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Xmas screenplay 1 - Lethal Weapon

Hi everyone

It's time to get into those festive screenplays, the spirit of Christmas and all that and to kick us off into this new round of screenplay readings over the next ten days I'm going ot be reading Lethal Weapon.

This is of course the first movie of the series and is set during the Christmas holidays.

I thought as we'd had a batch of hard core indie film scripts it was probably time to spend a little time in blockbuster land, especially at during the holidays.

Feel free to join me and make any comments about the script you like ... ho, ho, ho

Admin edit:
Link added
link: http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/lethal.shtml
 
Hi Guys

I've just finished reading this and I'm glad I did.

I was reading the first draft and I was pretty surprised at how far short of the actual film it fell.

The key scene in the film for me has always been the scene where Riggs puts the hollow point bullet in his own gun and nearly commits suicide. It defines not only what the movie is about but also his character arc. So, in essence the film is about how his friendship with Murtaugh and Murtaugh's family bring Riggs back from the edge.

In this version of the script that scene just doesn't happen, instead he smashes up a TV set. So with that gone the whole film sort of falls apart. What becomes clear is that despite appearances to the contrary this isn't an action film, it's a buddy movie. In many respects the conflict with the General and Joshua are tangental to the story, they aren't the main event. You could have had a completely different set of villians and the movie would be unaltered. I think all teh sequel pretty much prove this point.

The thing that really leaps off the page with this script is that it has almost flawless set pieces. This is interesting because I felt the same about the last script I read "Oh Brother Where Art Thou."

It seems to me that what makes a film a real box office giant isn't so much story or plotting (the plotting is pretty weak in this film) it's about creating massively strong characters and then showing them off in "water cooler" set pieces. By that I mean the scenes in the film that everyone is going to talk about at work the next day.

In Lethal Weapon you've got lots of great "water cooler" sequences ... you've got:

1) The Christmas Tree Coke Deal (Riggs tries to get himself killed and then almost kills the perp after the arrest)
2) The smiley face at the gun range (which isn't in this version of the script)
3) Controlling the jumper (handcuffing himself to the suicide)

I think that this script really makes Filmy's point about quintessential characters. Riggs is the quintessential burnout cop, Murtaugh is the quintessential family man. The whole film is based around that simple premise, what happens when you force those two people to work together.

Where the film scores over the screenplay is that Rigg's character is made darker and at the same time more human. I think it's why I've always had a soft spot for this movie.

What I'd really like to know now is who fixed the problems Shane Black or a brilliant script editor. If it's the later I'd really like to know who that was, because I'd really, really like to work with them.

Where you really can't fault Shane Black is in creating such excellent characters, both Riggs and Murtaugh leap off the page and the dialogue is razor sharp. However, even in that it's nice to see how much spare fat got cut away from the dialogue between this version and the print.
 
Shane Black is a god. He has written some of the best action films (Last Boy Scout, Lethal Wepaon, Long Kiss Good Night) and some of my fav films fall stop.

Black writes better Dialogue & charecters than most and for my money is on par in many respects with Mr Tarantino.
 
Black writes better Dialogue & charecters than most and for my money is on par in many respects with Mr Tarantino

In my opinion Shane Black's much, much better. The problem I've always had with Tarantino is that as a writer you can actually feel his desparate need to be hip, but it's always done in a way that is ultimately very geeky. So I always come away from his movies feeling like they were written for fifteen year old boys by a forty year old comic book collector (and I mean in the bad obsessive way, not the cool post-modern way I read graphic novels :lol: )

Tarantino would never have written a character like either Riggs or Murtaugh, they're too mundane, to human and not comic book enough for him.
 
You know what you have a fair point there, although I think Tarantino's ability to work a story so to speak is better than Blacks. But Black works must better set pieces and quick fire witty dialogue.

Have you read Last Boy Scout? Superb script! GREAT film also!
 
Have you read Last Boy Scout? Superb script! GREAT film also!

