Are Screenplays Literature?
Part Two
by Charles Deemer (Oct-07-2002)
The argument against screenplays being considered literature begins with this:
a screenplay is not a literary document because it is not written primarily to
be read. It is written to be produced. Granted, screenplays get read, but even
today when more screenplays than ever are being published (and most
screenplays, of course, never get published at all), screenplays are read
primarily by a specialized audience within the industry. A screenplay is a
blueprint for a movie. The first readers of a screenplay read not for enjoyment
but to make an important decision: should I recommend that this script be
developed into a movie?
Whatever
else can be said about literature, there is no doubt that literature is written
to be read. Screenplays are not. Screenplays are written to be produced. They
are not literature.
Screenplays vs. Plays
What
about plays? you might ask. They, too, are written to be produced but surely
many stage plays are treated like literature. Look at Shakespeare!
But
plays have a clear author. In fact, screenplays do not -- certainly not the
screenplays that get to the screen and get published. Playwrights,
unlike screenwriters, always retain ownership, and therefore artistic control,
of their creations. A number of years ago a theatre in a major city produced
Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? in which George and Martha were presented as a gay
couple, men in a
homosexual marriage. When Albee found out about it, he had his lawyer close
down the play. This was not his script, and they had no right to change it.
Screenwriters
hear this story with considerable envy. How different their own professional
reality! When a screenwriter crosses paths with a
producer or director or star actor, he or she is flirting with getting fired.
Screenwriters are collaborators and not very powerful ones at that,
even though they start the process that may become a movie. Screenwriters are
treated like hired hands.
A
number of years ago, I optioned a script about the darkly comic misadventures
of a shy teacher on his fiftieth birthday, including his involvement with a
young call girl. As soon as I signed the option contract, temporarily signing
away my rights, the producer announced the first change he wanted in the
script: change the age of the teacher
to 30. What a different story! In fact, nothing made sense if the guy was 30
instead of 50 (and nine months later the producer finally agreed with me). But
my choice, suddenly, was to change the guy to 30 or get fired and let some
other writer do it for me. That's how powerless a
screenwriter is.
Max
Adams, who wrote Excess Baggage,
became so upset at how her script was changed (and she was fired from the
project) that she privately sells her original script!
This
is not the environment in which literature is written. Screenplays are not
written to be read but produced, and the original author retains no
control over the changes in the script during development. This state of
affairs makes some sense if you understand that a screenplay is a blueprint for
a movie, the first step in a long process involving many creative minds, the
least powerful of which is the screenwriter's. A
screenplay is not a literary document, and it is not literature.
In
my next column I'll look at the opposite view.