Unsung Heroes: Tom Stoppard for Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Michael C. here from Serious Film for another episode of Unsung Heroes. This week why don't we hand out some credit for some "uncredited" writing.

All directors, no matter how great, have a few blind spots. Even someone as indisputably great as Alfred Hitchcock could become leaden and stilted when he attempted farce. Similarly, one would not be too far out on a limb if he or she accused Steven Spielberg of lacking a certain lightness of touch. Which is not to say that he could never find a laugh (Jaws is full of humor) but he's not exactly the first person that comes to mind when one thinks of perfectly pitched comedic banter.

But a funny thing happened halfway through his career. He released a flick called Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and suddenly he was hilarious. And not just Richard Dreyfuss-does-an-amusing-line-reading funny. We're talking the kind of funny where the audience wouldn't mind if Indy took a break from fighting Nazis so long as we could keep watching him bicker with his dad. Now how exactly did that happen?

Well, like anything in film, handing out credit is a complicated business, but the short answer is this: Tom Stoppard happened.

Stoppard, for anybody unfamiliar, is one of the most prominent playwrights of the last half-century, winner of four Tonys and an Oscar for co-writing Shakespeare in Love. He was hired to give Jeffrey Boam's script for Last Crusade an uncredited polish, because when you're Steven Spielberg and your action picture needs punching up, you call one of the world's leading writers. I suppose Pinter was busy.

According to an Empire interview with Spielberg, Stoppard ended up writing pretty much every line of dialogue in the movie. No minor contribution, considering that Last Crusade's enduring popularity is more for its comedy than for any other quality. For my money, the much less fondly regarded Temple of Doom has superior action. But where that film's attempts at comedy were often clunky and lame, Last Crusade rattles of classic line after classic line:

"I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers."

"No ticket."

"He chose poorly"

And even though the character of Indy's father was largely a plot device added for the sake of variety, thanks to Stoppard, Ford & Connery ended up as an enduring comedic duo. Connery's gobsmacked "Look what you did!" after Indy wastes some Nazis never fails to make me guffaw. Their dynamic rings so true that the story actually finds some pathos in their relationship, which is a whole lot more than one can say about Ford & La Beouf in Crystal Skull.

Tom Stoppard. His famous plays include The Real Thing, Arcadia
The Coast of Utopia, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

It must have been wonderful for Connery to sign on for a mega-budget Hollywood behemoth only to find himself with the greatest comedic role of his career. Watching the film, the joy of his performance is obvious. This is pure speculation, but I get the feeling that Stoppard was having a blast too. Maybe not. Maybe grinding out punchlines for Indy and his estranged father was grueling, joyless work. But for the audience it certainly feels like the great man had the time of his life livening up the B-movie material with wit and style.
*
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Bond & Bond Girl @ the Beach

Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in Jamaica in 1962. Aren't they adorable?

[src and src]

They were filming the Bond classic Dr. No which opened in the US the following summer. Honey Ryder is one of the best Bond girls ever, methinks. The shot of her emerging from the ocean was so choice. It wasn't bested in the franchise until Daniel Craig donned the blue speedo.

Time capsule
They weren't the only ones getting sandy. Lawrence of Arabia opened that year. They weren't the only ones getting wet. Mutiny on the Bounty was up for Best Picture. The Bond franchise wasn't the only classic thing debuting: 1962 also saw the premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway, the birth of A listers Jodie Foster and Tom Cruise, the release of The Beatles first single and Spider-Man in comic books. Spidey would get his own powerhouse movie franchise 40 years later.

Oh, and the ground underneath the Bond playthings feet? It had a big year too. Jamaica became independent in 1962.

007 : Only Two Oscar Kills

This morning's awesome Casino Royale showing at the British Academy's --known asBAFTA-- nominations, where it did nearly as well as the Oscar buzzing The Queen got me thinking: does Oscar like James Bond? It was a question that had literally never occurred to me. Perhaps that was for the best. But Daniel Craig being Daniel Craig sigh and constantly invading my mind... I wondered: could the newly blond superspy be the Academy's favorite Bond ever? I apparently had nothing better to do this morning (?) so I set out to find the answer.

JAMES BOND + RED CARPET
To keep this awards history simple, I'm sticking to the big guns:
The Golden Globes, BAFTA (that's the British Oscars to awards virgins), and the Oscars themselves.

