>>>Not to mention that bit at the end where Jodie and her daughter close the hatch behind them, as though that would be enough to protect them from an explosion that destroys the rest of the plane. Yes, she was an engineer on that aircraft model, but walking away from such an explosion seemed pretty unlikely to me.
>>
>>The explosion has to be spectacular. They're always the star of all movies now a days.:)
>
>Hollywood movies, yes. For example, over the weekend my daughter and I saw "Inside Man". It was a decent, enjoyable movie, with good performances by an all-star cast -- Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen. (And a great performance by Jodie's legs, which she has unaccountably kept to herself until now, LOL). The movie includes Spike's usual commentaries on New York City, racism, and the black American experience in particular. There is a story that keeps your interest despite some plot flaws. All good. But damned if there wasn't a big blasty shoot-em-up scene, A SCENE THAT NEVER HAPPENED IN THE MOVIE STORY. It was just a NYC cop picturing what MIGHT happen if the SWAT team stormed the bank. Bodies fly, blood spurts. Tribute must be paid.
>
>I used to know a guy who was an actual Hollywood screenwriter. His name rhymes with John Hill. He wrote several movie screenplays that got produced, the most famous of which is probably "Quigley Down Under", and won an Emmy for his work on "L.A. Law". He hung out on the Screenwriting section of the Showbiz forum of Compuserve back in the day. There were other produced screenwriters there but John was unquestionably the potentate. His basic demeanor was gruff but he inspired more than one successful Hollywood writing career. One of the next Will Smith vehicles was cowritten by a guy who was once an unknown wannabe in the Screenwriting section.
>
>Coming around to my point -- eventually I always do, sooner or later -- John's #1 point, hammered home in countless 64K posts, was if you want to sell to the studios, you have to play by the rules. He had it broken down right to the number of pages in the script (around 120, one per minute of screen time), the page by which readers lose interest if you haven't grabbed them yet (page 15), and the essential plot transitions. He said he watches movies he wants to learn from with a stopwatch in his hand, literally. He's a big believer in laying out the main plot points on 3x5 index cards.
>
>John had no patience whatsoever for sentimentality or flowery aspirations, and I was one of his favorite whipping boys. It's a business, he repeated and repeated and repeated. We're out here trying to make a living and you're up there in the bleachers asking why we can't all write "Dead Men Walking". We'd like to, trust me, he said. But that's not the business we exist in.
>
>Just so you don't think he's a soulless cretin, cranking out Hollywood drivel, here is one of my most vivid memories of his posts. I don't remember how "St. Elsewhere" came up but somehow John addressed it. He described, in detail beyond my ability, the episode where the wife of the doctor played by David Morse died in a car accident, and in a parallel plot there was a woman in the hospital needing a heart transplant. They asked him if it would be OK to transplant his wife's heart and he agreed. In the last scene he walks to the woman's room, late at night, nobody else around. He sits by her bedside and holds his stethoscope to her heart. Fade to black.
>
>The last I heard John was living in Las Vegas and teaching a writing class at UNLV. For anyone in the area with the remotest interest in writing, I encourage you to check it out. No advertising here -- this is just from me.