Best American screenplays
Sam Thomas
From the inside flap: Best American Screenplays is the first in a planned series for films comparable to Crown's famous Best American Plays series, now in its eighth edition. There is a major introduction to the subject of screenplays by Sam Thomas. Then each of the twelve complete screenplays is introduced with a short background about the script and the screenwriter. These screenplays, almost all winners of prestigious Academy Awards, are some of the finest that have contributed to and enriched the literature of cinema for the better part of this century. Virtually all of the many genres of film are represented. All Quiet on the Western Front is the definitive work on the dehumanizing effects of modern war on the young who must do the fighting. Meet John Doe offers a vice of cheer and hope in America's worst depression years of the thirties, while Sounder represents another deeply felt experience of that era. Casablanca is the romantic tale for all times; Miracle on 34th Street reaches for deep feelings and human values amid the miracle of Christmas; Rebel Without a Cause, starring the late James Dean, anticipated the emergence of teenagers as an important subculture in our country, with all their burgeoning problems. The violence that runs through so much of American life is depicted in Bonnie and Clyde. Beyond its deft, light, and flip touch, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid is another film of violence ending in death. Questioning of our hypocritical moral values is both hilariously and satirically expressed in The Graduate. On the other hand, On Golden Pond is a warm celebration and approbation of love and family amid the trials of old age. Arthur is one of the zaniest comedies in the great Hollywood tradition. And The Candidate portrays the disturbing defects of our modern electioneering processes. Here in one magnificent collection are twelve screenplays of the highest quality, affording us a unique, special window on time, viewing American culture and history in more than half a century of swiftly moving events that severely tested our most cherished assumptions and beliefs from World War I to the present.
