As a writer, I’m always hoping to put words on the page that can live forever. Of course, filmmaking is a collaborative experience, so you need a director to take the scene and mold it, and then great actors to embody the characters and deliver the message.
The best movie monologues have everything working for them, with this collaboration working on every front.
That’s why so many actors choose to try to replicate them in auditions and on their reels. But what are the best movie monologues in my opinion? Today, we’re going to dig into that list and see what we come up with.
Let’s dive in.
The Best Movie Monologues
I sent a few messages around the No Film School office to ping people to get inspired. We wound up all having a long discussion about these kinds of scenes in film and pulling out some hidden gems.
The reason we love these scenes is that they’re usually at a point in a movie where we get delivered the message or the theme. They extrapolate all of the emotions the audience has felt this whole time and put them into words.
I didn’t put my list in any order, I just went with the way they occurred to me.
Here’s a list of scenes we think do it wonderfully…
1. ‘Gone Girl’ – “Cool Girl”
2. ‘Good Will Hunting’ – “The Bench Scene”
3. ‘Jaws’ – “The USS Indianapolis”
4. ‘Pulp Fiction’ – “The Watch”
5. ‘The Godfather’ – “I believe in America”
6. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ – “All Men are Created Equal”
7. ‘Network’ – ‘I’m Mad as Hell”
8. ‘Dirty Harry’ – “Feel Lucky, Punk?”
9. ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ – “Lost Causes”
10. ‘Field of Dreams’ – “Baseball”
11. ‘Barbie’ – “Being a Woman”
12. ‘A Few Good Men’ – “Truth”
13. ‘The Color Purple’ – “All My Life I Had to Fight”
14. ‘Fences’ – “Eighteen Years”
15. ‘Scent of a Woman’ – “Out of Order”
16. ‘Caddyshack’ – “Cinderella Story”
17. ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ – “Red’s Speech”
18. ‘On The Waterfront’ – “Contender”
19. ‘The Last Picture Show’ – “Ruth”
20. ‘There Will Be Blood’ – “Milkshake”
21. ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ – “Closing”
22. ‘Independence Day’ – “July 4th”
23. ‘Austin Powers’ – “Dr. Evil’s Story”
24. ‘Call Me By Your Name’ – “Father to Son”
25. ‘Braveheart’ – “Freedom”
Again, all of this is subjective. There are so many great movie monologues out there; all you really need to do is pick your favorites and express your opinions about them.
I love finding new, great acting pieces I can send to friends or try to emulate in my own work.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
