FAST FIVE Oscar Watch: Best Original Screenplay

You've already heard our impassioned pleas to consider FAST FIVE for the Best Picture and Film Editing Oscars - now it falls to me to convince the Academy that this year's most exciting action film should also be considered for the film world's highest screenwriting prize: Best Original Screenplay.

While typically the Best Original Screenplay Oscar (B.O.S.O.) race has been the realm of the more independently modeled films (see recent nominees The Kids are All Right, Another Year, The Messenger, Frozen River, Milk, Lars and the Real Girl), precedent is no reason to disqualify a film just because it is written through the dependent system of Hollywood's studio system. Scribe Chris Morgan is the lone credited screenwriter on the film (though Gary Scott Thompson does get a "characters created by" nod). In these days of multiple studio rewrites, polishes, and script doctoring, Morgan's feat of pumping out a masterpiece like Fast Five all by his lonesome is an accomplishment that should be rewarded.

What's more - all of those recent nominees listed above (as well as countless other nominees in recent years) are booooorrrrrrring!! While it might be possible to level criticism against Fast Five for being "ridiculous" or "preposterous" or perhaps even "unrealistically awesome," no one with a handle on their own sanity could ever refer to the film as boring. For a film that is a full two hours and ten minutes long, keeping the audience engaged in a complicated crime plot involving a dozen or so intricate characters with complex character motivations without boring the audience is a B.O.S.O. deserving accomplishment.

Let's take a look at one of the film's most expertly written scenes in greater depth, just to illustrate the B.O.S.O. level of quality writing on display in Fast Five:

Towards the latter half of the film, Paul Walker's Brian, Vin Diesel's Dom, Sung Kang's Han and Tyrese's Roman break into a police compound and escape with four supercharged squad cars. To celebrate their seemingly effortless heist going down without alerting a single boy in blue, the guys take to the wide open and deserted streets of downtown Rio to test out their new rides. Lining up four abreast at a red light, the gang glances at one another; a perfect drag race scenario. Roman suggests they put $100,000 on the line for a quarter mile race (announcing their intentions over the public address speaker in a brazen showing of bravado, no less). Han points out that if they don't pull off the job they are putting in motion, they'll likely be dead, so why not make it a $1Million. The gang agrees, the lights change to green, and cars peel rubber down the city street.

The complex dynamic at work between Brian and Dom is where the real drama of this scene plays out. While the two men were once rivals, they have since formed a friendship that is familial (Brian is courting and has recent impregnated Dom's sister) while simultaneously reflective of their rivalry filled past - one in which Dom had previously used opprobrious methods to beat Brian is a similar drag race scenario. I'll not spoil the outcome of the drag race for those who have yet to see the film, but suffice to say, the delicate scenario is handled with B.O.S.O. quality. All of this being said, the most flagrantly impressive showing of screenwriting skills in this scene is actually the writer's use of complex temporal shifting techniques. The quarter mile drag race takes the expert drivers a full 58 seconds to complete. If this drag race took place under normal temporal confines, that would mean the fellas were weaving in and out of lanes and cutting each other off in the million dollar race at an average speed of approximately 15 miles per hour. But as any drag racing aficionado can tell you, a drag race where the cars average approximately 15 miles per hour would be negligently dawdling. Thus, it is with a brilliant panache for B.O.S.O. technique that Chris Morgan to employs such an elaborate temporal device here to make the scene delightfully exciting AND give the audience the time to adequately ingurgitate the complex character dynamics at play.

Dear Academy - it is time to start thinking outside of the four walls of tradition you have been imprisoned by in recent years. This category shouldn't be a dumping ground for films that are too indie to be considered for Best Picture. Screenwriting is more than a craft. It is an art, end of story. The B.O.S.O. should go to the B.O.S., period. And, quite simply, Fast Five is the B.O.S., full stop.

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