LATE TO THE PARTY: AARON SORKIN

Photo by David Everett Strickler on Unsplash

There's a couple movies that I've watched in recent years many, many times.  At least chunks of them, here and there, often enough that they combine to several full viewings. 

A Few Good Men & Moneyball. 

I've been aware of Aaron Sorkin's name, of course. Vaguely aware that he's a screenwriter of some renown, but his work goes back decades.  I kind of had him coupled with David Kelly for some reason. 

There is a reason that they go together that I was unaware of, however.

Cracklin' dialogue.

Another thing I was late to the party on is The West Wing.  Over the past couple of months, Frani and I have taken to watching the show.  Partially due to its word of mouth and historical episodic value, partly due to the current state of government.  The latter led to us wanting to see the oval office functioning like it probably should.  So we dug in. 

Damn.  The dialogue.  Coupled with the performances of Martin Sheen, Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, and Rob Lowe, the shit comes to life.  So, I decided to look into teleplay artist Aaron Sorkin and was stunned by my lack of knowledge of a couple facts.  As much as I love A Few Good Men and Moneyball, I didn't even know who wrote the screenplays for them.  That's insane when you consider how many times Frani may have walked into our living room to those films dancing across the screen, or had them on as background noise, and asking "Are you watching that again? Why?"

I thought about it for a few seconds, and said something to the effect of "It's the dialogue, and coupled with these performers, these movies just pop for me, and always hit in a different way." 

Something like that.

Wow, it all made sense.  Something about Sorkin's dialogue just has an energy to it.  I love the West Wing for the same reason I love those two films.  It's kind of embarassing being the movie buff that I am, that I never really made the connection between these films and the writer.   Now when we finish our watch of Wing, there will be other things to dip the toes into, namely Rob Reiner's The American President, and a series that has come highly recommended by several close to me, The Newsroom.  

But eventually, I'll be bummed when it's all tapped out. 

But look how close I came to never knowing.....