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There's one wrinkle I see here, speaking as an Aaron Sorkin fanboy. There's a lot Sorkin does that just shouldn't work. His dialogue is extremely lengthy and,
by danilocampos 16y ago
There's one wrinkle I see here, speaking as an Aaron Sorkin fanboy.
There's a lot Sorkin does that just shouldn't work. His dialogue is extremely lengthy and, in the case of The West Wing and Sports Night, he completely threw out the idea of using internal (team) conflict to drive the narrative, choosing unity instead. His President of the United States was extraordinarily idealistic and principled, even under fire.
This is a long way of saying I think Sorkin does it this way to amuse himself. He creates things he, himself, would like. He certainly feels an obligation to his audience, as the parent comment mentioned, but overall he writes the characters and dialogue in a way that gives him pleasure.
edit: Even going so far as to inject the idea of taking pleasure from writing things well into his scribe characters: Danny and Casey in Sports Night, Toby, Sam, President Bartlet and Will on the West Wing.
- sliverstorm 16y agoI wouldn't chalk all of The West Wing's success with an unusual recipe up to Sorkin. Martin Sheen, IMHO, does an amazing job in his role, which (also IMHO) is pivotal to the recipe, and I can't imagine any other actor pulling it off so well.
- radley 16y agoI'm also a Sorkin / WW fanboy and would add: 1) The movie isn't for y'all (i.e. SV programmers) - it's for everyone else. How Raiders of the Lost Ark is Spielberg's action-adventure archeology, The Social Network is a Sorkin-banter exercise. 2) Sorkin enjoys writing for intellectual ideology, which is very difficult to position in any form of entertainment. In a way, he's forced to choose personas capable of centering his complex dialog, be it the President of the United States or a 20-something self-made billionaire.
- bloomshed 16y agoCould the argument be made that Sorkin's style filled a void in the marketplace that was network TV drama in the case of West Wing? Long, tight, terse dialogue is what the audience interacted with most immediately with West Wing. Sorkin can write, so he does. I would say audiences who appreciated good writing and a different conflict arc to drive the narrative had few other alternatives for that time slot.