Incredible Monologues

I think this topic has been posted before, but I feel inspired.

I was flipping channels the other day and came upon the coutroom scene of "A Few Good Men." I was mesmerized by Jack Nicholson's "you can't handle the truth,.....you want me on that wall."
From an acting standpoint, his monologue is delivered into the camera, full-face. The intensity in his eyes is incredible. Now just imagine that he is doing that looking square into a camera, not to another person.

Another favorite of mine from Nicholson is from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," when he does the play-by-play of the baseball game.

What are some of yours?

Aka you must have been watching the same re run I was....yes it is a great monologue.

I will have to think about this one ... there are so many....

One that comes to mind is a recent one it is the "I am a Jew" monologue from Merchant of Venice, delivered by Al Pacino as Shylock.

I'm always amazed by James Earl Jones' monologue about baseball in "Field of Dreams".

"Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."

This is the best thing ever written on paper. When Depp performs this monolouge in the film Fear and Loathing, it made me feel so alive. Here, is Hunter S. Thompson's best work ever. It's an excerpt from FALILV, and I believe it is the best thing anyone has ever written.

The Wave Speech
By: Hunter S. Thompson


Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era-the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run…but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant…
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time -and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights - or very early mornings - when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L.L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder’s jacket…booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of the Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I stumbled for change) … but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that….
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up at the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda….You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning….
And that, I think, was the handle – that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting – on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave….
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark – the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.


The Doc

My favourite part of Fear And Loathing.

These are just a few of my favorites.

I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us.

--Col. Kurtz - Apocalypse Now
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I don't even know how long she's been gone. It's like I've woken up in bed and she's not here... because she's gone to the bathroom or something. But somehow, I know she's never gonna come back to bed. If I could just... reach over and touch... her side of the bed, I would know that it was cold, but I can't. I know I can't have her back... but I don't want to wake up in the morning, thinking she's still here. I lie here not knowing... how long I've been alone. So how... how can I heal? How am I supposed to heal if I can't... feel time?

--Leonard Shelby - Memento
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Look in the mirror. Paper towels, clean cab, limo company someday--how much you got saved?
(Max says it is not his business)
Someday? Someday my dream will come? One night you'll wake up and discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you. It never will. Suddenly you are old. Didn't happen...and it never will because you were never gonna do it anyway. You'll push it into memory, then zone out in your Barcalounger being hypnotized by daytime TV for the rest of your life. Don't you talk to me about murder. All it ever took was a down payment on a Lincoln Town Car--or that girl, you can't even call that girl. What the fuck are you still doing driving a cab?

---Vincent --Collateral
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A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.

---Bernstein -- Citizen Kane
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I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?

----Harry Callahan --- Dirty Harry

Hyman Roth's monologue to Michael in GFII about Moe Green was a great one.

The dialogue in Dr. Strangelove between President Muffley (Peter Sellers), and general Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott), with Turgidson's memorable one or two points that he wished to make:

Turgidson:

Mr. President, there are one or two points I'd like to make, if I may.

Muffley:

Go ahead, General.

Turgidson:

One, our hopes for recalling the 843rd bomb wing are quickly being reduced to a very low order of probability. Two, in less than fifteen minutes from now the Russkies will be making radar contact with the planes. Three, when the do, they are going to go absolutely ape, and they're gonna strike back with everything they've got. Four, if prior to this time, we have done nothing further to suppress their retaliatory capabilities, we will suffer virtual annihilation.

(Lowers voice) Now, five: If, on the other hand, we were to immediately launch an all out and coordinated attack on all their airfields and missile bases we'd stand a damn good chance of catching 'em with their pants down. Hell, we got a five to one missile superiority as it is. We could easily assign three missiles to every target, and still have a very effective reserve force for any other contingency. Now, six, an unofficial study which we undertook of this eventuality, indicated that we would destroy ninety percent of their nuclear capabilities. We would therefore prevail, and suffer only modest and acceptable civilian casualties from their remaining force which would be badly damaged and uncoordinated.

Muffley:

General, it is the avowed policy of our country never to strike first with nuclear weapons.

Turgidson:

Well, Mr. President, I would say that General Ripper has already invalidated that policy. (laughs).

Plaw, on the subject of that film, I love Dr. Strangelove's scenes, and almost as much, the president's conversations with Dimitri.

