Before the director or actors can work their magic onscreen a writer, often working alone, faces the blank page and must be the first to create the magic. Yet the writer is usually ignored by critics eager to give credit to the director or sometimes an actor. Not only that, the original vision of the screenwriter rarely makes it to the screen intact-Imagine if your favorite movie could have even been better had that image-conscious actress not demanded changes to the script? The screenplays and movies discussed include: A Beautiful Mind, Adaptation, Almost Famous, Ararat, Black Hawk Down, Blade 2, Cast Away, Catch Me if You Can City by the Sea, The Cell, Dancer in the Dark, Far From Heaven, Frailty, The Gift, Gladiator, John Q., Insomnia In the Bedroom, Memento, MIB2, Minority Report, Monster's Ball, Ocean's Eleven, Panic Room, Pay it Forward Pearl Harbor, Proof of Life, Road to Perdition, Signs, Spy Game, We Were Soldiers, Windtalkers, Traffic, Unbreakable