El Writers Guild of America has published a list of the 101 films that they consider to have the best scripts.
With four hyphens, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen y Billy Wilder They are the scriptwriters, who also directed these films, who appear the most in this list.
Up to four movies of Steven Spielberg appear on the list, none of them written by him.
Only two films on the list are not English-speaking, the French "The Great Illusion" by Jean Renoir and the Italian film "Eight and a Half" by Federico Fellini.
The 101 best scripts:
1. "Casablanca"
Screenplay by Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. Based on the play “Everybody Comes to Rick's” by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison.
2. "The Godfather"
Screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola. Based on the novel by Mario Puzo.
3. "Chinatown"
Written by Robert Towne.
4. "Citizen Kane"
Written by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles.
5. "Naked Eve"
Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Based on “The Wisdom of Eve,” a short story and radio play by Mary Orr.
6. "Annie Hall"
Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman.
7. "Twilight of the Gods"
Written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder and DM Marshman, Jr.
8. "Network, an unforgiving world"
Written by Paddy Chayefsky.
9. «With skirts already crazy»
Screenplay by Billy Wilder & IAL Diamond. Based on "Fanfare of Love", a German film written by Robert Thoeren and M. Logan.
10. "The Godfather (Part II)"
Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo. Based on the Mario Puzo novel "The Godfather".
11. "Two men and a destiny"
Written by William Goldman.
12. «Red telephone? We fly to Moscow »
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Peter George and Terry Southern. Based on the novel "Red Alert" by Peter George.
13. "The Graduate"
Screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry. Based on the novel by Charles Webb.
14. "Lawrence of Arabia"
Screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. Based on the life and writings of Col. TE Lawrence.
15. "The apartment"
Written by Billy Wilder & IAL Diamond.
16. "Pulp Fiction"
Written by Quentin Tarantino. Based on an argument by Quentin Tarantino & Roger Avary.
17. "Tootsie"
Screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal. Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart story.
18. "The law of silence"
Screen story and screenplay by Budd Schulberg. Based on "Crime on the Waterfront," an article by Malcolm Johnson.
19. "To kill a nightingale"
Screenplay by Horton Foote. Based on the novel by Harper Lee.
20. "How beautiful it is to live"
Screenplay by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett & Frank Capra. Based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" by Philip Van Doren Stern. Michael Wilson and Jo Swerling contributed to the script.
21. "With death on your heels"
Written by Ernest Lehman.
22. "Life sentence"
Screenplay by Frank Darabont. Based on the short story “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King.
23. "Gone with the Wind"
Screenplay by Sidney Howard. Based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell.
24. "Forget about me!"
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman. Story of Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth.
25. "The Wizard of Oz"
Screenplay by Noel Langley and Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf Adaptation by Noel Langley. Based on the novel by L. Frank Baum.
26. "Bane"
Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Based on the novel by James M. Cain.
27. "Trapped in time"
Screenplay by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis. Danny Rubin's argument.
28. "Shakespeare in Love"
Written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard.
29. "Sullivan's Travels"
Written by Preston Sturges.
30. "Without forgiveness"
Written by David Webb Peoples
31. "New Moon"
Screenplay by Charles Lederer. Based on the play “The Front Page” by Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur.
32. "Fargo"
Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen.
33. "The third man"
Screenplay by Graham Greene. Graham Greene Story. Based on the short story by Graham Greene.
34. "Blackmail on Broadway"
Screenplay by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman. Based on a novel by Ernest Lehman.
35. "Usual Suspects"
Written by Christopher McQuarrie.
36. "Midnight Cowboy"
Screenplay by Waldo Salt. Based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy.
37. "Philadelphia Stories"
Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart. Based on the play by Philip Barry.
38. "America Beauty"
Written by Alan Ball.
39. "The Coup"
Written by David S. Ward.
40. "When Harry Met Sally"
Written by Nora Ephron.
41. "One of ours"
Screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese. Based on the book "Wise Guy" by Nicholas Pileggi.
42. "In search of the lost ark"
Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan. Story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman.
43. "Taxi Driver"
Written by Paul Schrader.
44. "The best years of our life"
Screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood. Based on the novel "Glory For Me" by MacKinley Kantor.
45. "Someone flew over the cuckoo's nest"
Screenplay by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman. Based on the novel by Ken Kesey.
46. "The treasure of Sierra Madre"
Screenplay by John Huston. Based on the novel by B. Traven.
47. "The Maltese Falcon"
Screenplay by John Huston. Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett.
48. "The Bridge over the River Kwai"
Screenplay by Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle.
49. "Schindler's List"
Screenplay by Steven Zaillian. Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally.
50. "The sixth sense"
Written by M. Night Shyamalan.
