Film Scripts 1: Henry V; The Big Sleep; A Streetcar Named Desire

Here are the screenplays of three of the cinema’s most successful literary adaptations. Henry V is Laurence Olivier’s extraordinary version of Shakespeare’s play. It begins as a highly stylized theatrical performance in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and concludes as pure cinema with a meticulous recreation of the battle of Agincourt. A Streetcar Named Desire is Tennessee Williams’s version of his stage success, which contains radical changes from the text of his play, including a completely different ending. The Big Sleep is a fast-paced and sexy rendition of Raymond Chandler’s detective novel, fleshed out by a cadre of brilliant screenwriters that included William Faulkner.