No, but I'll add it to the screenplay club list.

I think you're right about Tarantion's ability to structure a story, it's his strongest point as writer. Shane Black's work is much more linear and conventional in its storytelling.
 
I always though QT treis too hard, but Shane Black just seems to write naturally witty stick. I havent seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang yet but hear its superb!

I'd love to see QT direct a SB story! That would be superb!
 
I am most impressed with QT as a director...he did a season end of CSI a while back and managed to tell me as much in the first 2 minutes about one of the main characters as they normally do in a full season. I'm not a big fan of fast fire dialog so While I love the visual spectacle and style of QT, the dialog just grates on me after a while. I have some of the same things with Kevin Smith too, but his dialog has more meat to it for me...There's still too much for me though. I've always been a sucker for a good turn of phrase though and Mr. Black has that in spades: "Long Kiss Goodnight" - "Oh phooey, I burnt the muffins!" - Samuel L. Jackson
 
Some great LKGN moments:

Nathan: Alice, please? Your dog, Alice - it and my appetite are mutually exclusive.
Alice: Well, what's wrong with the dog?
Nathan: Simple: he's been licking his asshole for the last three straight hours. I submit to you that there is nothing there worth more than an hour's attention and I should think that whatever he is attempting to dislodge, is either gone for good... or there to stay.

Mitch Henessey: How did you find us?
Nathan: There may be many reasons not to kill you, but among them is not that you'll be missed by NASA. I found the address in your coat. Here. Between the address of a topless bar, and the picture of what looks like a man's penis.
Mitch Henessey: That's a duck, not a dick.

Mitch: So, you cold?
Charlie: Yeah. Freezing.
Mitch: Turn on the heat. It doesn't work, but it makes a very annoying noise - distracts from the cold.

Genius!
 
knightly said:
I have some of the same things with Kevin Smith too, but his dialog has more meat to it for me...There's still too much for me though.

KEVIN SMITH

Great writer - terrible director. Smith's direction is so flat it annoys me. It doesn't do justice to his writing which often is brilliant (although over the past few years I'm finding his work increasingly irritating).
 
OTHER GREAT SHANE BLACK QUOTES:

LAST BOY SCOUT:

Joe Hallenbeck: Leather pants.
Jimmy Dix: Yeah.
Joe Hallenbeck: What's something like that run?
Jimmy Dix: Six-fifty.
Joe Hallenbeck: Six hundred and fifty dollars?
Jimmy Dix: Yeah.
Joe Hallenbeck: They're pants.
Jimmy Dix: Yeah.
Joe Hallenbeck: You wear them?
Jimmy Dix: YES.
Joe Hallenbeck: They don't, like, have a TV in them or something?
Jimmy Dix: Nope.
Joe Hallenbeck: I am very old.

Mike Mathews: Look Joe, it just happened.
Joe Hallenbeck: Sure, sure, it just happened. Could happen to anybody. It was an accident, right? You tripped, fell on the floor and accidently stuck your dick into my wife. "Oops, I'm sorry, Mrs. H, I guess this just isn't my week".

Jimmy Dix: Hey, man. You ever play ball? You've got a good build.
Joe Hallenbeck: What are you, a fag?
Jimmy Dix: No, I'm just trying to break the ice.
Joe Hallenbeck: I like ice. Leave it the fuck alone.

LETHAL WEAPON

Martin Riggs: That's very thin.
Roger Murtaugh: Thin is my middle name.

KISS KISS BANG BANG

Perry Van Shrike: [about his derringer] I call it my "faggot gun," because it's only good for a couple of shots and then you have to drop it for something better.

Harmony Faith Lane: Well, for starters, she's been fucked more times than she's had a hot meal.
Harry Lockhart: Yeah, I heard about that. It was neck-and-neck and then she skipped lunch.
Martin Riggs: Considering your wife's cooking, I'm not surprised.

SUPERB!!!!
 
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