According to Hollywood's screenwriters, Quentin Tarantino is no Orson Welles. Movie scribes have named Citizen Kane the best screenplay of all time, while they singled out Tarantino's Pulp Fiction as the most overrated and (believe it or not) 1993 Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day as the most underrated, according to an informal survey by the Library of America.
Citizen Kane, cowritten by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, topped the best-of list, followed by another classic, Casablanca, written by Howard Koch and Julius and Philip G. Epstein. But interestingly enough, both films also ranked along with Pulp Fiction on the list of most overrated screenplays: Kane nabbed second place in that category, and Casablanca was fourth.
With Welles' 1941 classic already topping every other best-of list--including the American Film Institute's top 100--the folks behind this new survey figured that a backlash might be inevitable.
"I think that because Citizen Kane is such an acknowledged film, some felt maybe a less acknowledged film should be getting its due," says Max Rudin, publisher of the Library of America.
The organization sent its best-of surveys to 4,500 members of the Writers Guild of America. Only 175 responses were tallied, but the results are expected to help the Library of America develop its upcoming anthology celebrating the best American screenplays. "This is kind of a fun, interesting way to kick-start the project," Rudin says.
Also making the library's best-of list: 1972's The Godfather in third place, followed by Chinatown (1974), All About Eve (1950), Some Like It Hot (1959), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Annie Hall (1977), The Graduate (1967) and The Godfather, Part II (1974).
Notably absent, however, are any films made after 1977. "You hear a lot about writers not being as historically grounded as they used to be, but that's not the case," Rudin explains. "There's a very strong sense of tradition in American screenwriting."
Perhaps that also explains why Tarantino was so roundly dissed, along with a handful of recent critical darlings. Joining Pulp Fiction on the library's list of most-overrated films are Gone With the Wind in third place and last year's drug-war thriller Traffic in fifth, followed by American Beauty, Titanic, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and It's a Wonderful Life.
The library also saw fit to name off five of the most underrated screenplays, which yielded a mishmash of unconventional picks: Groundhog Day, written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis, led the pack, followed by Robert Redford's 1994 scandal pic Quiz Show, Aliens, The Wizard of Oz and The Best Years of Our Lives.