Poll

What is the best movie written by Aaron Sorkin?

Walk and balk (don't like any).
1 (5.6%)
A few good movies (haven't seen enough).
0 (0%)
A Few Good Men (1992)
5 (27.8%)
Malice (1993)
0 (0%)
The American President (1995)
0 (0%)
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
1 (5.6%)
The Social Network (2010)
9 (50%)
Moneyball (2011)
2 (11.1%)
Steve Jobs (2015)
0 (0%)
Molly's Game (2017)
0 (0%)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
0 (0%)
Being the Ricardos (2021)
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 18

Author Topic: Best Aaron Sorkin Movie  (Read 2100 times)

oldkid

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Re: Best Aaron Sorkin Movie
« Reply #10 on: March 24, 2018, 01:26:41 PM »
I think The West Wing is a huge jump beyond The American President.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

pixote

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Re: Best Aaron Sorkin Movie
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2022, 02:29:19 AM »
Sub-poll: what’s the best female character Sorkin has written, tv or film?

pixote
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1SO

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Re: Best Aaron Sorkin Movie
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2022, 05:26:29 AM »
C.J. Craig (The West Wing)

pixote

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Re: Best Aaron Sorkin Movie
« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2022, 11:28:09 AM »
I was watching Charlie Wilson’s War last night, and it occurred to me that Sorkin’s go-to for female characters is the “gal Friday” trope, with the exceptions falling into the “just one of the guys” trope. So either women serving men or women trying to be men in Sorkin’s man’s world.

CJ Cregg is a great character. I wonder how much of her growth out of that latter trope is more attributable to Alison Janney and perhaps Dee Dee Myers than to Sorkin himself.

Side note: This Wikipedia excerpt should be cited by companies whenever they do unconscious bias training:

Quote from: Wikipedia
The casting for C. J. Cregg was jeopardized by worries of a lack of racial diversity in the show's original cast. In his intro to the West Wing Script Book, C. J.'s creator, Aaron Sorkin, writes that both the crew on the show and the network were concerned that every actor who had been cast so far was white. Sorkin writes that Allison Janney, a white woman, was the favorite for the role despite her impression that she had botched the audition. However, CCH Pounder, who was Guyanese, was also auditioning well for the role. In the end, Sorkin remarked, "when we closed our eyes at night we wanted Allison. So we cast Allison".

That last quote — “when we closed our eyes at night” — sums up Sorkin’s problematic worldview rather perfectly, methinks.

pixote
« Last Edit: January 28, 2022, 11:31:39 AM by pixote »
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1SO

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Re: Best Aaron Sorkin Movie
« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2022, 11:53:33 AM »
In his defense, 20 years ago most of my scripts were written with white males in mind. It's the culture I surrounded myself with and felt comfortable speaking on behalf of.

 

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