-year-for-film-television-part-2/" title="1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 2)">1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 2)</a></li></ul></div>Thirty years is a long time in cinema. 1994 was the time of massive cultural influence across the globe. There was grunge music, MTV, blockbusters, and political upheaval.
1994 brought forward a new wave of film and television expression including:
<ol>
<li>Politics: A New Tonality</li>
<li>Killers In Abstract</li>
<li>Based On</li>
<li>Happy Endings</li>
<li>Social Media &#8211; Nope</li>
</ol>
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April 1994. Curt Cobain is dead. And with his passing an entire movement called grunge seemingly began to unravel. Sheryl Crow’s All I Wanna Do became an anthem for those tired of stressing over their lives and dismal world events. Two hit songs from the movie The Lion King starring Jeremy Irons and Matthew Broderick, to this date still the number one animated film from 1994, were racing up the charts and neither had any negative vibes. Inside Out 2 has since surpassed The Lion King and taken the box office crown.
If you buy into the premise that music and movies more than anything else reflect our current culture, then 1994 was producing positive cultural waves like nothing else. And setting box office record along the way.
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<h3>Politics: A New Tonality</h3>
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By the time Bill Clinton became president in 1993, many films reflecting the anger in the world were in production or pre-production. But the old Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) had broken up and the Berlin Wall was taken down. Clinton’s campaign song was the joyous earworm by Fleetwood Mac, “Don’t Stop.”
Don&#8217;t stop thinking about tomorrow 
Don&#8217;t stop, it&#8217;ll soon be here 
It&#8217;ll be better than before 
Yesterday&#8217;s gone, yesterday&#8217;s gone
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In case you’re wondering what 1993 has to do with anything in the movies of 1994, unless you’re working for an independent film company with limited budgets and time constraints, many films take at least a year to produce. The Lion King released in 1994 had a complete rewrite of its script in 1991. It took three years to be released in the theaters on account of global events during the 90s.
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<div id="attachment_46280" style="width: 782px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-46280" class=" wp-image-46280" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/41dfd647-5249-4f43-8b11-f87da5b772c7-FOUR_WEDDINGS__A_FUNERAL_C-1024x572.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="772" height="431" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/41dfd647-5249-4f43-8b11-f87da5b772c7-FOUR_WEDDINGS__A_FUNERAL_C-1024x572.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/41dfd647-5249-4f43-8b11-f87da5b772c7-FOUR_WEDDINGS__A_FUNERAL_C-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/41dfd647-5249-4f43-8b11-f87da5b772c7-FOUR_WEDDINGS__A_FUNERAL_C-250x140.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/41dfd647-5249-4f43-8b11-f87da5b772c7-FOUR_WEDDINGS__A_FUNERAL_C-768x429.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px" />Main cast in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Photo courtesy of Working Title/ Channel 4</div>
In the early 90s, movies were already transitioning to those stories which reflected a hopeful tonality. The Lion King, Forrest Gump, and Four Weddings and a Funeral swept the award shows. 1994 had the biggest box offices in film history with nine movies over earning over 100 million dollars and 1.2 billion people in attendance. People go to the movies to either escape or celebrate. It soon became clear that the mood of the country was becoming hugely positive and audiences flocked to theaters to celebrate.
The world felt happier, less tense. Nelson Mandella had been released from prison in South Africa and won the presidency. For decades the cold war had raged with only detente to save us from potential nuclear war. Now, on the heels of the breakdown of the old Soviet Union, Yeltsin was offering nuclear concessions after Gorbachev had given us Glasnost. Yeltsin and President Clinton signed the nuclear accords which mandated that the two sides stop aiming nukes at each other.
It seemed like the entire world had completely changed almost overnight. We went to bed with the evil empire and woke up with daisies in gun barrels. It was like the dawning of a new age of Aquarius. Movies like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Reality Bites,”and The Chase showed us the way to laughter and joy to reflect what we were feeling.
