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The 10 Greatest Genre Monologues

Great Speeches from Great Characters.

By Joe Oesterle     August 19, 2010


The 10 Greatest Genre Monologues
© Bob Trate

 

Every movie aspires to have that one magical moment that hooks you, and transports you from audience member to active participant with real stakes in the game. Special effects will continue to visually impress, but it will always come down to actors effectively emoting the written word that makes the movie-going experience so personal.
 
   As far as storytelling on film goes, nothing can compare to a charismatic thespian believably, and passionately delivering lines written by a talented, well-thought out writer.
 
   Again, we genre-lovers out there delight in our explosions and robots and spaceships, but at the heart of it all, it’s the human experience that connects us to our movie heroes. Are you reading this Michael Bay?
 
 
 Aunt May- Spiderman 2
 
   Sure we all gasped a little when Aunt May revealed she had given away Peter’s old comic books during this scene, but let us not forgot, Aunt May is not the villain in this story. (Though we can almost make that case based on her crime)
 
   More importantly, she strives to remind Peter that real heroes don’t just disappear when things get rough, because real heroes help to inspire people like her, and young children like Henry. As this scene points out, no one can guilt us into doing the right thing like the woman who sacrificed for us… still and all, she had no right to give away his comics.
 
 
 
 
Jaws – USS Indianapolis
 
   Robert Shaw chews up the dialogue with even more chilling intensity than his nemesis, the shark, did to the unsuspecting beachgoers of Amity Island.
 
   Much has been said and written about this particular scene – and with good reason. The three men, each from a different walk of life, down in the galley, trading good-natured war stories gave the movie its humanity. Suddenly, the conversation turned deadly serious, and thanks to the Shaw’s moving performance, the film was elevated from ordinary “monster” movie to legendary status. Credit goes to Shaw for helping to rewrite the story. The scene took two days to film, thanks to Shaw’s less than brilliant idea to perform the scene “pissed out of his mind” on the first day.
 
 
 
 
Star Trek: First Contact- Picard
 
 A community of Next Generation fans point to this scene as the moment that Captain Picard supplanted Captain James T. Kirk as the greatest man to sit at the helm of the USS Enterprise.
 
   Content with silently fighting his demons, the usually stoic Picard explodes at Lily Sloane for having the audacity to compare him to Melville’s ill-fated tyrant, Captain Ahab. Thousands of Trekkers and Trekkies shuddered as Picard shattered the protective glass case full of nerdly treasures.
 
   We’re terrified at the thought of what would have happened had Sloan informed the good captain they were all out of Earl Grey.
 
 
 
 
 
John Doe – Seven
 
 Years after we found out what was in the box, Kevin Spacey’s performance still sends chills down our spines. Cool, detached and supremely intelligent, John Doe almost convinces us his plan was just.
 
   Doe calmly taunts Detective Mills to give in to the Deadly Sins and take his vengeance out on the envious, murderous martyr. This sociopath believes his actions will be studied and followed, and he has bet his life on that philosophy.
 
   Doe will undoubtedly become a messiah to some, and Mills, who only moments before chided the film’s bad guy that in 2 months time no one will remember or care about his crime spree, has become a victim of the cruel irony of a shitty world.
 
 
 
 
Joker’s - Interrogation Room in The Dark Knight
 
   The Joker tries to get into Gordon’s head, but Gordon is incorruptible. Human beings, the Joker tries to rationalize to the “good cop,” are only as good as the world allows them to be. I’m not a monster; I’m just ahead of the curve.
 
   His praise of anachronistic society falls on deaf ears. Enter Ol’ Pointy Ears. After a sound thrashing leaves the Joker literally ROTFLing, Batman realizes there is nothing he can do, short of killing the homicidal maniac. This gives the Joker his only advantage. Unlike Detective David Mills, however, the World’s Greatest Detective doe not give into to his adversary’s mind games. No matter what the personal sacrifice.
 
 
 
 
Sam Wise- LOTR The Two Towers
 
 
   Like a miniature Knute Rockne, Samwise Gamgee takes a knee and gives a beaten and beleaguered Frodo a stirring speech about pressing on in the face of darkness, and never, regardless of the odds, giving up the good fight.
 
   His passionate lecture almost brought a tear to the oversized buggy eyes of Gollum, and gave the Hobbity bearer of the ring the strength to get up and jump back into the fray.
 
   During the last play of the game, Samwise was allowed on the battlefield, and he managed to sack the Eye of Sauron for a ten-yard loss, and was carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates as the entire stadium chanted, “Rudy! Rudy!”
 
 
 
 
300 – Final Speech
 
   Warrior Dilios was sent back to his people to tell the tale of King Leonidas and the brave 300 who fought valiantly against overwhelming odds. Their sacrifice was more than enough to inspire an army of 10,000 to believe they were more than a match for 30,000 Persians.
 
   Three men to one, that’s good odds for any Greek, says the muscled and well-oiled Dilios as he readies his troops for war. Sure there’s a cheap joke in there, but let’s just concentrate on the moving message instead.
 
Watch the video here.
 
 
Toy Story 3- Andy Gives His Toys To The Girl
 
   Saying goodbye to the innocence of childhood isn’t easy to witness for any of us. Melancholy sits in, and we are reminded of abandoned dreams, and the loss of loved ones. Of course most of us have managed to maintain a small physical piece of our youth or we wouldn’t be on this site in the first place.
 
