In a new series from Script Lab, our resident film historian Martin Keady examines the greatest screenplays of all time: the ones every screenwriter should read and study. he started with Me and nailsBruce Robinson’s semi-autobiographical classic tells the story of a pair of out-of-work actors trying to get it together in the country in the late 1960s.
When you’ve read a script a hundred times or more, you know it’s great and it still yields new insights and fun. Lest anyone accuse me of exaggerating, this is at least the number of times I read the script Me and nails While researching and writing my contribution Withnail and Me: From Cult to Classica book about the film produced by writer and designer Toby Benjamin.
Few plays, if any, deserve such extensive rereading, but Me and nails sure. In fact, in the words of one of its many wonderful dialogues, it contains “the most beautiful lines available to man.”
Even setting aside my contributions to the book, I still wrote more about Me and nails More than any other screenplay I’ve written in over a decade of writing for Script Lab. In fact, it was the numerous articles I wrote about the film for Script Lab that first made Toby Benjamin aware of my love for the film, including one I wrote nearly 10 years ago ( (The Forty Greatest Plays of All Time) states that this is the only play that can match Casablanca (1942) For the sake of pure citability, almost every line, no matter how trivial it may seem, can be quoted, and indeed is quoted endlessly.
However, although Casablanca Almost universally hailed as one of the greatest screenplays ever written this the greatest script, Me and nails In comparison, it has relatively little visibility, especially in the United States. So I hope this article will slightly increase its visibility in the United States and alert American screenwriters to the existence of the greatest screenplay they’ve probably never read.
Me and nails:Backstory
Maybe the first thing to talk about is the script Me and nails The point is, it’s only one element of a perfect movie (although probably the most important one). What I mean by “perfect” is that every element of the film, from the opening credits to the closing score (and everything in between), is of consistently excellent quality. There’s no poorly cast minor actors or a bad background of moving cars like so many of Alfred Hitchcock’s films to lose even a moment of its appeal to the audience.
exist Me and nailsthe directing, acting, cinematography, editing, music, and everything else about this film (set design, costumes, hair, etc.) are absolutely top-notch and can reasonably be described as perfect or as perfect as any other human creation ever could.
This is especially true of the script, which in Britain has become as legendary as any script ever written. Indeed, the "backstory" Me and nails It was worthy of being filmed in its own right, as it took Robinson over a decade to complete, and eventually George Harrison read the book on a transatlantic flight and agreed to produce it as soon as possible (for HandMade, the production company he founded in 1978 Films).
Read more: A brief history of screenwriting
What makes a great screenplay?
As with any screenplay, the two most important elements Me and nails Its plot and dialogue are both excellent, albeit for entirely different reasons.
plot
The plot is simple, not even perfunctory. In the late 1960s (literally, the action of the film takes place in the last few months of 1969), there are two out-of-work actors (the titular Withnail and I, named Marwood in the script) who have moved on from the latest The set took a break from their bacchanalian revels and decided that what they needed was a break in the countryside, in keeping with the trend at the time for British bands, especially Traffic, to leave the city and record in a more rural setting.
As I/Marwood said, with his usual mixture of plain talk and poetry: “What we need is harmony. Fresh air. That sort of thing.
Due to poverty (although Withnell came from a wealthy family, although he was estranged from the family), the two had to woo Withnell’s Uncle Monty, a member of his extended family who felt that he It’s not entirely unpleasant, and part of that may be because Monty himself “climbed the boardroom” (i.e., acting) when I was young. Monty duly lends them the keys to his remote country cottage, which is more of a shabby shed than a country idyll, and the pair set off from London to the Lake District, which is actually on the other side of England. For “a pleasant trip”.
What happened next was anything but “pleasant,” as Withnell and I/Marwood were attacked by amorous bulls, vengeful poachers, and ultimately Uncle Monty’s death when homosexuality was fully decriminalized and The last few days before the British were generally accepted made it to me/Marwood and then set off to join him at the hut.
A quick summary of this plot Me and nails One film critic further summed it up: “Here. There. Here. This line is a nod to a line in the script that the poacher (when he’s feeling less vengeful) leaves next to the rabbit. The three-word note he finally decided to give Venetian and me: “Here, Rabbit, here!
In fact, there is nothing more to the so-called “storyline”. Me and nails More so than flying between London and the Lake District, or between the city and the countryside. However Me and nails Arguably, this is the greatest example in cinema of the old adage in literature: the greatest stories are those in which nothing happens but everything changes.
