Just watched Crimson Tide on the advice of Lawrence, who's been helping me with a radio play what I wrote. Apparently, Quentin Tarantino helped with the dialogue, 'spicing up' the characters with such things as (surprise) references to popular culture. It worked. Some of the best moments were when Denzel Washington explained things to his crew by referring to Star Trek, the Silver Surfer and so on.

But the real lesson for aspiring screenwriters is the way they generate and handle the central conflict between the Captain (Gene Hackman) and his 'XO', i.e. Executive Officer (Denzel Washington). Both of them have around the same amount of irritating traits and both make around the same number of 'wrong' decisions (that's wrong if you want to be friends, but right if you want to be the subject of a screenplay). So you can see both sides of the argument, and feel involved by being a bit annoyed by each of them.

B-)

PS You can tell the acting was pretty good because it's one of the few occasions where Gene Hackman's performance doesn't stand out as miles better than the rest of the cast.

PPS Kirby's Silver Surfer rules ;-)

PPPS As an experiment, picture Denzel Washington acting. Do you see what I see? We have a theory that he's one of a group of actors with a trademark expression. With Denzel, it's that kind of wide-eyed, suppressed anger look. I wonder if he's insured it?

PPPPS Do you want to know why Reservoir Dogs is called Reservoir Dogs? I'll tell you tomorrow.

B-)