Greatest Monologue
 

See title.

^Not a very monologue.

Short but sweet.

This really starts about the 1:12 point as far as the actual "monologue" is concerned...but this is my absolute favorite monologue. And the nearest and dearest to my heart.

You see, as a small small small child, I was over at my great grandmother's house, and she was watching a Bette Davis documentary. They played this clip, and that's seriously and honestly, hand to god, the moment I knew I wanted to be an actress.

I'm 24, and I still act and pursue it as much as (well, actually more than) money allows.

So here it is. The moment I chose to become an actor.

I've always loved this one from Deadwood



Definitely NSFW

i saw the play La Bête years ago at the Ashland Shakespeare festival.....in the middle there is an amazing 30 + minute monologue....i think still to date it is one of the greatest things i've seen live

...

Damn. That was moving!

I know! I think it's pretty remarkable too.

It's a short one but it's brilliant:



About from 30 seconds to a minute.

Greatest monologue? A difficult choice! :confused: I'm absolutely certain that the greatest monologist ever is MARLON BRANDO, but...... which one of his monologues is the greatest? Hmmm.... :confused: I don't know.... Damn, I can't choose only one!!!!

OK, I opt for this one from Apocalypse Now:

lightening up the mood a bit, I've always liked Buscemi as an actor, and I just love this scene. Not really a monologue either, but eh

Well, if we talk about the Comedy category....



Respect the cock! And tame the cunt!

'Nuff said!

This is by no means the best monologue on film but it is one of the most original, sincere and inventive I have seen on film.

As soon as the name Jean Claude Van Damme is mentioned, eyebrows are raised and sighs are emitted and perhaps justifiably so as he has made his fair share of stinkers but the film JCVD was a rare dramatic role for him and he surprised everyone who watched the film that he is actually a damn good actor. Also the use of the monologue in this film is inspired. He is playing himself in the film and is sat on a chair in this particular scene and the chair rises with the camera and he is on top of the actual set in the rigging and delivers a monologue in his native tongue where he bares his soul about everything.

It is not contrived or superfluous but one of the best examples of breaking the fourth wall in movies. If you are serious about cinema or acting in general then you should be blown away by this:

How much did this stray from the plot of the film itself? Was it just kind of out of nowhere?

Good pick though. I didn't know JCVD had the chops.

Not really as JCVD is playing himself in the movie and he downplays himself throughout so the monologue works really well in the context of the film.

One of my favourite monologues. It works on so many levels. Linguistically it borrows from so many sources both literary and cinematically. The cinematography borrows from French New Wave and German Expressionism and as a performance it represents an actor who could literally be anybody he wants to be, mimic, ape and parody but still be quintessentially DeNiro.

...is the exact clip I was going to pick. Good choice. Absolutely superb film as well.

This one from Dan O'Herlihy in the very underrated Halloween 3's a favourite of mine.


Halloween III: Season of the Witch Cochran's Speech - YouTube

Paraphrased entirely from the climax to Conrad's The Heart of Darkness. Not that it really matters, Brando is still stellar in that role. That monologue just wasn't written by Francis Ford Coppola, but he did a damn fine job adapting it for the screen. "The horror, the horror" is actually a direct quote from the book.

The point I'm trying to make is monologues rarely get traced back to their paper antecedents, even though they require just as much effort in their craftsmanship.

but most cinematic monologues are rarely traced back to a previous source and that is what the OP was trying to get across. Quoting verbatim or riffing on previous dialogue is not what a monologue is.

The beauty of the best movie monologues is that they are often unscripted and improvised or otherwise wholly original otherwise there would just be a bunch of actors quoting Shakespeare etc

Could have fooled me.

I'm not a huge theater or film buff but I've seen my fair share of great films and I'm certain the "unscripted" ones sound like an idiot rambling more than anything else. The ONLY exception I can think to this comes courtesy of R. Lee Ermey, and he WAS a drill sergeant for a long time before he got involved in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.


Full Metal Jacket Clip - YouTube

You think Brando improvised that? Bull-fucking-shit.

What? Brando improvised R. Lee Ermy ;)

Brando apparently read Hearts Of Darkness and remembered certain phrases that stuck out but the monologue was improvised and not all from source material.

I'm a bit confused here...

Are you saying that Brando's monologue wasn't written at all by Coppola and Milius? That would be extremely impressive; I know Brando does a fair bit of ad-libbing but it's unusual even for an actor of his caliber to give direction to the director.

Or are you suggesting that the scene didn't entirely stem from The Heart of Darkness? Because I already knew that -- the film deviates exceptionally from that novel, but that monologue is very, very much in the same spirit as Conrad's words.

EDIT: I suppose I misspoke earlier. I had meant to say Coppola adapted that scene from the novel. It is still an impressive monologue, and certainly one of the best.

OOOOOOOOO SH*T WENT DOWN!