Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood Script

Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood poster thumbnail
Year:2019
Director:Quentin Tarantino
Written by:Quentin Tarantino (Screenplay), Quentin Tarantino (Writer)

Script Synopsis:Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate, who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski…
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Film Scripts with Great Dialogue

Dialogues are just one of the many mechanisms that can move the plot forward. For some screenwriters though, it doesn’t seem to be a resource, but their chief weapon. While Quentin Tarantino may have become the ultimate modern reference, many other authors have also forged a reputation as masters of dialogue.

Aaron Sorkin has compared dialogue to music. There is indeed a rhythmic nature in the way his characters interact: from courtroom battles to rapid-fire Harvard computing chatter, Sorkin enjoys taking his characters to the limit not by physical, but argumentative exhaustion.

Always proud of his origins, Kevin Smith often uses real life friends as direct models for his characters. The Star Wars exchange in Clerks is both hilarious and genuine: Smith wasn’t afraid of driving the plot with the same kind of conversations he’d have with his own buddies- expletives and pop culture references included.

Which brings us to Richard Linklater, who inspired Smith to start his career. Watching Slacker or the Before trilogy, one might feel that those conversations are going nowhere. But they’re slowly, cleverly taking us to the next point.

Conversations are dynamic, and so are film dialogues, which are as diverse as the minds that crafted them. They can introduce us to the main conflict (Glengarry Glenn Ross), read a character’s thoughts for us (Juno, Fight Club), make outlaws be likable (Point Break, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) or just captivate us through absency (enjoy The Artist and There Will Be Blood’s brilliant opening!).

Some other examples of films with great dialogues are:

(1942) Casablanca 

(1949) The Third Man

(1972) The Godfather

(1974) Chinatown

(1976) Taxi Driver

(1979) Manhattan 

(1985) The Breakfast Club 

(1989) Do The Right Thing

(1991) The Silence of the Lambs

(1994) Pulp Fiction

(1996) Fargo  

(1997) Chasing Amy

(1997) As Good as it Gets  

(1999) American Beauty

(2006) Little Miss Sunshine

(2011) Moneyball 

The Hateful Eight Script

The Hateful Eight poster thumbnail
Year:2015
Director:Quentin Tarantino
Written by:Quentin Tarantino (Writer)

Script Synopsis:Bounty hunters seek shelter from a raging blizzard and get caught up in a plot of betrayal and deception.
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5 Scripts Tarantino Borrowed From

Quentin Tarantino is known as much for his ability to recreate tropes and concepts from his archival understanding of pop culture, as he is for his directing. A Tarantino movie to the keen observer plays like a potpourri of blaxploitation dialogue, kung fu action, and the stares of grizzly cowboys in westerns. Each of his films features almost too many references and homages to count like Kurt Russel’s vest from Big Trouble in Little China popping up in Death Proof, or the black and white suits his characters always wear made famous by John Woo. Here are five great examples of films that inspired Tarantino.

See if you can figure out how Q.T. remixed elements of these films into his own.

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Kill Bill Vol. 2 Script

Kill Bill Vol. 2 poster thumbnail
Year:2004
Director:Quentin Tarantino
Written by:Quentin Tarantino (Screenplay)

Script Synopsis:The Bride unwaveringly continues on her roaring rampage of revenge against the band of assassins who had tried to kill her and her unborn child. She visits each of her former associates one-by-one, checking off the victims on her Death List Five until there's nothing left to do … but kill Bill.
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Curdled Script

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Year:1996
Director:Reb Braddock
Written by:John Maass (Author), Reb Braddock (Author), Quentin Tarantino (Author)

Script Synopsis:Gabriella, a Columbian immigrant, is obsessed with understanding violent crime. The current string of murders by "The Blue Blood Killer" of affluent Miami socialites provides her with fodder for her scrapbook of death. She lands a job with a post-murder cleaning service and during a Blue-Blood clean-up job, discovers evidence that police have overlooked.
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Django Unchained

Django Unchained poster thumbnail
Year:2012
Director:Quentin Tarantino
Written by:Quentin Tarantino (Writer)

Script Synopsis:With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
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Death Proof

Death Proof poster thumbnail
Year:2007
Director:Quentin Tarantino
Written by:Quentin Tarantino (Screenplay)

Script Synopsis:Austin's hottest DJ, Jungle Julia, sets out into the night to unwind with her two friends Shanna and Arlene. Covertly tracking their moves is Stuntman Mike, a scarred rebel leering from behind the wheel of his muscle car, revving just feet away.
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True Romance

True Romance poster thumbnail
Year:1993
Director:Tony Scott
Written by:Quentin Tarantino (Screenplay), Roger Avary (Screenplay)

Script Synopsis:Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.
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