wga top 100 scripts

i recently discovered that the wga has put together a top 101 scripts list.

101 Greatest Screenplays compiles the finest achievements in film writing, as voted upon by professional film and television writers. In the summer of 2005, ballots were sent out asking WGA members to list up to ten of their favorite produced screenplays. Any film, past or present, English-language or otherwise, was eligible. The resulting list is like a travelogue of the greatest films of the century, with all decades from the 1930s on represented among the rankings.

it seems whenever lists like this are generated they show a time lag bias. for instance just looking at the top 30:

• there's only one film from this millennium ( 'eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' - 2004)
• only six of the thirty films fall within the past 20 years
  
• we're a majority of the way through the 2000's and so far only one film qualifies
• the age discrepancy is more pronounced the higher the ranking. you have to get down to #16 before you find a film made within the last thirty years.

the decade breakdown is:

30s: 2 (6.6%)
40s: 5 (16.6%)
50s: 5 (16.6%)
60s: 6 (20.0%)
70s: 5 (16.6%)
80s: 1 (3.3%)
90s: 5 (16.6%)
00s: 1 (3.3%)

it's no surprise that the 80s are under-represented. a bit surprising that the 70s, often considered a golden-age of filmmaking, weren't more dominant. perhaps the films were great but the scripts not as much a factor.

i was surprised how high (#14) 'laurence of arabia' ranked. although it's known as an epic film, i always assumed that was due to the expansive visual canvas of the film and peter o'toole's rather over the top performance, not it's screenplay.

the top 30 films are:

1. casablanca (1942)
2. godfather (1972)
3. chinatown (1974)
4. citizen kane (1941)
5. all about eve (1950)
6. annie hall (1977)
7. sunset blvd (1950)
8. network (1976)
9. some like it hot (1959)
10. the godfather: part ii (1974)
11. butch cassidy and the sundance kid (1969)
12. dr. strangelove (1964)
13. the graduate (1967)
14. lawrence of arabia (1962)
15. the apartment (1960)
16. pulp fiction (1994)
17. tootsie (1982)
18. on the waterfront (1954)
19. to kill a mockingbird (1962)
20. it's a wonderful life (1946)
21. north by northwest (1959)
22. the shawshank redemption (1994)
23. gone with the wind (1939)
24. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004)
25. the wizard of oz (1939)
26. double indemnity (1944)
27. groundhog day (1993)
28. shakespeare in love (1998)
29. sullivan's travels (1941)
30. unforgiven (1992)

of course given terry's rule*, i wonder whether these wga writers voted based on the script or the movie that resulted from it.

*for those of you not interested in reading the article, the rule is: you can't tell anything about the screenplay of a film until you've actually read the screenplay.