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<h3>Abstracted Killers</h3>
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Movies that purported to be about evil really weren’t &#8211; not like in the previous decades &#8211; because these films were so abstracted. Who can take Quentin Tarantino&#8217;s Pulp Fiction seriously? There was violence but it was cartoon violence. A gun wielded by a so-called professional hitman accidentally going off in a car and blowing someone’s head off? A shot of adrenaline in the heart that has a dead woman popping up like a zombie character, suddenly alive and well? “Get the geek?” Not exactly terrifying. Some might argue &#8220;stylized humor.&#8221;
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<div id="attachment_46281" style="width: 779px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-46281" class=" wp-image-46281" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/thumb-1920-206500-1024x576.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="769" height="433" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/thumb-1920-206500-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/thumb-1920-206500-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/thumb-1920-206500-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/thumb-1920-206500-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 769px) 100vw, 769px" />Mallory (Juliette Lewis) &amp; Mickey Knox (Woody Harrelson) in Natural Born Killers. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.</div>
Even Natural Born Killers directed by Oliver Stone never took itself that seriously. The Getaway starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, Class of 1999: Part II &#8211; all absurd situations and killers. There are decades where movies made you squirm and you walked out of a screening depressed and anxious. These movies in ‘94 were not that.
We were riding a high of hope and joy and like our music, our movies reflected our culture. What had started out as a grim reality of the world at the beginning of the decade had began to shift to a more benign form of entertainment as the world took a deep breath and said, ”Eff it &#8211; let’s party.”
Even the re-release of a film considered the best of any era, Midnight Cowboy couldn’t gain much box office traction in this revisionist world that valued abstracted reality and fun over fear and misery. Midnight Cowboy is unremitting real, grim, and has a tearfully tragic ending. Audiences in the hope and joy era of the mid-90’s weren’t having it.
A re-release that did do well was Dr. Strangelove based on the novel Red Alert, a satire of global politics. 
Speaking of abstracted material let&#8217;s look at an excerpt from the screenplay for Dr. Strangelove.
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A struggle begins between DeSadeski and Turdison.
MUFFLEY 
Gentleman, you can’t fight in here! 
This is the War Room!
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Oh, the irony! Only a few years later we’d be stunned by the events of 9-11, but for now we loved life, saw a hopeful future, and our movies reflected that.
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<h3>Based On</h3>
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An odd feature of films (successful ones) from 1994 is that many are based on previous material.
Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Interview With a Vampire, Once Were Warriors, Death and the Maiden, Legends of the Fall, Clear and Present Danger, The Lion King, The Shadow, Angels in the Outfield (a remake), True Lies (based on a French film), The Client, Black Beauty, and on and on. Dozens of other films (at least 55 by my count) of that year were based on books or something besides original concepts.
Why was this?
Why anything in Hollywood? Money. The movie industry always knew they needed audiences &#8211; that’s nothing new &#8211; but this overwhelming propensity to find a book or news article and turn it into a movie was exploding. 
Perhaps Michael Crichton was more than partially responsible for this. His books were like paper movies: easy to adapt to the screen. He was prolific and his concepts creative churning out hit and hit.
Westworld, Coma, Runaway, Disclosure, The Andromeda Strain, and of course in later years, Jurassic Park, and Sphere. Over thirty-six films from 1971 until his death in 2008. Talk about an audience: his books have sold over two hundred million copies.
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<div id="attachment_46282" style="width: 782px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-46282" class=" wp-image-46282" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Jurassic-Park-jurassic-park-6343831-1240-900-1024x743.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="772" height="560" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Jurassic-Park-jurassic-park-6343831-1240-900-1024x743.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Jurassic-Park-jurassic-park-6343831-1240-900-150x109.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Jurassic-Park-jurassic-park-6343831-1240-900-250x181.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Jurassic-Park-jurassic-park-6343831-1240-900-768x557.jpg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Jurassic-Park-jurassic-park-6343831-1240-900.jpg 1240w" sizes="(max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px" />Alan Grant (Sam Neil) Photo courtesy of Universal Studios</div>
Hollywood is nothing if not derivative. The execs in those buildings pay attention to trends &#8211; it’s their job. If books to screen are winners, then let’s all do it. And they did.
There weren’t box office algorithms in 1994 per se, at least not like we have now. But the tick of dollars from audiences who were familiar with the source material and came to films because of it, was underway. Producers and studios paid attention and hedged their speculative film bets.
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<h3>The Golden 90s</h3>
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Cable, but not streaming, was beginning to deliver movies as part of their services. Most of these did not have much of an impact on the box office, but there was a robust B-movie industry underway. Many dozens of indie film production companies produced movies for their own distribution but more importantly they also fed outlets like HBO and Showtime.
It was a wide-open feeding frenzy though with many companies doing both theatrical releases and B-movies on TV at the same time. Movies were king no matter where or how they were released. There was a hunger for film unmatched in Hollywood history.
