# The 101 Best Screenplays As Per The Writers Guild: Guess Who Won **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2006, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944 "2006-04-09T10:00:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/1 "2006-04-09T10:00:59Z")
The Writers Guild Of America just came out with their list of the top 101 movie screenplays of all time. Before you click on the following [link](http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=1807), play fair and try to **guess the top five** of their list. Don’t read any other posts in this thread first. Just hit reply and post your guesses for the **top five best movie screenplays of all time** , Then click on the link above to see how you did. and then come back and click on the link to see how well you did. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/2 "2006-04-09T10:04:13Z")
Sorry about the double posting of my last sentence…but it gives you a little more space to guess. BTW…I only guessed what was number one and missed the other four. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/3 "2006-04-09T10:07:53Z")
Godfather Taxi Driver Casablanca Citizen Kane Ernest Goes to Camp How’d I do? ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/4 "2006-04-09T10:20:14Z")
I’ll probably miss them all, but here goes… The Godfather Pulp Fiction Casablanca Gone With The Wind Citizen Kane ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/5 "2006-04-09T10:24:00Z")
I did better than I thought 😃 > [@zuma](#): > > I’ll probably miss them all, but here goes… > > The Godfather [2] > Pulp Fiction [16] > Casablanca [1] > Gone With The Wind [23] > Citizen Kane [4] ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/6 "2006-04-09T10:30:28Z")
My first thought was Terence Malick’s **Badlands** , it must have been 102. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/7 "2006-04-09T10:41:42Z")
Now that I look at the list, why didn’t they leave out 85 and 87 and stick American in the title. Surely they are not suggesting that they considered non-American screenplays and could only find 2 worthy of inclusion. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/8 "2006-04-09T13:47:42Z")
OK, I’ll play. In no particular order: Schindler’s List Casablanca Marty Ordinary People Love, Actually Betcha I didn’t even get one. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/9 "2006-04-09T13:51:38Z")
At least I got three somewhere on the list. Honest, I was going to say On the Waterfront, but since I was just in the best Score thread, I was thinking of that as one of the worst. I was also thinking “No way Eternal Sunshine will make that list.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/10 "2006-04-09T14:03:12Z")
I would guess: The Godfather The Godfather, Part II Casablanca Chinatown Pulp Fiction Hey, I got three! Those were fairly predictable, though. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/11 "2006-04-09T14:22:16Z")
Porky’s Dude, Where’s My Car? Heaven’s Gate Ishtar Killer Tomatoes from Outer Space I forgot to check the list. How’d I do? ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/12 "2006-04-09T14:44:48Z")
In no order, Chinatown Pulp Fiction One Flew over the Cuckoos nest Casablanca Godfather ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/13 "2006-04-09T15:40:33Z")
No Marx Brothers movies? Did the WGA think that Groucho and Chico made up their lines as they went along? Billy Wilder appears to come out as most appreciated: three of the top fifteen, four of the top twenty-six. Woody Allen also has four, but much lower overall. Several people have three films on the list, including Francis Ford Coppola, William Goldman, John Huston, and Charlie Kaufman. IOW, six people are responsible for 20% of the greatest screenplays in history. (OK, with co-writers). How different would the history of film been without them? Hey, somebody has to mention the writers in a thread about screenplays! And I agree that the lack of non-American screenplays is silly. Even if you limit the scripts to English-language (fair, since it’s so hard to evaluate them in other languages) the whole British film industry is ridiculously underrepresented. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/14 "2006-04-09T15:48:13Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > The Writers Guild Of America just came out with their list of the top 101 movie screenplays of all time. > > Before you click on the following > > [link](http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=1807), > > play fair and try to > > **guess the top five** of their list. Citizen Kane All About Eve The Third Man Chinatown His Girl Friday Pretty close to what you’d find on lists of best _movies_ of all time, but I tried to think of things with particularly memorable and/or witty screenplays. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/15 "2006-04-09T15:51:52Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Citizen Kane > All About Eve > The Third Man > Chinatown > His Girl Friday > > Pretty close to what you’d find on lists of best _movies_ of all time, but I tried to think of things with particularly memorable and/or witty screenplays. D’oh! How could I have forgotten Casablanca? I originally had The Godfather on there, but then I decided that His Girl Friday really was better (and I still think so, from a strictly screenwriting viewpoint). But otherwise I did pretty well… ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/16 "2006-04-09T15:53:40Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > Now that I look at the list, why didn’t they leave out 85 and 87 and stick American in the title. Or put in the word “english-language” - weren’t some on the list (e.g. Lawrence of Arabia) considered british movies? But it’s very true that the people of the WGA seem to have never heard of movies made outside Hollywood. Their [press release](http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=1917) says only > [@](#): > > The 101 finalists were compiled from over 1,400 screenplays selected by members of the Writers Guild of America, west and the Writers Guild of America, East as their favorite works; the joint-guild balloting process took place during 2005. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/17 "2006-04-09T23:35:18Z")
The Godfather The Godfather II Pulp Fiction Fargo Gone With the Wind ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/18 "2006-04-09T23:56:22Z")
If this is limited to US-made movies: 1. Casablanca 2. Annie Hall 3. The Godfather, Part II 4. Network 5. Chinatown ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/19 "2006-04-10T02:36:04Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > The Writers Guild Of America just came out with their list of the top 101 movie screenplays of all time. > > Before you click on the following > > [link](http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=1807), > > play fair and try to > > **guess the top five** of their list. > Don’t read any other posts in this thread first. > > Just hit reply and post your guesses for the > > **top five best movie screenplays of all time** , > > Then click on the link above to see how you did. > and then come back and click on the link to see how well you did. My two best guesses: **The Godfather** **Citizen Cane** The rest, I’m not so sure about. It’s such a big field. I’ll guess: **Chinatown** , **GoodFellas** , **The Usual Suspects** ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944/20 "2006-04-10T02:40:00Z")
er, **Citizen Kane**. Can’t believe I spelled it with a ‘C’. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-101-best-screenplays-as-per-the-writers-guild-guess-who-won/351944.md?page=2)