The Best Movie Dialogue Scenes

[Johnny Townmouse]

Those that have tried their hand at screenwriting, or really any kind of creative writing involving characters interacting, will be aware of the difficulty of producing strong dialogue. For me dialogue has to be either extremely well written in a naturalistic way, snappy and creative, or hyper-real in the way that Noir does so well. However, for me dialogue really soars when it is the point of the drama - where it becomes less about action combined with dialogue, and more about the words themself creating drama. To be hanging on the words of a character, rather than waiting for a bomb to explode, or someone to get shot, is the power of cinema. Some suggest that cinema is a purely visual media, and that dialogue is subsidiary to the semiotics of image and mise-en-scène. I sympathise with this view, as so much cinema is people nattering, or using exposition to push story forward. But really, dialogue should make films great instead of good.

There are too many examples, but I am fascinated to hear other whores views.

For me, the way that 12 Angry Men becomes so focussed on the words of characters makes it a wonderful piece of cinema (though I am aware that it started as a play). The scene regarding the train, and the likelihood that the witness could be credible, is just a piece of high drama that makes the heart beat faster, without characters needing to do anything but stand and talk.

The power play in Sexy Beast, when Kingsley's character first arrives and ties Winstone up in knots, is so tense and seething with anger and barely suppressed violence that it makes me physically squirm.

I have to say that I find the dialogue rather wonderful in Reservoir Dogs, a film I don't think Tarantino has even got close to bettering. Yes the Walken/Hopper scene in True Romance is quite brilliant, but the scene in RD when Keitel first meets Buscemi and they go over the incident of the jewlry store robbery, without any context for the viewer, is remarkable stuff.

The scene in Festen when the main character first reveals the back-story of abuse is unbelievably good writing - it is hate-filled but composed in a way that is hard to fathom.

The scene in Taxi Driver when De Niro goes for breakfast with Jodie Foster's character is one of my favourite scenes of all time - and it is down to Schrader that De Niro comes across as so paternal and judgemental at the same time. Foster is depressingly naive - just a little girl, but De Niro talks to her like she is a woman. I love it. It acts as a stark counter-point to the lunch he has with Shephard's character.

One youtube clip, at 50secs in. I adore this exchange in Dead Man's Shoes. So much malice, Considine's character is terrifying and utterly brave. It makes the view realise this fucker going to be unstoppable without the need for him to be cliched.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58ylrJ0cH2w

[Sam]

Ellen Burstyn's long speech in Requiem for a Dream to her son about why the red dress matters to her. Apparently it moved the DP to tears to the extent that he messed up the shot cos his eyes were welling up. I know as with all this dialogue it needs great actors to really become special (Burstyn should have got Best Actress for that speech) but in a film full of visual showiness it shows a great deal of restraint to stop everything and let the audience hang on every word.

Can I just mention a style of dialogue which I think has now been overdone and isn't much cop? (Perhaps this is for the movie cliches thread but I haven't read it, so...) The kind of "pwning" speech a character gives to prove their resilience/intelligence to some doubter. Perfect examples are Damon's character in Good Will Hunting correcting the show-off in the bar and Erin Brockovich reeling of all the personal details of the people she is representing in her case. When I watched the latter I actually cringed it was so cheesy.

[Famous Mortimer]

I've been casting my mind around for my favourite scenes for pure dialogue, and the problem is a lot of the great ones have become a bit cliched. I mean, the first time I saw Blade Runner I loved Rooger Hooger's speech at the end, but it's been done and analysed and mentioned so often that it's not really possible to have an unvarnished reaction to it any more.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I'll be honest - this was all set to be my largest thread starting failure, and you have both pretty much ruined that.

But yes Sam, despite the fact that repeated views of RFAD have led me to now think it is a bit bobbins, Burnstyn is the best thing in it, and that is probably her best scene. The final shots of her having EST and leaving the institution are heart-breaking too, and doesn't even really compare to the misfortunes of a pair of dopey junkies.

