The late novelist-turned-screenwriter William Goldman wrote several novels and worked on dozens of screenplays over his long literary career. He won two Oscars and wrote both the novel (1973) and the screenplay (1987) for the cult-classic The Princess Bride.
Goldman won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1976 for his work on All the President's Men.
In Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983) Goldman finished his essay about this very successful film, which starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, with this scenario:
And if you were to ask me "What would you change if you had your movie life to live over?" I'd tell you that I'd have written exactly the screenplays I've written.
Only I wouldn't have come near All the President's Men. …"
In the essay, Goldman goes into detail with his struggles on the film. However, in 1997, he published Five Screenplays with Essays (not to be confused with his 1995 work Four Screenplays with Essays). In the book, he reprints the screenplay for All the President's Men but not before providing the reader with another look at the legacy and his challenges on the movie.
He goes over some of the same struggles as he did in the previous book, but after some reflection, it seems, Goldman came to the conclusion that,
Maybe it should have been a little black and white movie with two unknowns in the leads. (Redford, no fool then or ever, knew this.) …
Another shocker was this: how had I slaved to try and get it right and how it doesn't matter remotely as much as I thought it did. Let me explain that. Because we were dealing with a piece of material that actually changed the course of history, I felt this insane pressure to have it as dry dust authentic as I could. …
Having read the script over now, I see the story would have worked without my suffering. David and Goliath usually does…
"It would have worked without my suffering…" It's the same in life.
Where pain is a part of life and happens regardless of whether you want it or not, suffering is optional. It is ours to choose.
Suffering is not in our nature, so there is no need to seek it out. But there is a difference between seeking out suffering and seeking out the hard things—the challenges—in life.
See, when the "normal" person encounters suffering in his life, he quits. There is no reason for his suffering. He lacks vision.
Goldman had all sorts of vision for this movie. He wrote and re-worked the script nearly every day for over a year.
When the abnormal encounter suffering, they work through it. We call these people champions, or, in Goldman's case, Oscar winners.
It's an attitude I want you to adopt starting today. Be a champion. Alleviate your own suffering. Never be comfortable with it.
We help people with clarifying their vision. Mission and purpose.
But we don't do therapy and we don't let you complain.
As always,
Brian