In general, the creative energies were just off the chart. Many upcoming writers eschewed the crowded film market for television as show like Friends (10 seasons) and ER (15 seasons) were born. The water coolers were in full throat with discussions on the creative forces being released into media.
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<div id="attachment_46283" style="width: 780px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-46283" class=" wp-image-46283" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Friends-season-10-014-1024x614.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="770" height="462" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Friends-season-10-014-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Friends-season-10-014-150x90.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Friends-season-10-014-250x150.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Friends-season-10-014-768x461.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px" />Main cast of Friends. Photo courtesy of NBC Networks</div>
Many could see the future of delivering media to markets as whispers of streaming started. A proof of concept, streaming test was done in 1994, but as exciting as that was, it wasn’t until the late 90s that anything resembling what we know now was possible. The technical limitations were just too great. Like a lot of what was going around at the time, hope and vision were in the discussion.
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<fieldset><legend>Series Navigation</legend><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/1994-was-a-very-good-year-for-film-television-part-2/" title="1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 2) &gt;&gt;">1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film &#038; Television (Part 2) &gt;&gt;</a></fieldset>

1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film & Television (Part 1)

<div class="seriesmeta">This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/writing-quotes/" class="series-4169" title="Writing Quotes">Writing Quotes</a></div><div class="seriesbox"><div class="center"> <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/writing-quotes/" class="series-4169" title="Writing Quotes">Writing Quotes</a></div><ul class="serieslist-ul"><li class="serieslist-li"><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/11-writing-quotes-you-should-take-notice-of-part-1/" title="11 Writing Quotes You Should Take Notice Of (Part 1)">11 Writing Quotes You Should Take Notice Of (Part 1)</a></li><li class="serieslist-li-current">11 Writing Quotes You Should Take Notice Of (Part 2)</li></ul></div><h3>6) A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order ~ Jean-Luc Godard</h3>
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Non-linear storytelling is a difficult technique to pull off and it varies greatly. From Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol which starts at an event and the rolls forward in flashback, to the insanely structured 1st season of Damages that pops in and out of timelines like a Whack-A-Mole.
Surely Memento which starts at the end and rolls backwards to the beginning must find a place in this category. Also, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead which has a structure like a Japanese sword blade which are folded over each other until the final tensile strength is accomplished.
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<div id="attachment_45918" style="width: 783px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-45918" class=" wp-image-45918" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/mission-impossible-ghost-protocol-1024x576.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="773" height="435" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/mission-impossible-ghost-protocol-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/mission-impossible-ghost-protocol-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/mission-impossible-ghost-protocol-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/mission-impossible-ghost-protocol-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 773px) 100vw, 773px" />Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures</div>
Be aware, however, that this is a tough task to do and do well. So many writers dump in scenes out of sequence that have the effect of confusing the viewer, not illuminating. Confused is never a good look in any story.
Understand structure first to then subvert it.
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<h3>7) I love movies with spectacle, but spectacle can be a performance, it doesn’t have to be a creature ~ J.J. Abrams</h3>
&nbsp;
Star Trek (all the reboots), Cloverfield, Super 8, Mission Impossible films and more &#8211; after creating spectacles galore a quote like this may seem strange from director/ writer J.J. Abrams. But like an earlier quote about story being important, movie moments are similarly important and they don’t rely on spectacle.
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<div id="attachment_45919" style="width: 780px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-45919" class=" wp-image-45919" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/hiddenfigures-a100_v-epg__large__flex_-0486c9246d517f3ebc61a7bd68a5d6c91bf78e47-2-1024x684.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="770" height="514" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/hiddenfigures-a100_v-epg__large__flex_-0486c9246d517f3ebc61a7bd68a5d6c91bf78e47-2-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/hiddenfigures-a100_v-epg__large__flex_-0486c9246d517f3ebc61a7bd68a5d6c91bf78e47-2-150x100.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/hiddenfigures-a100_v-epg__large__flex_-0486c9246d517f3ebc61a7bd68a5d6c91bf78e47-2-250x167.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/hiddenfigures-a100_v-epg__large__flex_-0486c9246d517f3ebc61a7bd68a5d6c91bf78e47-2-768x513.jpg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/hiddenfigures-a100_v-epg__large__flex_-0486c9246d517f3ebc61a7bd68a5d6c91bf78e47-2.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px" />Taraji P. Henson (Katherine G. Johnson) &amp; Kevin Costner (Al Harrison) Photo courtesy of Fox 2000 Pictures</div>
&nbsp;
Take this amazing monologue in Hidden Figures written by Theodore Melfi and Allison Schroeder:
&nbsp;
INT. NASA SPACE TASK GROUP &#8211; MOMENTS LATER
Katherine’s soaked like a wet rat. She walks back to her desk. Stafford’s staring at her. Ruth’s staring at her. The whole damn place seems to be staring at her.
