Why Writers Aren't Respected in Hollywood

The Writer's Guild of America has released their list of the 101 Best Screenplays of all time. The best screenplay as chosen by screenwriters themselves? Casablanca. That's right, a screenplay that was notorious for being written on the fly, by a bunch of different writers who hodge-podged it together, where nobody knew the ending until the day it was filmed ... That screenplay is the best screenplay of all time. And writers wonder why they get no respect in the industry. They don't even respect themselves!

On their website, the WGA writes: "the greatest films of all time have one thing in common: each began as the vision of writer. Long before the parts were cast and the cameras rolled, a writer gazed upon a blank page and set in motion a classic story." So let me get this straight. Screenplays are important because they begin as the vision of a writer ... but the greatest screenplay ever written wasn't the vision of any writer, but instead was whatever one of three or four different writers happened to think would be best on any particular given day just before that particular scene was shot? This is completely idiotic! The screenplay for Casablanca had so little "vision" that nobody knew if it would end happy or sad, if Bogey and Bergman would end up toegether or not! Isn't that critical to the entire "vision" of the story and the characters in them??

By choosing Casablanca as the greatest screenplay of all time, the WGA has in effect legitimized the fact that the director is the most important person behind the making of a film, and that the writer's job is to do whatever the directory wants, whenever he/she wants. The writer's "vision" is unimportant, it's the director's "vision" that matters. Congratulations, WGA, I hope your members are thrilled the next time a director hogs the "written by" credit on a film or during the next round of contract negotiations when the producers refuse to give you any additional residuals. You've just given them all the justification they need to disrespect you even more than they already do.