Daily Inspiration Quote by Curtis Hanson

Hanson’s line is a polite knife aimed at the most expensive habits in Hollywood. “You can dress it up” conjures the full wardrobe department of modern filmmaking: star casting, prestige cinematography, a swollen VFX budget, the marketing sheen that can make even a mediocre project look inevitable. Then he yanks the conversation back to the least glamorous document in the process: a stack of pages, usually written in isolation, fought over in meetings, and too often treated as a rough draft to be “fixed” in post.

The intent is practical, almost corrective. Directors are expected to be visual stylists; Hanson insists the image is downstream from structure. Subtext: craft beats spectacle. A script isn’t just dialogue; it’s cause-and-effect, character pressure, rhythm, the invisible engineering that determines whether a moment lands or just poses. When the writing is thin, every other department is asked to compensate, and the movie starts performing effort rather than generating emotion.

Context matters because Hanson’s filmography is an argument for the thesis. L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile, Wonder Boys: all are adaptations or tightly written originals where plot mechanics and character psychology do the heavy lifting, letting style feel earned instead of decorative. His quote also reads like a veteran’s warning about industrial drift. In an era of franchise logic and “content,” the screenplay can become a template, a placeholder for IP and set pieces. Hanson’s reminder is blunt: audiences may come for the dress-up, but they stay (or bail) because of the bones.