The Sean Connery Years
1962 Dr. No
James Bond's debut garnered only a GG nomination for "best newcomer" for Ursula Andress as "Honey Ryder" --She did have quite an entrance. It burns itself into the memory banks
1963 From Russia With Love
The series wins its first award: Cinematography from BAFTA. Song is Globe nom'ed
1964 Goldfinger
In my opinion they should have invented an Oscar for best character name because "Pussy Galore" -- come on. That's golden. With Goldfinger Bond nabs his first of two Oscars: best sound effects --that accessory packed Aston Martin (like Batman's utility belt) probably had something to do with it. There's also the first of what turns out to be a handful of Art Direction nods from BAFTA
1965 Thunderball
Connery was really kicking these films out, wasn't he? It won the last of its Oscars for visual effects. BAFTA came through with a second art direction nod
1967 You Only Live Twice
Third Art Direction nomination from BAFTA (musta been that volcano'ed headquarters) but nothing else

A One Off
1967 Casino Royale
It's not an official Bond film but it does feature Ursula Andress (the first Bond girl) having another go at Bond (played by Peter Sellers) and it was Oscar nominated: best song for "The Look of Love" and BAFTA nominated: costume design.

The George Lazenby years year
1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The Golden Globes honored Mr. Lazenby with a newcomer nomination (they don't have that category anymore) but he lost to midnight cowboy Jon Voight

Back to Sean Connery
1971 Diamonds Are Forever
A sound nomination from Oscar

The Roger Moore Years
1973 Live and Let Die
The Academy saw fit to award the McCartney's title song with a nomination. But they lost to "The Way We Were" sung by Barbra Streisand who has never, you'll be shocked to read, played a Bond girl
1974 The Man With the Golden Gun
No one saw fit to bestow prizes on this one
1977 The Spy Who Loved Me
Who knew? This is the big kahuna of Bond films according to awards bodies. In the year of Annie Hall and Star Wars, James Bond also got to them. Its score was nominated at the Globes, Oscars, and BAFTA. It also won two art direction nominations (its only from Oscar and one of a handful from BAFTA) and the theme song "Nobody Does It Better" (you're already singing it aren't you?) was Globe and Oscar nom'ed
1979 Moonraker
I figured. Since it's Bond's spaciest adventure it got itself an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. No prizes though
1981 For Your Eyes Only
Do you miss Sheena Easton? Nah, neither do I. But that title song she warbled got Globe and Oscar nominations

The Really Confusing Year
1983 Never Say Never Again
Some people don't count this in the Bond series. Legal disputes and all. But since it's Connery and I'm a completist I'm throwing it in. This actually got an acting nomination! From the Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress. But still...
1983 Octopussy
Many people thought of 1983 as the death knell of the series what with the confusion, two rapidly aging Bonds and neither film well liked. Awards bodies agreed -- zippo

Roger's Farewell
1985 A View To A Kill
The Golden Globes liked Duran Duran's theme song enough for a nomination but no win

The Timothy Dalton Years
1987 The Living Daylights
1989 License to Kill
James Bond is dead to awards bodies. Dead. Neither Dalton picture got a thumbs up

The Pierce Brosnan Years
1995 Goldeneye
After the longest Bond hiatus ever (five whole years went by without a Bond flick) the series gets a welcome back from BAFTA who honor it with two nominations: sound and visual effects
1997 Tomorrow Never Dies
Golden Globe sings the original song to a nomination. Nothing else
1999 The World Is Not Enough
and neither is film to the awards groups who all pass
2002 Die Another Day
Madonna has a go at James Bond and wins a Golden Globe nomination. Everyone else looks politely away. Oscar don't do Pierce Brosnan. Or Madonna as a song writer for the movies. They've passed her by many times: Live to Tell, Into the Groove, I'll Remember, This Used to Be My Playground...


Daniel Craig Debuts!
2006 Casino Royale
The Golden Globes pass (rightly) on the hideous theme song but BAFTA goes hog wild for the huge rebirth of the franchise: nine regular nominations plus a "newcomer" citation for Eva Green. Those honors have to be due to the sextastic Daniel Craig filling out Bond's tuxedo & speedo. They even gave him a "Best Actor" nomination.

Will Oscar bite? It's a good question. Oscar has mostly ignored the series --take the song category for instance: 20+ tunes, some of them classics, and only three nominations for songs? But given that the 007 home team (BAFTA) went crazy this year for him and they never have before, perhaps Oscar will finally cozy up to the rejuvenated super spy

Tags: Daniel Craig, movies, James Bond, film, Academy Awards, oscars, 007, cinema

007 : Only Two Oscar Kills

This morning's awesome Casino Royale showing at the British Academy's --known asBAFTA-- nominations, where it did nearly as well as the Oscar buzzing The Queen got me thinking: does Oscar like James Bond? It was a question that had literally never occurred to me. Perhaps that was for the best. But Daniel Craig being Daniel Craig sigh and constantly invading my mind... I wondered: could the newly blond superspy be the Academy's favorite Bond ever? I apparently had nothing better to do this morning (?) so I set out to find the answer.