AL HARRISON (O.S.) 
Where the hell have you been? Everywhere I look you&#8217;re not where I need you to be. And it&#8217;s not my imagination.
Katherine turns, Harrison’s on the floor. Katherine freezes.
AL HARRISON (CONT’D) 
Where the hell do you go everyday?
KATHERINE 
(quietly) 
The bathroom, sir.
AL HARRISON 
The bathroom! The damn bathroom!
KATHERINE 
Yes, sir. The bathroom.
AL HARRISON 
For 40 minutes a day!? What do you do in there!? We are T-minus zero here. I put a lot of faith in you.
Katherine can barely speak. She whispers:
KATHERINE 
There’s no bathroom for me here.
AL HARRISON 
There’s no bathroom? What do you mean there’s no bathroom for you here?
Katherine can’t take it anymore. Her voice rises.
KATHERINE 
There’s no bathroom here. There are no COLORED bathrooms in this building or ANY building outside the West Campus. Which is half a mile away! Did you know that? I have to walk to Timbuktu just to relieve myself! And I can’t take one of the handy bikes. Picture that, with my uniform: skirt below the knees and my heels. And don’t get me started about the “simple pearl necklace” I can’t afford. Lord knows you don’t pay “the coloreds enough for that. And I work like a dog day and night, living on coffee from a coffee pot half of you don’t want me to touch! So excuse me if I have to go to the restroom a few times a day!
You can hear a pin drop. Katherine takes her purse, personals and walks off. Leaving everyone’s jaw on the floor.
It stuns and leads to a massive change in the NASA complex which is part of the overall theme of this terrific film. Costner’s character takes the labels off the coffee pots and then uses a crowbar on a sign over the “coloreds” bathroom.
&nbsp;
AL HARRISON (CONT’D) 
There you have it! No more colored restrooms. No more white restrooms. Just plain old toilets.
Harrison looks over. He sees Katherine.
AL HARRISON (CONT’D) 
Go wherever you damn well please. Preferably closer to your desk.
Harrison snatches up the sign.
AL HARRISON (CONT’D) 
At NASA we all&#8230;pee the same color!
Katherine nods approval.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_45921" style="width: 784px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-45921" class=" wp-image-45921" src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/newsroom-1024x683.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="774" height="516" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/newsroom-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/newsroom-150x100.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/newsroom-250x167.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/newsroom-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 774px) 100vw, 774px" />Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) in The Newsroom. Photo courtesy of HBO</div>
Or this by Aaron Sorkin in the pilot of The Newsroom:
When asked what makes America the greatest country in the world, Jeff Daniels’ character out of frustration with the clichés spouted by the other panelists finally answers the question.
&nbsp;
WILL MCAVOY 
And, yeah, you, sorority girl. Just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there are some things you should know, and one of them is there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined, 25 of whom are allies. Now, none of this is the fault of a 20-year-old college student, but you nonetheless are without a doubt a member of the worst period generation period ever period. So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the f*** you’re talking about. Yosemite?
&nbsp;
These movies are dramas without much special effects or spectacle but the writing is so strong, so memorable it anchors you to the story like Ramset concrete nails.
&nbsp;
<h3>8) If there&#8217;s a book that you want to read, but it hasn&#8217;t been written yet, then you must write it. ~ Toni Morrison</h3>
&nbsp;
Amen to this. But let me take it a bit further. Chasing trends is a fools’ errand. By the time you see something like Stranger Things or Ray Donovan on the air, Hollywood has already cloned it. From the time something is read, purchased, produced, and released, it might have been twelve to eighteen months.  By that time, everyone who is in a position to make decisions has looked for something similar. You’re already too late.
So trying to write the next Game of Thrones just gets you frustrated.
Be yourself. Create the trends, don’t follow them.
Of course, some trends are macro-trends and bear scrutiny. Lately, it seems true crime-based series are having their moment. Whether it’s fiction or reality-based there seems to be a huge appetite for this genre so why not? At the least, it’ll serve as a good writing sample.
