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naclomi's review against another edition
4.0
so like i get the sense that robert mckee the kind of dude who would see knives out and go like "oh yeah i loved these story beats when robert towne used them IN CHINATOWN" and i'd go like "THEY'RE NOT EVEN SIMILAR, LIKE EVEN A LITTLE BIT" and look over and discover he wasn't even listening to me b/c he was busy figuring out how to share a facebook meme on his new smartphone
but like all that being said he is so clearly a master of his craft and i learned a lot from this book. this + film crit hulk, good duo.
but like all that being said he is so clearly a master of his craft and i learned a lot from this book. this + film crit hulk, good duo.
thorkell's review against another edition
3.0
A lot of good advice but very basic. I learned nothing new from it but those new to the subject might.
abookie's review against another edition
5.0
I defiantly need to reread this one!!! Its really great for any writer that wants to learn more about their craft.
joshuacalebwilson's review against another edition
5.0
If some of y’all knew about this book before and didn’t tell me about it I’m never talking to you again.
mscottfowler's review against another edition
5.0
I'll be keeping this book around for reference for a long time.
sarahreadsaverylot's review against another edition
3.0
Extremely useful, perceptive insights into the nature of storytelling/writing, all wrapped up in sweeping generalizations that often come across as reductive.
xxpriscillaxuxx's review against another edition
informative
tense
slow-paced
3.75
As a complete film beginners. This one is very hard to grasp. It took le full 7 hours to build mental models for this book. But I think it was quite worth it
rowievdvliet's review against another edition
3.0
3,5 stars
Story will teach all writers to do better, not just screenwriters. It analyses the craft in great detail. It will teach you to be as specific as possible and what terms like three-dimensional characters actually mean.
Having said that the book is really dense because it's stuffed with infornation. It's all interesting but I had to take breaks reading it to let everything sink in.
Another thing was really interesting to me. I really feel like Robert McKee knows what he's talking about and he is a good teacher. I could follow and agree with his teachings. And then it would cut to his examples of great films and pieces of screenplays. Mind you, some films I haven't seen or even heard of.
But I really didn't understand why this character from Casablanca carried a different emotion in every bit of dialogue (that's how it read to me). And it felt a bit uncomfortable to read a book full of praise with films about sisters practising incest and others that I perceived as sexual fantasies of white cis man. I would have liked to see more diversity in the films highlighted (although it did use examples I like like Star Wars). I don't think this book needs only examples of diverse films. It was just a weird reading experience to agree with his teachings and then dislike to examples the writer seems to think are some of the best out there.
But if you can see past that (or have a different taste in stories than I do) this is a book that will benefit any writer. I'm glad I have this in my toolkit so I can keep coming back to it to work on my own craft. Even if I never end up writing a screenplay.
Story will teach all writers to do better, not just screenwriters. It analyses the craft in great detail. It will teach you to be as specific as possible and what terms like three-dimensional characters actually mean.
Having said that the book is really dense because it's stuffed with infornation. It's all interesting but I had to take breaks reading it to let everything sink in.
Another thing was really interesting to me. I really feel like Robert McKee knows what he's talking about and he is a good teacher. I could follow and agree with his teachings. And then it would cut to his examples of great films and pieces of screenplays. Mind you, some films I haven't seen or even heard of.
But I really didn't understand why this character from Casablanca carried a different emotion in every bit of dialogue (that's how it read to me). And it felt a bit uncomfortable to read a book full of praise with films about sisters practising incest and others that I perceived as sexual fantasies of white cis man. I would have liked to see more diversity in the films highlighted (although it did use examples I like like Star Wars). I don't think this book needs only examples of diverse films. It was just a weird reading experience to agree with his teachings and then dislike to examples the writer seems to think are some of the best out there.
But if you can see past that (or have a different taste in stories than I do) this is a book that will benefit any writer. I'm glad I have this in my toolkit so I can keep coming back to it to work on my own craft. Even if I never end up writing a screenplay.