Hello?... Ah... I can't hear too well. Do you suppose you could turn the music down just a little?... Oh-ho, that's much better... yeah... huh... yes... Fine, I can hear you now, Dmitri... Clear and plain and coming through fine... I'm coming through fine, too, eh?... Good, then... well, then, as you say, we're both coming through fine... Good... Well, it's good that you're fine and... and I'm fine... I agree with you, it's great to be fine... a-ha-ha-ha-ha... Now then, Dmitri, you know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the Bomb... The *Bomb*, Dmitri... The *hydrogen* bomb!... Well now, what happened is... ah... one of our base commanders, he had a sort of... well, he went a little funny in the head... you know... just a little... funny. And, ah... he went and did a silly thing... Well, I'll tell you what he did. He ordered his planes... to attack your country... Ah... Well, let me finish, Dmitri... Let me finish, Dmitri... Well listen, how do you think I feel about it?... Can you *imagine* how I feel about it, Dmitri?... Why do you think I'm calling you? Just to say hello?... *Of course* I like to speak to you!... *Of course* I like to say hello!... Not now, but anytime, Dmitri. I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened... It's a *friendly* call. Of course it's a friendly call... Listen, if it wasn't friendly... you probably wouldn't have even got it... They will *not* reach their targets for at least another hour... I am... I am positive, Dmitri... Listen, I've been all over this with your ambassador. It is not a trick... Well, I'll tell you. We'd like to give your air staff a complete run-down on the targets, the flight plans, and the defensive systems of the planes... Yes! I mean i-i-i-if we're unable to recall the planes, then... I'd say that, ah... well, ah... we're just gonna have to help you destroy them, Dmitri... I know they're our boys... All right, well listen now. Who should we call?... *Who* should we call, Dmitri? The... wha-whe, the People... you, sorry, you faded away there... The People's Central Air Defense Headquarters... Where is that, Dmitri?... In Omsk... Right... Yes... Oh, you'll call them first, will you?... Uh-huh... Listen, do you happen to have the phone number on you, Dmitri?... Whe-ah, what? I see, just ask for Omsk information... Ah-ah-eh-uhm-hm... I'm sorry, too, Dmitri... I'm very sorry... *All right*, you're sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well... I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are... So we're both sorry, all right?... All right.

I love that one too, DV. I think that can be classified as a monologue... after all, you don't hear Dmitri at all. And I think that's the best fake American accent I've ever heard. Absolutely brilliant, all of it.

The monologue in Dazed and Confused about George Washington is classic, too.

For some reason, I like monologues so much better when they're funny. I think it's because besides the humorous content, it also pokes fun at dramatic monologues in general.

Capt Koons' in "Pulp Fiction"

"Johnny Fontaine never gets that movie..."

Delivered with far more passion in the movie than you could imagine in the book. While the book analyzes the mental chess match between Woltz and the Corleone family over the issue of using Johnny in the movie, his monologue demonstrates his passion for his power which far exceeds his passion for his work.

Also, Brando's bit from "On The Waterfront," his famous "I coulda been a contender." Rod Steiger has one or two lines in the middle of it, but it's a revealing moment in the movie, and Rod's lines, his justification, make Brando's summation, "I coulda had class" even more powerful.

And lastly, just for fun, John Belushi in Animal House, "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" Classic.

tony b.

I love Vito's monologue in the Don meeting scene in GF1.

"But I'm a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him - If he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell - or if he's struck by a bolt of lightning, them I'm going to blame some of the people in this room, and that I do not forgive. But, that aside, let me say that I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace we've made here today."

My favorite monologue is Hyman Roths speech is GF2.

All of the voice-overs done by Edward Norton on Fight Club with amazing. Chuck Palahnuick is a god amoung men.

Also, Fear and Loathing had some rather humerous and well written monolouges, my favorite being:

"How long could we maintain? I wondered. How long until one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family. Will he make that grim connection when my attorney starts screaming about bats and huge manta rays comming down on the car? If so-- well, we'll just have to cut off his head and burry him somewheres. Because it goes without saying we can't turn him loose. He'll report us at once to some kind of outback Nazi law-enforcement agency, and they'll hunt us down like dogs."

-- Emperor Palpatine, Return of the Jedi

Even though this one is simple, I just keep putting "Repeat A-B" on my DVD to watch it all over again:

From Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers:

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes...you didn't even want to know the end, because, how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? (Theoden on the background screams "Victory!! We have Victory!!")
But in the end, it's only a passing thing...this shadow. Even darkness must pass, a new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, and meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why, but I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories...they had a lot of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going, because they were holding on to something."

This is from Captain Corelli's Mandolin - quite a mediocre movie IMO, but worthwhile watching just because of this monologue about love. Now tell me if this is not absolutely wonderful (yes, I'm a romantic girl and proud to be! )

Dr. Iannis (played by John Hurt): "When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness; it is not excitement, it's not the desire to mate every second of the day, not lying awake at night imagining him kissing every part of your body. No.. don't blush. I'm telling you some truths. That is just being in love, which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love, itself, is what is left over, when being in love has burned away. Doesn't sound very exciting does it? ...but it is."

I always loved Gregory Peck's monologue as Atticus Finch, delivering closing statements to the jury in 'To Kill A Mockingbird' ...

Also, Spencer Tracy's final monologues in both 'Judgement at Nuremberg' and 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'.

And...I've never actually seen it, but remember hearing that Ned Beatty's big monologue as an executive in 'Network' was one of the classics of cinema.

And, speaking of Ned Beatty...one of the most talented and under-celebrated character actors to ever hit either the big or small screen.

But I digress...



Apple

Beatty's "speech" about American tv was priceless, and so was Peter Finch's, "I'm mad as hell" monologue.

Its definitely a movie worth seeing!!

Yes, I've heard about that Beatty performance too...and have never seen 'Deliverance' either.

Actually, I've caught bits & pieces and even once saw about the last half hour...but it's just not my kind of movie. The sight of the drowned Ronnie Cox is something I can still see in my mind.

Apple

Two climactic soliloquys immediately come to mind:
that in The Great Dictator (1940), and that in Dr. Strangelove (1963). Tremendous.

Mick

Alec Baldwin's "Coffee is for closers" speech from Glengarry Glen Ross.