51. "On the cutting edge of the news"
Written by James L. Brooks.
52. "The three nights of Eva"
Screenplay by Preston Sturges. Monckton Hoffe History.
53. "All the President's Men"
Screenplay by William Goldman. Based on the book by Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward.
54. "Manhattan"
Written by Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman.
55. "Apocalypse Now"
Written by John Milius and Francis Coppola. Narration by Michael Herr.
56. "Back to the future"
Written by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale.
57. "Crimes and misdemeanors"
Written by Woody Allen.
58. "Ordinary people"
Screenplay by Alvin Sargent. Based on the novel by Judith Guest.
59. "It happened one night"
Screenplay by Robert Riskin. Based on the story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams.
60. "LA Confidential"
Screenplay by Brian Helgeland & Curtis Hanson. Based on the novel by James Ellroy.
61. "The Silence of the Lambs"
Screenplay by Ted Tally. Based on the novel by Thomas Harris.
62. "Moon spell"
Written by John Patrick Shanley.
63. "Shark"
Screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb. Based on the novel by Peter Benchley.
64. "The power of affection"
Screenplay by James L. Brooks. Based on the novel by Larry McMurtry.
65. "Singing in the Rain"
Screen Story and Screenplay by Betty Comden & Adolph Green. Based on the song by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown.
66. "Jerry Maguire"
Written by Cameron Crowe.
67. «ET, the extraterrestrial»
Written by Melissa Mathison.
68. "Star Wars"
Written by George Lucas
69. "Dog afternoon"
Screenplay by Frank Pierson. Based on the article by PF Kluge and Thomas Moore.
70. "The Queen of Africa"
Screenplay by James Agee and John Huston. Based on the novel by CS Forester.
71. "The Winter Lion"
Screenplay by James Goldman. Based on the work of James Goldman.
72. "Thelma and Louise"
Written by Callie Khouri.
73. "Amadeus"
Screenplay by Peter Shaffer. Based on his play
74. "How to be John Malkovich"
Written by Charlie Kaufman.
75. "Alone in the face of danger"
Screenplay by Carl Foreman. Based on the short story "The Tin Star" by John W. Cunningham.
76. "Wild bull"
Screenplay by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin. Based on the book by Jake La Motta, Joseph Carter and Peter Savage.
77. "Adaptation"
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman. Based on the book "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean.
78. "Rocky"
Written by Sylvester Stallone.
79. "The producers"
Written by Mel Brooks.
80. "Sole witness"
Screenplay by Earl W. Wallace & William Kelley. Story of William Kelley and Pamela Wallace & Earl W. Wallace.
81. "Welcome Mr. Chance"
Screenplay by Jerzy Kosinski. Inspired by the Jerzy Kosinski novella.
82. "The legend of the indomitable"
Screenplay by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson. Based on the novel by Donn Pearce.
83. "Rear Window"
Screenplay by John Michael Hayes. Based on the short story by Cornell Woolrich.
84. "The Princess Bride"
Screenplay by William Goldman. Based on his novel.
85. "The great illusion"
Written by Jean Renoir and Charles Spaak.
86. "Harold and Maude"
Written by Colin Higgins.
87. "Eight and a half"
Screenplay by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rond. Story by Fellini, Flaiano.
88. "Field of dreams"
Screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson. Based on the book by WP Kinsella.
89. "Forrest Gump"
Screenplay by Eric Roth. Based on the novel by Winston Groom.
90. "Between drinks"
Screenplay by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor. Based on the novel by Rex Pickett.
91. "The verdict"
Screenplay by David Mamet. Based on the novel by Barry Reed.
92. Psychosis »
Screenplay by Joseph Stefano. Based on the novel by Robert Bloch.
93. "Do what you must"
Written by Spike Lee.
94. "Patton"
Plot and Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North. Based on “A Soldier's Story” by Omar H. Bradley and “Patton: Ordeal and Triumph” by Ladislas Farago.
95. "Hannah and her sisters"
Written by Woody Allen.
96. "The hustler"
Screenplay by Sidney Carroll & Robert Rossen. Based on the novel by Walter Tevis.
97. Desert Centaurs »
Screenplay by Frank S. Nugent. Based on the novel by Alan Le May.
98. "The Grapes of Wrath"
Screenplay by Nunnally Johnson. Based on the novel by John Steinbeck.
99. "Wild group"
Screenplay by Walon Green and Sam Peckinpah. Argument of Walon Green and Roy Sickner.
100. "Memento"
Screenplay by Christopher Nolan. Based on the short story “Memento Mori” by Jonathan Nolan-
101. "Notorious"
Written by Ben Hecht.
More information - Film Masters: Francis Ford Coppola (70s)