What bugs me about Casablanca and Adaptation:

[the_GeForce]

Mckee's character in Adaptation claims that Casablanca is the best script ever written. How is that? Three people wrote the script, and they hadn't even finished the script before shooting started. There was no time for rewrites, they acted the rough draft.

In fact, the actors and the director didn't even know if Bogart's character would get the girl in the end. Bergman was told to place her love in between the two men.

Now, how can this guy tell aspiring students to do this? It was this point, and this point only in history where a movie could be filmed while the script was being written. Plus the story was written by three people -- no one nowadays wants to share that glory...

GAH! That little tidbit ruined Adaptation for me! But now I seem to enjoy Casablanca more

[aedavela]

Not having seen Adaptation yet, I would ask why aspiring film students would take advice from a ficitonal character?

[the_GeForce]

Robert Mckee isn't fictional...

He's the writer of "Story", which somehow is the best selling handbook on screenwriting.

[aedavela]

OK, that makes sense. It seemed to me that the first poster was refering to a character from the movie.

EDIT: which was you. I really need to check who's writing what

[Eric]

First: how is it that it was at "this point, and this point only in history" where a movie could be filmed before the script had been finished? Re-writes during filming are not uncommon, and I believe that I can think of at least one other film (Apocalypse Now) that did not have an entirely set ending when filming started, at least according to my memory of Hearts of Darkness.

Second: even if the screenplay WASN'T finished when filming commenced, how does that disqualify it from being the best screenplay ever? Not that it's a particularly good idea to advise film students to leave writing the script until filming starts, but is there any reason why the best script ever CAN'T have been finished after the film had already started being shot? If one thinks that the screenplay is the best ever (and I'm not necessarily arguing that, although it certainly is good) then what difference does it make when exactly it was written?

[Grimace2k2]

Well, in Adaptation, Mckee doesn't appear to be the most knowledgable guy when it comes to film. I mean just look at the advice he gives Charlie and what it does to his film. So maybe they were making fun of Casablanca's script.

But I wouldn't know I haven't seen Casablanca

[the_GeForce]

That's what bothers me, it's bad adivce. It could quite possibly be the best script out there though, and I'm not debating that issue.

[DrDetroit]

Maybe he means the final, all-encompassing text that is the movie. Maybe a screenplay is only as good as the movie it's made into.

I had the good fortune of catching the beginning of one of Mr. McKee's seminars at a downtown fancy book chain (good fortune in that I regard Adaptation very highly, not because I'm particularly fond of McKee) and he seemed to be full of the sort of big empty catchphrases and buzz words that Brian Cox wielded so effectively in the film. I didn't catch the whole thing because I had plans to see a movie. Ironical!

[Marq]

Originally Posted by the_GeForce

That's what bothers me, it's bad adivce.

Mckee is portrayed as a know-it-all no-nothing, so I'm not sure I would be looking for wise advice from such a brilliantly exagerrated character (albeit of a real person) in this perfectly anti-Hollywoood hollywood movie.

[theta]

You answered your own question. "Casablanca" is a great film, and it was only a ROUGH DRAFT.

Now imagine how Charlie Kaufman feels about that.

[Triple HHH]

I would like to get a copy of his "Ten Commandments".

[DrDetroit]

"Not rules, Charles. Principles!" [sic]

[NotaNumber]

Adaptation is a very clever spoof on the screenwriting business. McKee's characters comments in the film must be taken with this in mind.

I took his Story Structure seminar in 1989 (Kirk Douglas was also a fellow student, working on his second book at the time). The McKee character in Adaptation is a caricature of the real person, though pretty spot on as far a mannerisms go.

McKee contends that it is a Hollywood legend perpetuated by Bergman as far as not knowing how the movie was going to end. Bergman may not have been told but in order for Bogart and Rains to effectively play their roles they would have to know the storyline. Plus it was based on an existing play.

McKee used to do a scene by scene analysis of "Casablanca" and "Chinatown" in his seminars. He's is very knowledgeable in film-making, screenwriting and story structure.

[Hardcore Legend]

Some of the greatest things in this world were mistakes, failures or incomplete works.

I'd have to agree that Casablanca is the best script ever written. Whether it was written that way to begin with or evolved doesn't change that it was written. If you think the hand of God will come down and give someone the most brilliant manuscript in a first draft then I'd suggest to begin praying, heavily.

Just think, if Warner had had his way, the overall story of Casablanca would take on a whole new life. Bergman, in a sheer act of luck, cut her hair for another film that she was currently shooting. Thus, the ending of the film could not be reshot.

Hell, even the classic last line was a last minute addition. When it was all said and done, yes Casablanca became the greatest script ever written.

Then again, I own but have never seen Adaptation.....so I have no clue what any of you are talking about.

[mikenyc]

Originally Posted by the_GeForce

Mckee's character in Adaptation claims that Casablanca is the best script ever written. How is that? Three people wrote the script, and they hadn't even finished the script before shooting started. There was no time for rewrites, they acted the rough draft..:

Standard operating procedure in a film production....more than one would think.

In terms of grasping success out of the middle of total anarchy, it's any wonder the film got made at all, and that's reason enough to celebrate it.

[NotaNumber]

McKee's Ten Commandments

I. Thou shalt not take the crisis/climax out of the protagonist's hands. The anti-deus ex machina commandment.

II. Thou shalt not make life easy for the protagonist. Nothing progresses in a story, except through conflict.

III. Thou shalt not give exposition for strictly exposition's sake. Dramatize it. Convert exposition to ammunition. Use it to turn the ending of a scene, to further the conflict.

IV. Thou shalt not use false mystery or cheap surprise. Don't conceal anything important that the protagonist KNOWS. Keep us in step with the hero. We know what he/she knows.

V. Thou shalt respect your audience. The anti-hack commandment.

VI. Thou shalt know your world as God knows this one. The pro-research commandment.

VII. Thou shalt not complicate when complexity is better. Don't multiply the complications on one level. use all three: Intra-Personal, Inter-Personal, Extra-Personal.

VIII. Thou shalt seek the end of the line, the negation of the negation, taking characters to the farthest reaches and depth of conflict imaginable within the story's own realm of probability.

IX. Thou shalt not write on the nose. Put a subtext under every text.

X. Thou shalt rewrite.