[Quick Summary: Lou, a numbers runner who yearns for his neighbor Sally, becomes an inadvertent drug courier for her estranged husband who arrives unexpectedly.]
Q: How good is this script?
A: Good.* Really good.**
Lead actor Burt Lancaster said of his role:
A part like that, especially at my age, happens every ten years, if you’re lucky.
Q: But the script is written in the format of a play!
A: Here's what I wished I'd known about formatting as a new writer (but you can't tell new writers until they figure it out for themselves): It's not about formatting.
Q: But I LIKE doing the formatting. Don't you?
A: I love it. It gives me a sense of "control" over the story.
Q: What's wrong with that?
A: Nothing, unless I'm using it to hide from the truth. ex. I simply can't fix this story. It's the formatting! Or my characters are flat. It's the formatting!
Q: So focus on ...what?
A: I think the writer's job is to get the reader to go in with the character, and wonder where he came from, where he's going.
If the reader is focusing on commas and periods, you've failed.
In the scene below:
- Notice how writer (and playwright) John Guare keeps you wondering why this very neat older man is living in a doomed building. Who is ringing for him?
- Also note that you're so into Lou's world that the format falls away.
INT. LOU'S APARTMENT. DAY.
LOU IS A MAN IN HIS 60'S, VERY FIT, VERY HEARTY. IT SEEMS
A SURPRISE TO SEE HIM IRON A TIE IN HIS ONE-ROOM APARTMENT
IN THIS DOOMED BUILDING.
BEHIND HIM A BELL RINGS. AND RINGS.
THE BELL IS CONNECTED IN A VERY MAKESHIFT MANNER TO A
CLOTHESLINE LEADING DOWNSTAIRS.
THE APARTMENT IS ALARMINGLY BARE, EVEN THOUGH HE HAS
LIVED HERE HOW MANY YEARS NOW---THIRTY? CALENDARS
ON THE WALLS. OLD MAGAZINES. THAT'S ABOUT IT.
LOU TAKES HIS TIME. HE BUTTONS HIS SHIRT VERY CAREFULLY.
HE IS A VERY NEAT GUY.
HE TAKES A PAIR OF CLEAN SOCKS FROM THE LAUNDRY PILE.
HE STUFFS THE SOCK INTO THE BELL. IT QUIETS IT, BUT IT
DOESN'T STOP ITS PULLING.
HE LOOKS OUT THE WINDOW.
LOU'S POV. WE SEE SALLY, DAVE AND CHRISSIE FROM ABOVE
ENTERING THE BUILDING.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: If musicians reading music can't wait for the next sequence of notes, the last thing they're looking at is the staff paper.
Atlantic City (1980)
by John Guare
*I am terribly impressed that it was written for a $5M budget and on a time crunch (begun in Aug., 1979, & shot Oct. 1979-Jan. 1980).
**Also, it received five Oscars nominations for:
- John Guare (Best Writing)
- Burt Lancaster (Best Actor)
- Susan Sarandon (Best Actress)
- Louis Malle (Best Director)
- Best Picture
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