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    Voiceovers

    A couple of weeks ago I rewatched "Carlito's Way", and really enjoyed it. I hadn't remembered that there were a few scenes in which Carlito's voiceover comments on what is unfolding.

    There were a couple of moments when it took me a few seconds to realise that the voice of Pacino I could hear was Carlito's voiceover rather than the character's dialogue.

    One thing which really struck me was the power of the final scene, when Carlito is lying on the stretcher and looking up, and we hear his last voiceover. I can't quote the words but the lines are poetry! What a fantastic scene.

    This has got me thinking - what would you say are the most effective and important voiceovers in films, and which have you not liked?

    #2
    I love Carlito’s Way

    I guess one is supposed to say Blade Runner (‘oh and Ford did it in a monotone badly on purpose because of his overwhelming artistic integrity’...) but it was a great film even with that when it came out in 82

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      #3
      When I was a student, it was the trend to react to situations by mimicking the voiceovers of Kevin from the Wonder Years. So two freshers drunkenly snogging at the college bar would be surrounded by solemn types nodding sagely and saying "It was at this point that Matt and Dawn realised that love could be found at the bottom of a bottle"

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        #4
        Dick Powell as Phillip Marlowe in the 1944 Murder, My Sweet (aka Farewell, My Lovely) gets to deliver Raymond Chandler as voiceover. Great movie, too.

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          #5
          … what would you say are the most effective and important voiceovers in films?
          I can't claim they're important, but I've always found the narration in some of Russ Meyer's films pretty funny. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls sprints to mind.

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            #6
            One of the more recent Woody Allen films has a totally unnecessary voiceover, but I can,'t remember which one!

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              #7
              Voiceover usually doesn’t work. It’s just kinda lazy.

              It usually works best if it’s just at the beginning and the end.

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                #8
                Sam Elliot in The Big Lebowski does this - beginning and the end, that’s it. And it’s perfect.

                “Sometimes there’s a man.”

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                  #9
                  A Christmas Story has narration throughout and it works. I don't watch it, but Arrested Development has narration throughout too, I believe.

                  I agree with HP only if the narration is a cheap substitute for good script writing. If it's intentional - and stands as a character in itself - I'm fine with it.

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                    #10
                    The worst voiceover is if the narrator is just a narrator and not a character. That HBO Show with Anna Kendrick had Helen Mirren doing that and it was just pointless.

                    It works best when it’s a character telling the story, Great Gatsby-style (in the novel, not the recent film). Christmas Story works with that way. In fact, it really needs it.
                    Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 11-10-2020, 16:56.

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