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American Beauty: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Scripts) | 
 enlarge | Author: Alan Ball
Creator: Sam Mendes
Publisher: Newmarket Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy Used: $0.24
You Save: $18.71 (99%)
New (26) Used (52) Collectible (4) from $0.24
Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 186103
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 118
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 7.1 x 0.4
ISBN: 155704404X
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.4372
EAN: 9781557044044
ASIN: 155704404X
Publication Date: October 1, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
"I read the screenplay and nearly fell out of bed. I thought I better meet him quick before someone else read it."--Kevin Spacey Actors and critics alike have praised Alan Ball's first feature film screenplay, which tells the off-kilter story of a midlife crisis suffered by Lester Burnham (played by Spacey). For fans of the film's dialogue--and there will be many--the screenplay allows Ball's words as well as the film's inventive imagery, from flying rose petals to a dancing plastic bag, to be savored. Unfortunately for those wanting the inside scoop, this text is not the original shooting script but rather the screenplay of the final cut. But the script is so impressive, that's a minor quibble. The accompanying notes from Ball and director Sam Mendes are quite insightful, hinting at a different original ending and revealing Ball's odd inspiration for his idea: the tale of Joey Buttafuoco. Ball's TV background has made him an expert technical writer, and this book would serve as a great template for the fledgling screenwriter. It includes 20 black and white photos and a cast list. --Doug Thomas
Product Description
The shooting script of the acclaimed DreamWorks film starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, directed by Sam Mendes, winner of the 1999 Golden Globe Award for Best Picture. In the widely praised Newmarket Shooting Script(tm) series format, here is the complete shooting script of one of the best films of 1999. Also included in this volume are a fascinating essay about the screenplay and the making of the film by director Sam Mendes, an afterword by screenwriter Alan Ball recalling the genesis of the script, a twelve-page photo section, and the complete cast and crew credits.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 great screenplay February 17, 2009
RCM
reading the screenplay, you can tell why this movie was so powerful == it started with great writing.
Beautiful June 8, 2007
L. Giles (Virginia)
I loved reading the screenplay just as much as I enjoyed watching the film. I'm interested in screenwriting myself and bought the screenplay as a guide to my own screenwriting -- what to do and what not to do, and especially how to format shots of a person videotaping as is done throughout this piece. Excellent teaching tool!
A great companion to the movie! October 24, 2004
J. Rowland (Virginia Beach, VA, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved the film, American Beauty. It is, quite simply, my favorite movie of all time! This screenplay is just as captivating as the movie... Because, in many ways, it is the movie! Alan Ball's script is really what made American Beauty the film that made jaded American moviegoers stand up and say "Thank you!" We can only hope that future filmmakers are taking note... Simply put, it is destined to become a treasured piece of modern Americana. :-)
 ***** for the text, * for production values of the book May 1, 2004
MartinP (Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you have seen the movie, and were deeply touched by it, as seems inevitable, owning this screenplay is definitely worthwhile. Without having to put on the DVD, you can relive particular moments by just leafing through the pages. Alan Ball's script won multiple awards, and rightly so: it is a masterpiece of dramatic writing, merging the comical, the tragic and the spiritual in ways rarely seen in present day (American) film.
Yet this book isn't all it could, and in my view should, have been. It really offers very little besides the literal text of the final movie version (including some of Annette Bening's and Kevin Spacey's improvisations). Other film scripts I own include in-depth information about genesis, casting, production etc., loads of good still and behind-the-scenes photography, as well as discarded scenes and earlier versions of scenes. None of that here, even though several parts of the film were drastically altered during the filming. There is a 2-page intro by Mendes that adds nothing to the information contained on the DVD, if you own that; and the same goes for the even shorter afterword by Ball (who, on the DVD commentary track, isn't able to get a word in edgewise with Mendes, and so remains something of an enigma). Then there are a few grainy black and white stills that are an insult to the brilliant cinematography of the movie - and that's it. For makers of a film so ostentatiously concerned with the relativity of material things, it does seem like a rather cheap way to squeeze some extra bucks from it...
 Today is the first day of the rest of your life? September 28, 2003
Gopinath Koneti (Hyderabad, India)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
Today is the first day of the rest of your life? Yes.The amazing capability that we have to surprise ourselves and the surrounding life makes you to take control of every moment that you live. Live larger. Lester has this capability. He never died . He just smiled. before taking a pause. AMAZING BEAUTY. That's what I can write about this movie and the writer.
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