Best Screenplays Ever Written

The Top Ten
1 Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary
2 Network - Paddy Chayefsky

This is the greatest screenplay ever written, in my opinion. It has great poignancy and philosophical depth.

3 Annie Hall - Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
4 Clerks - Kevin Smith
5 Reservoir Dogs - Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary
6 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Charlie Kaufman
7 12 Angry Men - Reginald Rose

Almost the whole film was in a room and never bored me a bit

8 Adaptation - Charlie Kaufman
9 Fargo - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
10 Citizen Kane - Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz
The Contenders
11 American Psycho - Guinevere Turner and Mary Harron
12 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Sergio Leone, Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli and Luciano Vincenzoni
13 The Big Lebowski - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
14 The Shawshank Redemption - Frank Darabont
15 The Godfather - Francis Ford Coppola & Mario Puzo
16 Seven - Andrew Kevin Walker
17 Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
18 Life is Beautiful - Roberto Benigni and Vincenzo Cerami
19 Imitation of Life (1959) - Eleanore Griffin, Allan Scott

Was there ever a screenplay written that combines so many serious issues of society that are still relevant today and at the same time be so balanced and never superficial? The four main characters (they are two mothers and their daughters) are completely relatable, and each time one of them fulfills their wishes, another one of them becomes desperately unhappy. But none of them is selfish, it's just the situation. One of the mothers is black skinned, while her daughter is almost white. As long as people think she's white, she is accepted and popular, but when they figure out her mother is black, she gets excluded. So when the daughter rejects her mother, she hurts her feelings. When she does not, she herself gets rejected by society. The other mother is an actress, and as such, is always busy and never home. She can make good money from her job, but therefore can hardly be there for her teenage daughter, if she was, of course her career and her income would suffer. You see all the ...more

20 Goodfellas - Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi
21 Lucky Number Slevin - Jason Smilovic
22 The Matrix - Lilly and Lana Wachowski
23 Once Upon a Time in America - Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini and Sergio Leone
24 Die Hard - Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza
25 All Quiet on the Western Front - George Abbott
8Load More
PSearch List