BOOK: Gods and Monsters: The Shooting Script
Written by Bill Condon
Published by Newmarket Press
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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Anyone attuned to Bill Condon's 1998 film Gods And Monsters could feel the writing translate from the screen. The film's highly interpersonal action rises off the page with an effortlessness that can only come via precise dialogue and stunning performances by talent such as Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave and Brendan Fraser. Its story couldn't be any simpler: a hunky gardener finds work and friendship with an aging film director on a descent into madness, while their relationship comes to grips with divergent sexuality. More roundly noted for other, bigger movies, Fraser and McKellen's work on this small film is some of the best of the decade.

From Newmarket Press comes the 1999 Oscar winning, Best Adapted Screenplay shooting script of Gods And Monsters, a delightful, piercing dissection of writer/director Bill Condon's (also renowned for his work on Chicago and Kinsey) vision of the last days of director James Whale. Scripts are largely skeletal and don't hold up as well as plays and novels. Such is not the case here. Taken strictly as a text, Gods and Monsters is a bright and easy read, the type of story that makes the difficult translation between medium surprisingly well.

As a study in film writing, this is as introspective as a script can be and little of the action is sacrificed to the brevity of its language. In the instance of Gods and Monsters, the script adds another layer of complement, supporting the film and standing on its own as a master work.

© 2005 - Erick Mertz