Page One: ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ (1969)

Written by William Goldman

Note how Goldman introduces Butch Cassidy. He uses novelistic license in order to get at some of the core personality of this key character. “Hard to pin down… brown hair… most people… would remember him blond… a leader of men… he would be damned if he could tell you why.”

The only physical description of the character is this: He’s thirty-five and he has brown hair. Everything else in that introduction speaks to Butch Cassidy’s personality.

A good object lesson for when we introduce our characters.

Page One is a daily Go Into The Story series featuring the first page of notable movie scripts from the classic era to contemporary times. Comparing them is an excellent way to study a variety of writing styles and see how professional writers start a story.

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