Nothing actually happened (or more accurately, not much happened) Me and nailsHowever, everything changes for the titular partners, especially I/Marwood, who gradually realizes that his so-called friends are actually completely selfish and are even prepared to risk their personal safety to get what he wants. wants something, most notably when he admits to me/marwood that he told Monty that me/marwood had to be gay to get into his country retreat.
Ultimately, I/Marwood rejects Wynell at the end of the film as he heads to Manchester to pursue an acting job, leaving Wynell to rot alone in a rat-infested flat where he now faces eviction.
Among all its other achievements, Me and nails Arguably, this movie is the best example of how a plot or storyline doesn’t have to be epic, or even overtly dramatic, to be incredibly powerful and impactful.
In this story, a man comes to terms with the exploitative nature of the friendship he’s fallen into and eventually escapes it, Me and nails captures the truth about many relationships (especially many male friendships) that somehow continue to last long after they become completely toxic.
“Nails and Me” (1987)
great conversation
The second essential element of any great screenplay is great dialogue, and here it is Me and nails Really make a difference.
If its plot is relatively ordinary, its dialogue is absolutely extraordinary, which is why I said it over a decade ago (and I still stand by it today): Casablanca Almost matching its seemingly infinite citability.
The first conversation in the film is a mundane one, with me/Marwood asking the (unseen) Withnail if he would like a cup of tea, to which Withnail (still unseen) replies, “No.” However, in the cafe to which Marwood escapes , his first voice-over sets the tone for his whimsy, which is both poetic and prosaic, and which he will do frequently throughout the rest of the film: “Thirteen million Londoners Having to deal with this, and baked beans and whole bran and rapeseed? I’m sitting in this damn hut, I can’t deal with Withnail. I must go home immediately and discuss his problems.
He did return home to Withnell, but emphatically did not “discuss his problems in depth” (which included a level of self-absorption that would have put Narcissus to shame). On the contrary, those “question“Largely averted until it couldn’t be avoided anymore, at the end of the film I/Marwood finally faced Withnail, albeit in a decidedly non-confrontational way.
During this time, Robinson’s flawless dialogue, honed over a decade and countless drafts of a script that originally began as a novel, encompassed just about everything, or at least what was in the minds of young people like Withnell and I/Marwood All that matters. Very expensive for those who can’t”; politically, Uncle Monty declared that England, especially his upper class, was “ravaged by the Tories and bulldozed by Labour”; and even the sixties themselves, drug dealer Danny lamented: “We are at the end of an era. The greatest decade in human history is coming to an end. They are selling hippie wigs in Woolworths. There are 91 days until the end of this decade, let’s say Ed [his black sidekick and drug mule] It’s been pointed out here that we failed to paint it black.
Perhaps the only universal human obsession that isn’t directly addressed is sex, but it’s present throughout the film, arguably hiding in plain sight.
First, the character of Uncle Monty is an older, “crazy gay man” (as I/Marwood describes it) who pursues young bodies, whether or not that young bodies are interested in him. Eventually it appears in the last line of the film, where Withnail quotes village Expressing his Hamlet-like disgust at a world that rejects him (including me/Marwood): “Men don’t please me, nay, neither do women, nor women.” Indeed, this brilliant soliloquy proves That Withnell can indeed act, but only for the selfless wolf at London Zoo, says a lot about Withnell’s so-called actor’s “career,” and arguably human ambition in general.
Robinson was an actor who was briefly successful after leaving drama school until he fell into post-drama school squalor, a sordid existence that was alternately celebrated and harshly criticized. Me and nails. Eventually, he stopped being an actor and became a writer – a great writer, as the script attests. Me and nails Alone. But he clearly never lost his actor’s ear for memorable dialogue, and used it to stunning effect in his greatest plays.
Read more: Download 9 Scripted Study Conversations
“Nails and Me” (1987)
look Me and nailsand then read it yourself
seen and read Me and nails Many times, especially while researching and writing a book about it, I can personally attest to its compelling, indeed haunting genius.
But don’t take my word for it. If you haven’t seen or read it yourself, please do so as soon as possible because I can almost guarantee that you will love it and be inspired by it. Even if you have seen or read it before, watch it again because there is no other script except Casablancaso rewarding for multiple viewings or reads.
