by: Christopher Wehner

(This article is from 1997)

When Shane Black busted through the door and on to the scene in the mid-eighties he was destined for criticism. Why? His spec script Lethal Weapon sold for a record price of something like four-hundred thousand dollars, and it was/is one of the best action screenplays of all time. The movie was brilliant and the original script Shane Black sold is a masterpiece. Only Die Hard, after De Souza's re-writes, could be considered better.

How does someone live up to a screenplay like that? Answer, ultimately they don't. The pressure of constantly being judged by that standard brings about criticism, it is unavoidable. Black has done some nice work since then. Lethal Weapon II was good and The Last Boy Scout was also a nice piece. But, as Black has even said, "I had this period where I didn't think I was any good at anything and fought desperately to stay afloat." [Creative Screenwriting, p31] For a period of time after the first LW, he lost his girlfriend and his confidence. As a matter of fact, from my reading of interviews he's participated in, Shane is not an egotistical person with an enormous sense of confidence. If anything he lacks confidence. This, in the beginning made him a great writer.

Filmography for Shane Black:

1. Long Kiss Goodnight, The (1996)
2. Last Action Hero, The (1993)
3. Robocop 3 (1993) (actor)
4. Last Boy Scout, The (1991)
5. Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
6. Dead Heat (1988) (actor)
7. Predator (1987) (actor)
8. Lethal Weapon (1987)
9. Monster Squad, The (1987)

The screenplays Shane Black wrote from Lethal Weapon on are always judged by it and this is totally fair. That's life and I would think Shane Black knows it. His second go at LW was excellent, Black himself considers it (LW II) "the best thing" he ever wrote. [Creative Screenwriting, p31]

I strongly object that LW II is equal to the first, it was a great follow-up. But, the characters were already established. Sure, we learn a little more about them especially Riggs. The foundation was already laid out in the first script. The second script was like adding on to a house that didn't need it and that is all.

Black's writing is strong on action and witty dialog. But lately it has been lacking in substance. In Lethal Weapon, Shane gives width and depth to his characters, especially Riggs. He took the time to get us connected into his main character, and never lets go of that. Black was always in control of his story. Lately, the stories have become bigger and bigger and thus the writer looses control. It's understandable, action writers tend to think they have to make the next one "bigger", and the next one even more so. This drives them into a literary corner. No longer is the writer in control and the characters are no longer the frame from which the story is built...they are now the roof. Something thrown on, just for the heck of it.

The Last Action Hero, which followed The Last Boy Scout -- are we seeing a trend even in the titles...repetition, over kill? Anyway, LAH was nothing more then the result of a desperate writer who has fallen, and can't get up. I didn't want to believe it, but after watching The Long Kiss Goodnight when it came out...I am afraid that the dance is over. Shane Black needs to get back to the basics, and what it was that made him a record breaker -- a writer who lived on the edge and as a result wrote a cutting edge screenplay, Lethal Weapon. He has lost his edge.

Wm. R. Pace, reviewed Shane Black's script for The Long Kiss Goodnight for Creative Screenwriting and he could identify flashes of Black's once brilliance as a writer, "you have to love the first page of Black's Screenplay. It's a classic example of sucking your reader in by the bottom of page one and the compelling them to turn the page". [Creative Screenwriting, p40]

So for a few pages, a couple of scenes, whatever Black shows us his stuff. But, ultimately Black has lost the edge. His script is reduced to clich� and non-resistant story telling. The Characters become freaks of imagination and lacking in any kind of substance and certainly laughable in their development.

Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who found Black's latest produced work to be humorous. As Pace states that after the first 10-12 pages, "...it comes very early...Black's final moment of true dramatic ingenuity", and it's gone. On the next page of the review Pace goes on to say "...I begin laughing at the script, not with it." [Creative Screenwriting, p48-49]

"Laughing at the script...," something I never thought I would hear about a Shane Black screenplay. Shane Black is as big a name in screenwriting as there is. We can no-longer judge him by the number of zeros on his pay checks when he sells a script, because I dare to say that if the name "Shane Black" was not on those scripts...they would never sell. What's next for Black, "The Last Kiss Goodnight"? We can only wait and see.

REVIEWS OF "THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT"

"Ultimately, however, Kiss is too ridiculous to engage us as a thriller yet too cringingly self-conscious to amuse us... C-" Entertainment weekly

"...$4 million for Shane Black's (The Last Boy Scout)'s loopy, madcap script may mean that he's laughing hardest of all. " Rough Cut

"Screenwriter Shane Black tries to juice this nonsense up with the tricks that he employed in Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout -- gigantic stunts and explosions, loud shoot-outs that produce high body counts, and too-hip banter between the salt-and-pepper buddy unit.

The action sequences are wildly imagined and expertly executed, even if they do strain credulity (how many times can you outrun an expanding fireball?). Davis' psychological trauma makes for a few funny moments, as she goes from teacher to terminator. But nothing in The Long Kiss Goodnight sticks in the mind after the closing credits. It's a great popcorn movie -- filling but not satisfying." Film.com

"If you like action movies, this one satisfies..." Film Scouts

"'Is there a cop in the entire world?' Shane Black's $4 million script does not fully live up to the story's idea, the dynamic between Davis and Jackson doesn't really click, and no one is afraid of the smirky, charmless, cartoonishly conscienceless twentysomething villain (Craig Bierko)--just annoyed. " Box Office Magazine Review

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Above marked quotes are taken from Creative Screenwriting, vol.3, Number 3.

-CW