&nbsp;
<h3>9) Make ‘em laugh ~ Arthur Freed</h3>
&nbsp;
Arthur Freed was a lyricist and legendary film producer who won awards for just about everything he touched. Take it as gospel that adding comedy to your work, where appropriate, aids any story. Unremittingly grim is one note and tedious. Even bad people laugh.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_45917" style="width: 780px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-45917" class="wp-image-45917 " src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/watch-deadpool-and-wolverine-fight-in-deadpool-3-set-video-1024x576.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="770" height="433" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/watch-deadpool-and-wolverine-fight-in-deadpool-3-set-video-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/watch-deadpool-and-wolverine-fight-in-deadpool-3-set-video-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/watch-deadpool-and-wolverine-fight-in-deadpool-3-set-video-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/watch-deadpool-and-wolverine-fight-in-deadpool-3-set-video-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px" />Deadpool &amp; Wolverine. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios</div>
My Lady Jane, Deadpool &amp; Wolverine, The Boys, The Gentlemen all use comedy in varying degrees to tell their stories to great effect.
Comedy can be situational, physical (slapstick), or verbal and using it in any form, like that old song Spoonful of Sugar, helps the ‘medicine’ go down.
&nbsp;
<h3>10) You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal ~ James Baldwin</h3>
&nbsp;
James Baldwin would know.
Long before the fantastic Dear White People (film or series) or The Help he was already accomplished and widely read.
Even though he was not a screenwriter per se, he was a writer, period. Intense, articulate, passionate. And his material was translated to film most recently by Barry Jenkins in If Beale Street Could Talk and his unfinished work reflected in the documentary I Am Not Your Negro.
This excerpt from his book Notes of a Native Son illuminates both he as writer and as a black man.
“From all available evidence no black man had ever set foot in this tiny Swiss village before I came. I was told before arriving that I would probably be a &#8220;sight&#8221; for the village; I took this to mean that people of my complexion were rarely seen in Switzerland, and also that city people are always something of a &#8220;sight&#8221; outside of the city. It did not occur to me-possibly because I am an American that there could be people anywhere who had never seen a Negro.”
As a screenwriter it’s even more important that you be concise and precise with your words.
From Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash:
&nbsp;
BLACK&#8230;
We hear a HIT. A drumstick against a drum head. Crisp, sharp.
Then a second hit. Then a third and a fourth. The hits
growing so fast they start to blur together. Like gunfire&#8230;
&nbsp;
INT. NASSAU BAND REHEARSAL STUDIO &#8211; GEHRING HALL &#8211; NIGHT
A cavernous space. Sound-proofed walls. And in the center, a 
DRUM SET. Seated at it, in a sweat-marked white T, eyes 
zeroed on his single-stroke roll, is ANDREW NEIMAN.
He’s 19, slight, honors-student-skinny &#8212; except for his 
arms, which have been built from years and years of drumming.
Suddenly &#8212; a MAN enters the practice room. Stopping, rising—
ANDREW 
Sorry&#8230; I’m &#8212; I’m sorry—
MAN 
It’s ok. Stay there.
The MAN steps forward, removes his coat. He’s tall. Late 
fifties. Black T-shirt, black slacks, black shoes. We’ll know 
him as FLETCHER.
The room is silent now. And then, softly, as he’s one of 
those people whose whisper can scare the crap out of you—
&nbsp;
That’s about a half a page to introduce two characters, get their physical description, skills, tone, and understand their placement in the story and to each other.
Chazelle spends a lot of time on his scripts and it shows. Lean, clean, and mean.
&nbsp;
<h3>11) Don’t be ‘a writer.’ Be writing ~ William Faulkner</h3>
&nbsp;
Last bit of advice from a legendary writer is just to be a writer. Set aside the leather patches, beanies, berets, and Starbucks card and treat writing as what it is &#8211; a job. Study it, practice it. Learn from it. It’s a great, glorious, painful, wonderful, ugly, and frustrating job…
And one that I happen to love.
<fieldset><legend>Series Navigation</legend><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/11-writing-quotes-you-should-take-notice-of-part-1/" title="&lt;&lt; 11 Writing Quotes You Should Take Notice Of (Part 1)">&lt;&lt; 11 Writing Quotes You Should Take Notice Of (Part 1)</a></fieldset>

1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film & Television (Part 2)

1994 Was A Very Good Year For Film & Television (Part 1)

11 Writing Quotes You Should Take Notice Of (Part 2)

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