Word: wittliff
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...book could only speculate on the actions of Tyne and his men since, for reasons we can't explain, none of the crew would talk to him. The book was as much a history of commercial fishing as a story of one ship in a storm. So screenwriter Bill Wittliff has given a little storyline to Tyne (George Clooney) and the other Andrea Gailers--except for the black in the crew; he is allowed to provide only background nobility. Murph (John C. Reilly) gets all sniffly and teary bonding with his son. Sully (William Fichtner) is the class malcontent; Bugsy...
Edward Zwick, the director, and Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff, the screenwriters, are under the impression that they are bringing forth a tragic epic, not a silly melodrama, and therefore much blood must be spilled before whoever is left standing at the end is granted peace and wisdom. That most of the dying results from a bootlegging operation Tristan starts up during Prohibition tends to short-circuit whatever impulses toward terror and pity we might still have. Running hooch in from Canada is not an occupation we usually associate with profound drama, especially when it is centered on a figure...
Edward Zwick, the director, and Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff, the screenwriters, are under the impression that they are bringing forth a tragic epic, not a silly melodrama, and therefore much blood must be spilled before whoever is left standing at the end is granted peace and wisdom. That most of the dying results from a bootlegging operation Tristan starts up during Prohibition tends to short-circuit whatever impulses toward terror and pity we might still have. Running hooch in from Canada is not an occupation we usually associate with profound drama, especially when it is centered on a figure...
Mebbe not. Yet Lonesome Dove rides rings around the overstuffed soap operas that usually pass for "epics" along Broadcast Row. Larry McMurtry's fat novel has been brought to TV -- by writer Bill Wittliff and director Simon Wincer -- with sweep, intelligence and sheer storytelling drive. Firmly anchoring the film is Robert Duvall's moving performance as the wry, philosophical ex-lawman Augustus McCrae. Tommy Lee Jones provides stern counterpoint as McCrae's partner, Woodrow F. Call. Dozens of finely etched characters surround them: a roguish ex-Ranger turned gambler (Robert Urich); a prostitute looking for escape (Diane Lane); a wimpy...
Until a climax too calculated to stir the emotions, Screenwriter William D Wittliff and Director Richard Pearce navigate a careful, dogged course between tract and treacle. In this near-miss movie Shepard is once again the icon of incorruptibility who refuses to claim the center of a film. Toward the end of Country Shepard's character disappears, with little explanation, in what may be a gentlemanly bow to Jessica Lange, a flinty, landsomely wasted matriarch. Mother ones, meet Ma Joad. -By Richard Corliss...