A Screenwriter's Journey #10: The 10 Movies That Influenced My Writing the Most

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I think when it comes down to it these are the 10 most influetial movies on the way I write movies and TV shows. Like they aren't exactly my favorite 10 movies, I just think when I write, I'm writing in the tradition of these particular movies (and the movies they spawned).

  • Airplane 2: The Sequel

  • Blade

  • Blues Brothers

  • Dawn of the Dead

  • Do the Right Thing

  • E.T.

  • Mallrats

  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 2

  • Pulp Fiction

  • Virgin Suicides

Notably, I either seem to lean towards sequels or second films, part of that is don't really want to write origin stories much, I'm kinda bored with them. But also these films were all groundbreaking, even where they aren't the full originator of what they introduced me to.

Here's how each of the films influenced me to be the writer I am.*** In alphabetical order:

Airplane 2 - The Sequel: Unless I'm mistaken, this is the movie that has the highest gut-busting jokes per minute (GBJPM) in history. Yes, it's a recreation of the first movie nearly exactly (But so was Evil Dead), and most of the jokes are the exact kind of jokes from the first, I just always thought more of the silly, silly jokes in the second landed. A HUGE part of that was Shatner. And the BEEPING AND BEEPING AND BEEPING AND BEEPING! Also, all modern Dad Jokes are traceable to Zucker-Abrams-Zucker or Mel Brooks. Or Dave Barry.

Blade: COMIC BOOKS! That's almost 'Nuff Said. There were earlier movies, but they either weren't good or they weren't Marvel. And I'm the type of guy to whom Blade is not an obscure character. I'm the type of kid who walked to the Grinning Gremlin (which was a butcher shop last time I saw it) and paid my allowance money to get Blade's first appearance when it came out. Hell, I have an autographed poster of Blade by his original creator on my office wall. Well, I did before COVID. Haven't been to the office in a while, but... THE MUSIC. Man, this wasn't even EDM, either, this was Electronica. Remember when Rolling Stone and Spin tried to make that a thing? But the Blood Rave and all that, fucking ridiculous.

Blues Brothers: The actual funniest movie of all time to me. Like I am literally thinking of everything all at the same time always and this movie does that, too. But it somehow all fits together seemlessly. Like one moment adult men are getting slapped on their hands with a ruler by a nun and another James Brown is a Preacher. One second Aretha Franklin and Matt Guitar Murphy break out into a song in a diner where they'll actually serve you five whole fried chickens and in another Ray Charles shakes his tailfeather. One moment Princess Leia's trying to kill them and the next they're at a bar that plays both kinds of music, country AND western. And I think Twiggy was in there somewhere? One of the great things about this music is that they included most of the musicians that influenced them in the movie. Like this is a Hall of Fame cast of musicians from Soul, R&B, Blues and other genres. And then there is, to me, the greatest chase sequence in the history of movies. I will not pass this mortal coil without writing something that at least tries to be as epic.

Dawn of the Dead: I grew up in a trailer park. The Mall was an aspirational place. TV stations used to have to fill time with relatively cheap movies like the original Dawn of the Dead. And man, I was instantly hooked. At that age, the Mall had literally everything I wanted. And human beings were kind harsh on me as the autistic kid, so the idea of being trapped in the mall forever with only a few of my closest friends AND the power stays on (and they have an ice skating rink?) was a pretty appealing fantasy. It had a proper realistic ending, too. The lesson was indulge in the fantasy, but NOT too much. Also, fuck capitalism!*

Do the Right Thing: Public Enemy inspired my political career. Hence the tattoo. This is one of several pathways to me finding the band, but also to a whole host of other thoughts and ideas. This is where I first realized you could use movies to change the world. And when it didn't win Best Picture, it made me realize that "systemic" meant "throughout the ENTIRE system." Spike Lee said to me that if you wanna change the world you gotta get in people's faces. Like literally. Those camera shots were uncomfortably close. The scary part, though, is that you could set this movie in 2021 and basically you wouldn't have to change hardly any of it. THAT has to inform my writing. I also could've put Higher Learning here, but Spike's style appealed to me a bit more than John Singleton's.