FM - I actually agree in some respects - I think the famous scenes of dialogue are overplayed. What I am most interested in are those moments that chime with you.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Smoke immediately sprang to mind upon seeing the  thread title. There's a really nice measured quality to the performances and something about the way the sound is recorded that makes it very easy to listen to. Strictly speaking though, I guess a lot of it is monologues, so here's this.
SMOKE (1995, Wayne Wang) "Auggie's Photo Album"

[Cohaagen]

Repo Man is one of my favourite movies for a number of reasons, but particularly for the quality of the writing when it comes to exchanges between characters. Some of the lines in it are just priceless. It manages to be off-kilter and genuinely, endearingly weird without the overweening "quirkiness" and calculated zany stylings of, say, Napoleon Dynamite. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have your lines delivered by superb character actors like Harry Dean Stanton and Tracy Walter.

Otto and Light Steal a Car

(Lite) I walk into someone's place of work, they shit-scared. They know I'm not a cop. Think I've come to kill 'em, and I would. I'll kill anybody who crosses me - know what I mean?
(pause)
(Lite) You like music?
(Otto) Sure.
(Lite) Mmm, in that case you gonna loooove this. I was into these dudes before anybody. Partied with 'em all the time. Asked me to be the manager. I called bullshit on that. Managing a pop group? Ain't no job for no man.
(pause)
(Lite) You read that book I gave you?
(Otto) What book?
(Lite) Dioretix, Science of Matter Over Mind?
(Otto) Uh-uh.
(Lite) Well then you better read it, and quick. That book'll change yo' life. Found it in a Maserati in Beverly Hills - know what I mean?

miller explains the wierdness goin on

(Miller) Lots of people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidents and things. They don't realize that there's this lattice of coincidence on top of everything. I'll give you an example to show you what I mean: suppose you're thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly, somebody'll say like "plate", or "shrimp", or "plate of shrimp" outta the blue, no explanation. No point in looking for one either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness.
(Otto) Did you eat a lot of acid Miller, back in the hippie days?
(Miller) I'll give you another instance: you know the way everybody's into weirdness right now? Books in all the supermarkets about Bermuda Triangles, UFOs, how the Mayans invented television, that kind of thing?
(Otto) I don't read them books.
(Miller) Well the way I see it it's exactly the same. There ain't no difference between a flying saucer and a time machine. People get so hung up on specifics, they miss out on seeing the whole thing. Take South America, for example: South America, thousands of people go missing every year. Nobody knows where they go. They just disappear. But if you think about it for a minute, you realize something: there had to be a time when there was no people, right?
(Otto) Yeah I guess.
(Miller) Well where did all these people come from, hmm? I'll tell you where: the future! Where did all these people disappear to, uh?
(Otto) The past?
(Miller) That's right! And how did they get there?
(Otto) How the fuck do I know?!
(Miller) Flying saucers. Which are really...yeah you got it...time machines. I think a lot about this kinda stuff. I do my best thinking on the bus. That's how come I don't drive, see.
(Otto) You don't even know how to drive!
(Miller) I don't want to know how, I don't wanna learn, see? The more you drive...the less intelligent you are.

[Famous Mortimer]

God, I love Repo Man so much, good call Cohaagen.

And because I'm impressed I found the exact scene, I remember delighting in this stilted but still wonderful exchange from "Slacker":

Hitchhiker Awaiting "True Call" (HQ)

[Bingo Fury]

I've always been very partial to the scene in Blade Runner where Roy and Tyrrel come face to face and discuss why Roy's lifespan can't be extended. After being snowed under with Geordi La Forge technobabble during my Trekkie phase, it was a pleasure to come back to this film and listen to two people spouting technobabble which at least sounded convincing, and who seemed to know what they were talking about.

[Whellybob]

Syndromes and a Century: Dental work scene

I've posted this more for the way the dialogue is handled (although I do think that it is still noteworthy), for the solidarity of the framing and the way in which it allows for the burgeoning rapport between the two to take place as a logocentric sort of an exposition and also for this to be fed into by the drama of their physcial proximity to each other.

EDIT: I certianly wouldn't be suggesting Weerasethakul as a film maker whose film's yield to logocentrism of course, just commenting on the way that that works within this scene.

[munkybitch]

Am about to watch this film tonight after the joy that was Uncle Boomee

[Whellybob]

What a treat! :D