Reading is Fundamental

A reader asks:

Can you suggest some screenplays to read that illustrate good writing? Maybe some bad ones that still made money? Where do I find these screenplays (I live in Idaho - so don't tell me to go to the store on the corner of Melrose and Armpit)

It's as good question, and a very important learning tool. For all the self help books about good writing out there, there is nothing that replaces reading a script and seeing how an author laid it out. Seeing how dialogue plays on the page, scene lengths, choice of narrative, etc. Making sure it's a good script doesn't hurt, though you can learn from the bad ones too. The following is a short list of suggestions and where to go to find them.

First, a few of my favorite screenwriters:

Cameron
Coppola
William Goldman
Bruce Joel Rubin
Nick Kazan
Charlie Kaufman
John Wells
Richard Curtis
Chris Gerolmo
Paddy Chayefsky
Cohen Brothers

But every list you make will reveal your favorite predilictions in writing. Wit, raw drama, eloquent speeches or near silence and powerful images. It's all good, as long as it inspires you.

And I think it serves you best if you don't limit your reading to screenplays only. A good novel,
non-fiction or poetry that compels you will always shower you with new ways to put words together, explain a moment, create a mood - and set you off to re-capture a mood you were handed by another writer, describe a moment now in only a few words, or come up with an entire new film idea - merely because you read some good writing, and therein will always lie new inspiration.

Sites to go to where you can download scripts for free and see how the others are doing it:

Drew's Script-o-rama
Simply Scripts
All Movie Scripts

Additional note: Thanks to Grubber for the new link:
Scripts For You