JAMES BOND + RED CARPET
To keep this awards history simple, I'm sticking to the big guns:
The Golden Globes, BAFTA (that's the British Oscars to awards virgins), and the Oscars themselves.

The Sean Connery Years
1962 Dr. No
James Bond's debut garnered only a GG nomination for "best newcomer" for Ursula Andress as "Honey Ryder" --She did have quite an entrance. It burns itself into the memory banks
1963 From Russia With Love
The series wins its first award: Cinematography from BAFTA. Song is Globe nom'ed
1964 Goldfinger
In my opinion they should have invented an Oscar for best character name because "Pussy Galore" -- come on. That's golden. With Goldfinger Bond nabs his first of two Oscars: best sound effects --that accessory packed Aston Martin (like Batman's utility belt) probably had something to do with it. There's also the first of what turns out to be a handful of Art Direction nods from BAFTA
1965 Thunderball
Connery was really kicking these films out, wasn't he? It won the last of its Oscars for visual effects. BAFTA came through with a second art direction nod
1967 You Only Live Twice
Third Art Direction nomination from BAFTA (musta been that volcano'ed headquarters) but nothing else

A One Off
1967 Casino Royale
It's not an official Bond film but it does feature Ursula Andress (the first Bond girl) having another go at Bond (played by Peter Sellers) and it was Oscar nominated: best song for "The Look of Love" and BAFTA nominated: costume design.

The George Lazenby years year
1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The Golden Globes honored Mr. Lazenby with a newcomer nomination (they don't have that category anymore) but he lost to midnight cowboy Jon Voight

Back to Sean Connery
1971 Diamonds Are Forever
A sound nomination from Oscar

The Roger Moore Years
1973 Live and Let Die
The Academy saw fit to award the McCartney's title song with a nomination. But they lost to "The Way We Were" sung by Barbra Streisand who has never, you'll be shocked to read, played a Bond girl
1974 The Man With the Golden Gun
No one saw fit to bestow prizes on this one
1977 The Spy Who Loved Me
Who knew? This is the big kahuna of Bond films according to awards bodies. In the year of Annie Hall and Star Wars, James Bond also got to them. Its score was nominated at the Globes, Oscars, and BAFTA. It also won two art direction nominations (its only from Oscar and one of a handful from BAFTA) and the theme song "Nobody Does It Better" (you're already singing it aren't you?) was Globe and Oscar nom'ed
1979 Moonraker
I figured. Since it's Bond's spaciest adventure it got itself an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. No prizes though
1981 For Your Eyes Only
Do you miss Sheena Easton? Nah, neither do I. But that title song she warbled got Globe and Oscar nominations

The Really Confusing Year
1983 Never Say Never Again
Some people don't count this in the Bond series. Legal disputes and all. But since it's Connery and I'm a completist I'm throwing it in. This actually got an acting nomination! From the Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress. But still...
1983 Octopussy
Many people thought of 1983 as the death knell of the series what with the confusion, two rapidly aging Bonds and neither film well liked. Awards bodies agreed -- zippo

Roger's Farewell
1985 A View To A Kill
The Golden Globes liked Duran Duran's theme song enough for a nomination but no win

The Timothy Dalton Years
1987 The Living Daylights
1989 License to Kill
James Bond is dead to awards bodies. Dead. Neither Dalton picture got a thumbs up

The Pierce Brosnan Years
1995 Goldeneye
After the longest Bond hiatus ever (five whole years went by without a Bond flick) the series gets a welcome back from BAFTA who honor it with two nominations: sound and visual effects
1997 Tomorrow Never Dies
Golden Globe sings the original song to a nomination. Nothing else
1999 The World Is Not Enough
and neither is film to the awards groups who all pass
2002 Die Another Day
Madonna has a go at James Bond and wins a Golden Globe nomination. Everyone else looks politely away. Oscar don't do Pierce Brosnan. Or Madonna as a song writer for the movies. They've passed her by many times: Live to Tell, Into the Groove, I'll Remember, This Used to Be My Playground...


Daniel Craig Debuts!
2006 Casino Royale
The Golden Globes pass (rightly) on the hideous theme song but BAFTA goes hog wild for the huge rebirth of the franchise: nine regular nominations plus a "newcomer" citation for Eva Green. Those honors have to be due to the sextastic Daniel Craig filling out Bond's tuxedo & speedo. They even gave him a "Best Actor" nomination.

Will Oscar bite? It's a good question. Oscar has mostly ignored the series --take the song category for instance: 20+ tunes, some of them classics, and only three nominations for songs? But given that the 007 home team (BAFTA) went crazy this year for him and they never have before, perhaps Oscar will finally cozy up to the rejuvenated super spy

Tags: Daniel Craig, movies, James Bond, film, Academy Awards, oscars, 007, cinema