Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Learning from Stoppard

Mike Fitzgerald examines Tom Stoppard’s draft of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, to discover what it can teach us about screenwriting.

Comparing two drafts of a script can be hugely instructive, revealing point-by-point how a writer went about improving the story. When I stumbled upon an earlier draft of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I discovered a dazzling, glittering trove of lessons as nourishing as eternal life itself. Well, nearly so. Last Crusade was written […]