Elizabethtown

by Cameron Crowe

Book Overview

The writer-director of Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous returns with the screenplay to his glorious new movie starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. After mistakenly causing a financial catastrophe... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 057122881X
• ISBN13: 9780571228812
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 171 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

A good screenplay

Although i realized i've had purchased a screenplay when i recieved it i thought is was good and it is nice to see pictures and read the director's notes about making the movie, really interesting

Reading this makes the movie better.

"sadness and dissapointment are really a personal victory in disguise." Those lines in the foreward by Crowe made me buy the book. That and just how much the movie striked my curiousity. Even though the movie had a lukewarm affect on me, its intent resonated with me. Especially after I had a chance to read some of Crowe's interviews online. He's a brave man who refuses to shade his stubborn optimism in a world where cynicism is strangely fashionable. Crowe is smart enough to know that cynicism is really just a defense mechanism for souls as vulnerable as the characters he creates. Of all his movies, Elizabethtown has the most vulnerable souls bumping into each other. They are all guarded, but their defense is more transparent. This comes through more when you read the screenplay than seeing the actual movie. While most Hollywood movies move at the speed of light, The movie for E-Town moves at the speed of life. It takes it time to work things out, just as life really does. Appropriately, the movie tests the patience of a person who is accostomed to fast moving, quick-cut dialouge and action. In the screenplay, you are invited to peel back the layers of the characters -- especially Claire -- by disceting their dialouge and looking between and behind words. For this reason, reading this movie is actually more enjoyable than watching it. I've met "a Claire" before, and Crowe captures her perfectly in the script. She's good at playing the hot-potato with one-liners, and you realize it's a slight of hand to throw your attention off from the "real her." In the screenplay you're perfectly cued to recognize her real self breaking through when her and Drew have their TRUE breakthrough after their romantic breakthrough, and she says "You're an artist, man. Your job is to break barriers." Suddenly the fatigue of her sometimes overwhelming energy pays off. I actually found myself getting emotional while reading the speech made by Hollie at the funeral. The best parts are, unfortunately, edited out of the movie. One in particular is when Hollie advises her once skeptic audience to "Give your gifts to the living," even if it means being embarrassing. This scene works so much better on the page than it did on the screen. In the screenplay, it reaches beyond a self-indulgence and into her audience. You get the message: She waited until her partner died before she discovered and shared her gifts. Crowe definitely has a writers-wisdom about life and people. Most good writers do, but they don't often make it to the big screen. I look forward to his movies because I know he's willing to share that wisdom with his audience. Apparently there is even more of it to be found in his screenplays.

One of my Best Movie

The story and the music is a perfect mixing and Cameron Crowe is a great director! Beautiful places and nostalgic..

What a great movie

I'm sorry but this movie was absolutely awesome. What I loved most was that there wasnt a picture perfect romance it had all the insecurity and realness that can happen between two people. I really loved it and Im a guy that istens to gangster rap. If anyone knows who sings the song "I can turn a green sky blue" like he had on his ringtone please email me at [...] I came here looking for that but decided to post a review great great movie.