Movie quotes
It has always bothered me that screenwriters are left out of the credit for famous quotes. For instance "Here’s looking at you kid," or "Put your lips together and blow," are almost always credited to the actors or even referenced as the movie directed by "so and so." Even worse, some movie theatre chains throw quotes from famous films up on screen prior to the previews and NEVER credit the screenwriter. Where is the screenwriter?! Do you have any feelings about this? Does the Writers Guild of America take a position on this?
–Robert
Although I am not an official spokesperson for the WGA in any way, I can safely say they’re against it. They’re probably even outraged. But in the whole pecking order of guild priorities, it’s certainly quite low.
Personally, I feel it’s always wrong to quote an author without giving credit. It’s also wrong to bring a four-year old to an R-rated movie, but it happens so much I’ve given up being angry about it. For better or worse, I’ve become complacent about a lot of things that used to really piss me off.
If you feel like becoming an activist for this issue, you might direct your first missive to the good folks at National Cinema Network (www.ncninc.com), the company that actually creates and markets most of those pre-show slides you see. While you’re getting them to properly attribute their movie quotes, would you also get them to make their jumbles harder? It’s a little insulting to have to decode a famous movie star when given "M O T S A N K H."
Articles