Page One: “Jeremiah Johnson” (1972)

Screenplay by John Milius and Edward Anhalt, story “Crow Killer” by Raymond W. Thorp and Robert Bunker, novel by Vardis Fisher

The movie version of the opening scene:

Yet another reminder from the Page One series how screenplay style has changed. Fifty years ago, scripts routinely would feature long paragraphs of scene description. They were production drafts, there was little reason to care about the script’s “readability.” Today, when writing a spec script, sometimes called a “writer’s draft,” we do have to mindful about how each page, each paragraph, each line reads. That’s one of the fundamental reasons why we break up scene description into small paragraphs.

You may read the screenplay here.

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!

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.

For more Page One posts, go here.