Men With Guns & Lone Star

by John Sayles

In the first of these screenplays a doctor journeys through a Mexican community intimidated by gunmen. The second uses a murder investigation to reflect political and emotional anxieties on the Texas/Mexico border. Additional text by the author discusses the development of the two screenplays.

Genres: Film

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

John Thomas Sayles is an independent film director, screenwriter, novelist and short story writer who frequently plays small roles in his own and other indie films.

Reviews

[Tom Romig · Rating 4 out of 5]

As writer/director/actor John Sayles says of these two screenplays in his helpful introduction: "The music is not here, the acting, the visceral power of the locations, no camera movement or lighting-all the things that make a movie a movie. So try to take them as the blueprints they are, outlines that helped people come together and make a story." That said, it's fascinating to be able to study the dialogue, to see how character is revealed, to appreciate how the story is shaped. Makes me appreciate the movies--which, by the way, are both 5-star films--even more.