XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: notonyourlife@no.no.no.no   
      
   On 2020-04-29 8:08 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:   
   > Alan Baker  wrote:   
   >> On 2020-04-29 3:29 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:   
   >>> Alan Baker  wrote:   
   >>>> On 2020-04-29 9:14 a.m., Paul S Person wrote:   
   >   
   >>>>>> . . .   
   >   
   >>>>> IIRC, Ring Lardner was given the script credit for /M*A*S*H/ --   
   >>>>> despite the fact that the actual dialog was mostly, if not entirely,   
   >>>>> ad-libbed by the actors.   
   >   
   >>>>> I'm not saying any script from Ring Lardner could be a bad script, but   
   >>>>> if the actors ignore it and make up their own dialog, what does it   
   >>>>> matter?   
   >   
   >>>> You're going to have to provide a little support for your claim that the   
   >>>> "dialog was mostly, if not entirely, ad-libbed by the actors."   
   >   
   >>> It's a fairly common feature of Robert Altman films. He was always going   
   >>> for natural performances.   
   >   
   >> And I'm sure there was a goodly amount of ad libbing...   
   >   
   >> ...but "mostly, if not entirely"?   
   >   
   >> No.   
   >   
   > Why not? Scripts are a lot of stage directions and descriptions. The   
   > dialogue could have included key lines required to move the plot along,   
   > otherwise broad outlines of what needed to be accomplished in the scene.   
   >   
   > The IMDb trivia quotes Tom Skerritt saying 80% ad libbed. Of course,   
   > IMDb never bothers to cite interviews, articles, and histories the bits   
   > of trivia are clipped from, so who knows. It did comment that some of   
   > the actors Altman hired were from improv.   
   >   
   > A lot of the more memorable bits of dialogue, like "finest kind"   
   > repeated throughout, were from the novel.   
   >   
   > I'd love to see what directions were in the shooting script and how much   
   > actual dialogue there was.   
      
   Are you familiar with the word "disingenuous"?   
      
   There is no point in discussing how much of a script is stage direction   
   when the topic is how much of the DIALOG was ad libbed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)