   Admit it. Each and every one of you reading this right now have at least one action figure or stuffed animal you refuse to throw away even at the risk of alienating your significant other.
 
   20 percent of you have entire rooms dedicated to the memories of your childhood. The morale here? Andy was a fool to give away that stuff. Sure, none of them were in mint condition, and he took them out of their boxes, but that little girl is going to slobber all over a Mr. Potato Head he could have gotten 50 bucks for on EBay.
 
 
 
 
Agent Smith- The Matrix “I hate this place”
 
 
   Once again another coolly detached villain is filled with his version of justified rage. We (the human race) he argues, are virus - an anomaly on our own planet, and it’s hard to argue with him. He’s declassified us as mammals, since all other mammals know their place, but humans spread out, destroy, breed and destroy again.
 
   Sure Agent Smith is a bit of an uptight D-bag, but the guy does make some valid points.
 
Watch the video here.
 
 
Charlton Heston Beginning of the Planet of the Apes
 
   No list of genre monologues would be complete without a mention from the Grand Daddy of the modern day big-budget sci-fi epic. Taking long confident drags on his stogie, showing off his classic old Hollywood profile, Charlton Heston, from the comfort of deep space, years removed from the world he knew and was disappointed in, ponders if man still makes war against his brother and keeps his neighbors children starving?
 
   Sure, it’s easy to forget this moment in the film. It happens right at the beginning, and there’s neither a damned nor dirty ape to be seen for light years; but this singular monologue helped Hollywood realize they could have big names deliver meaty dialogue in a movie filled with extras in gorilla masks and the public will eat it up, buy their merchandise and line up for the sequels.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Joe Oesterle is an author, cartoonist, designer, photographer and animator. Please check out his latest efforts on his site. He promises to do the same for you when asked. Seriously, the guy freelances. What the hell else is he going to do with his day anyway?

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COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

Showing items 1 - 10 of 54
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DangermouseZilla 8/19/2010 1:10:40 AM

I wondered which would be the final monologue on the list - you couldn't have picked a better one. A brilliant moment from one of my all-time favourite films.

Chopsaki 8/19/2010 1:46:38 AM

Aunt May really? I guess it was a decent monologue but top 10 greatest? Really? I still haven't seen Toy Story 3 so I can't pass judgement on that one, but I'd like to. I do love Jaws, Seven & the Joker.

Samuel L. Jackson, Pulp Fiction

Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry

Mel Gibson, Braveheart

JarrodSarafin 8/19/2010 3:23:16 AM

Going by instinct Chopsake, I'd say Joe didn't put up Samuel's Ezekial speech because it was the most obvious choice. Any number of Quentin Tarantino-written and Al Pacino-led speeches are the most obvious...and Joe avoided those.

In which I applaud him for that.

Robert Shaw's Jaws one gets me everytime. I'd rank that one #1....I'm a nocturnal animal and the numerous Encore channels has Spielberg's sharky classic playing all the time so I'll admit to being addicted to it. I don't care if I need to catch up to True Blood, Entourage, Hung, Pillars of the Earth, Weeds, etc....If I see that Jaws is on, I HAVE to switch to that channel to see whether Shaw is about to say his famous lines.

Naturally, if I'm addicted to those lines so much, I'd rank it #1...

Here's the point where I say what my #2 is...

And that's my issue. It's Jackson's Pulp speech, or Walken's True Romance Speech...or Harrelson's Born Killers prison speech...or Waltz' Basterds....Good God, it's any number of Tarantino's speeches.

So Pacino and Tarantino could lead the whole feature piece for me here or any number of Maniacs. I guess that's why I applaud Joe here...He didn't go with the obvious ones yet he captured classics like Shaw's famed lines from Jaws.

marcd30319 8/19/2010 3:53:34 AM

Great list and deserving examples. 

Please note that the USS Indianapolis monologue in Jaws was written by John Milius, the film director-writer who happens to be a long-time friend of Steven Spielberg.  Ditto Rod Serling for supply Charlton Heston with his opening monologue for the original Planet of the Apes. 

Finally, being the above in mind, it would be nice to acknowledge the contribution of the writers who cam up with this dialogue.  Film speech do not come out of thin air; they come from a screenwriting doing his craft.

3rdSBS6 8/19/2010 4:00:08 AM

I would have to agree with Chopsaki on this one...Decent idea for a list but weak in content. Much time and thought could be spent on this list to really make it a great one, however, its all subjective any way.

fatpantz 8/19/2010 4:03:21 AM

I have always stood by my choice of Dennis Hopper & Christopher Walkin's scene in True Romance is still, to this day, my favorite scene in any film.  I do understand what you are saying tho Jarod and fully agree.

Good article Joe!

batman40 8/19/2010 4:28:26 AM

Good list.  I still love Bill Pullman's rousing 4th of July speech in the movie " Independence Day."   Maybe it'll be on Great Genre Monologues List Part 2.

makabriel 8/19/2010 4:39:46 AM

 Sorry, none of Tarantino's would count.  All of his movies are monologues...

 

djcgmcse 8/19/2010 5:09:49 AM

Good list for sure.  I agree with you Jarod it'd be hard to pick the best monologue from a Tarantino film, but I would have loved to see a Pacino speech on the list.. although I wouldn't consider his best ones to be Genre anyway.

SarcasticCaveman 8/19/2010 5:59:53 AM

"First Contact" was definitely my favorite of the Next Generation movies, but how the hell does Ricardo Montalban from "Wrath of Khan" get left off of this list?

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