E.T.: One of the things that makes the world better is "wonder." Like we need it. It heals. They say laughter heals, and it does, but laughter can be dark, too. Like go watch that Trump Comedy Central Roast and see if you don't feel icky. But one of the insults aimed at Trump will probably at least make you smile. Like professional comedians are shitting on him to his face, that has to provide at least some catharsis, right? Anyway, never gonna find out, but wonder is not only hopeful, it's aspirational. We want to search for more wonder, it not only heals, it inspires. When I watched E.T. I wanted to fly! Then my dad told me that no one had invented a flying bike yet and that aliens weren't real and Santa was fictional and we're all gonna die some day, Timmy! Wait, that wasn't my dad, that was Timmy's dad. But then E.T. made me want to get Reese's Pieces and I did. And I would MUCH rather eat some Reese's Pieces than go soaring through the air on a Reagan-era unregulated bike with a Muppet driving. Like, even if the individual Reese's Pieces were laying in the grass, in like a trail, I'd still prefer them. It's a hard candy coating, so it doesn't really suck up any cooties or cenobytes or whatever's in that grass. Just like brush them off on your pants leg and peanut buttery goodness!

Mallrats: When I first saw this in the dollar theater, the one that was Mugs and Movies, although I'm not sure it still had that name at that time, I was like. Holy. Crap. Someone literally made a movie EXACTLY for my EXACT tastes. And then everybody hated the movie. And, yep, that was about right for me at the time, too. But, over the years, we both grew to be an acquired taste but something that is really great if you have that very specific taste. Which I do. Also, Stan Lee did. Since he was in the movie. And he was Captain Marvel reading a Mallrats script. I'm okay being in that company, in terms of my tastes.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: I could've easily put the first one here because they were kinda connected in my brain, but I picked this one because I really picked up on the bi/gay subtext. Like I talked about it at the time. And people were all like "Why don't you go refill your beer at the keg, Kenny." And I was all like, "is it still really foamy?" And they were like "why don't you go check?" And I did. And it was actually pretty good. Yeungling. Back before we found out they were a shitty company. And then years later, everybody on the Internet said "that's TOTALLY gay subtext" and I did a little dance and made a little love. Anyway, that's EXACTLY what watching Nightmare 2 was like. For me.

Pulp Fiction: Notably this entire essay appears IN order, but it was written OUT of order. Also, somewhere in this essay, John Travolta dies.** But, really, if I become a filmmaker, it will have started with watching this movie, again, in a dollar theater, but a different one. Like in a different city. Anyway, that moment sitting in the chair having my mind blown. Like, as an untreated autistic young adult living on my own at that point, this movie let me know that I could think about the world through a different lens than the Southern Baptist one I had grown up around. Like, this movie, and the success it had, let me know that I was not only not alone, but there were a LOT of freaks like me. Also, this was before I knew about Tarantino's foot fetish thing. But I did think while watching it that Quentin was way too comfortable with the N-word. But it definitely seemed to me like Samuel L. Jackson signed off on the whole thing, so that justified it in my head. I did take note to NOT write that word in my screenplays. But this movie DID make me want to write (as did Good Will Hunting).

Virgin Suicides: Sophia Coppola took a book that I had already read, a book I had previously said was impossible to adapt, and turned it into one of the most haunting movies ever made. It was in the theater watching this on opening night that I realized that I liked her work better than her father's. Which is literally the most Gen X thing ever said. Anyway, I'd seen her other work and yeah, I love it all, but this one was the gold standard. Every time I watch this movie, I learn lessons. Not just about film, but about our culture. And the male gaze. And toxic white Christianity. And so many other things. And, yes, Toxic White Christianity would be a good name for a band. I saw TWC open for Slayer in 2014.

Anyway, so, well, my movies won't be about all of that, but each movie will be about some part of all that. Got it? Hopefully, because I'm pretty excited about the whole thing myself.

Clearly.

*Well, it explicitly said "fuck consumerism!" What is consumerism, but a subset of capitalism.

**John Travolta didn't really die. But he is a Scientologist and that's pretty gross, so while I definitely don't want him to die, I would like people to remember that his support of Scientology has given cover and helped raised funds for some pretty heinous shit.

***To note, some of these movies are problematic as are some of the creators, so this isn't to say that I'm fully on board with any of these works or creators in totality, recognizing they all have problems. These aren't my ONLY influences and my knowledge and personal values heavily influence my writing, to the point of clearly over-riding any of these influences' problematic influence.