Best Movie Monologues ?

[Cato]

I read an article which referred to the scene in Jaws , where Robert Shaw tells the story of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and its dreadful fate near the end of WW II, as one of the greatest monologues in movie history.

So that set me to thinking about other great movie monologues.  Here are some I thought of:

Orson Welles: The Third Man has two short monologues, one where his character muses on war vs, peace and uses Renaissance Florence in contrast to Switzerland, and the commentary about the "dots" (i.e. people) below and how insignificant they are.

Joseph Cotten: Shadow of a Doubt has a chilling scene where his character delivers a speech at dinner against rich, "silly women."

Burl Ives: The Big Country shows his character invading a dinner party given by his enemy (Charles Bickford).  He then delivers a monologue about how his enemy has lorded it over him and his family for the last time.

Stephen Boyd: Ben-Hur.  He plays a Roman official and in a short monologue explains to Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) why Rome is the future.

Peter Lorre: M.  His character is put on trial (by criminals) and delivers an incredible explanation of his compulsion for child murder.  The rebuttal by the crime boss (Gustaf Gruendgens) is also not to be missed!

Robert Armstrong: King Kong.  Not quite a monologue at first, his character leads Ann Darrow ( Fay Wray ) through a screen test, where he describes a scene of terror to her. "...scream for your life!!!"

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/219263/King-Kong-Movie-Clip-Beauty-And-Beast.html

Marlon Brando: On the Waterfront.  The famous "I could 'a' been a contender" monologue.

Clark Gable: It Happened One Night has a scene where Gable's character wistfully talks about taking the love of his life to a deserted Pacific island.

Gregory Peck: Moby Dick.  Ahab delivers a monologue about life and death and God, while Starbuck ( Leo Genn )hesitantly debates assassinating him.

And speaking of that movie...Orson Welles has a cameo as a preacher who delivers a sermon about whales, while Ishmael ( Richard Basehart ) listens intently.

https://www.youtube.com/v/qb-g4O2QDZg

Your favorites are welcome!

[TheGSMoeller]

Fantastic thread idea, Cato!
Let me go sit in front of my DVD/BD collection and begin my list...

[vandermolen]

'Appointment in Samarra' as recounted by Boris Karloff in the film 'Targets' (1968) comes to mind.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=88wMrLGch9w

Yes, Robert Shaw's one in 'Jaws' is very memorable.

[Brian]

Anton Welbrook's "this, sir, is the truth" speech when fleeing to England in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

The blind priest (Gene Hackman) keeping up conversation with the mute monster in Young Frankenstein - and the monster (Peter Boyle) finally getting a chance to speak.

[bhodges]

Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice. Can't single out a specific scene, because there are a few, IIRC. All are made even more powerful by Alan J. Pakula's unflinching, straight-on camera shots.

--Bruce

[TheGSMoeller]

One that comes to mind immediately is Tommy Lee Jones at the end of No Country For Old Men.

[Draško]

I've seen things ... Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner

I have of late ... Hamlet monologue by Richard E Grant in Whitnail and I

Choose Life. Choose a job. ... Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting

[drogulus]

     Only one film has been made on the (heh!) unfilmable subject of pragmatism, Moneyball.  I don't know how the film got made, maybe something about Brad Pitt.

     Peter Brand: It's about getting things down to one number. Using stats to reread them, we'll find the value of players that nobody else can see. People are over looked for a variety of biased reasons and perceived flaws. Age, appearance, personality. Bill James and mathematics cuts straight through that. Billy, of the twenty thousand knowable players for us to consider, I believe that there is a championship team of twenty five people that we can afford. Because everyone else in baseball under values them. Like an island of misfit toys.

    It came from Charles Sanders Peirce:

Consider what effects that might conceivably have practical bearings you conceive the objects of your conception to have. Then, your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object.

     It came to baseball from Bill James (no relation ):

"The search for understanding, wherever it roams, is a search for better simplifications. Simplifications which explain more and distort less... All human understanding is based on simplifications of more complex realities."

     

[Karl Henning]

I seem to remember Bogart losing it in The Caine Mutiny.

http://www.youtube.com/v/95QqBXLG2I

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

The opening sequence of My Dinner with Andre. The rest of the film was rubbish, as I recall. Perhaps it is considered a voice-over rather than a monologue.

[NikF]

A few that come to mind.

Pickup on South Street directed by Samuel Fuller - Thelma Ritter/Fancy Funeral

A Free Soul directed by Clarence Brown - Lionel Barrymore/Listen with your heart

Persona directed by Ingmar Bergman - Bibi Anderson/Sex on the beach

[vandermolen]

Also Atticus Finch's final summing up to the jury in 'To Kill a Mockinbird' delivered by Gregory Peck.

Clarence the Angel's speech to George Bailey in the cemetery in 'It's A Wonderful Life'.

[Sergeant Rock]

Woody Allen's monologue at the end of Love and Death is a favorite. Starts at 2:34 in this clip but the monologues of the women preceding this are great too (on love and suffering).

https://www.youtube.com/v/4huaX0UAFGM


Sarge

[motoboy]

George C. Scott's "Carp Monologue" from "The Exorcist III" is my favorite. Poor Jack Lemmon couldn't keep a straight face.

[Sergeant Rock]

I've seen things ... Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner

One of my favorites too. Very moving.

Sarge

[Ken B]

Anton Welbrook's "this, sir, is the truth" speech when fleeing to England in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

The blind priest (Gene Hackman) keeping up conversation with the mute monster in Young Frankenstein - and the monster (Peter Boyle) finally getting a chance to speak.

The Walbrook is my choice. What a performance, sitting still on a stool.

[GioCar]

Among those not yet mentioned:

Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now

Woody Allen in Manhattan

Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas

[motoboy]

Elwood from "Blues Brothers 2K":
You may go if you wish. But remember this: walk away now and you walk away from your crafts, your skills, your vocations; leaving the next generation with nothing but recycled, digitally-sampled techno-grooves, quasi-synth rhythms, pseudo-songs of violence-laden gangsta-rap, acid pop, and simpering, saccharine, soulless slush. Depart now and you forever separate yourselves from the vital American legacies of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Memphis Slim, Blind Boy Fuller, Louie Jordon, Little Walter, Big Walter, Sonnyboy Williamson I and II, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Elvis Presley, Lieber and Stoller, and Robert K. Weiss.Turn your backs now and you snuff out the fragile candles of Blues, R&B and Soul, and when those flames flicker and expire, the light of the world is extinguished because the music which has moved mankind through seven decades leading to the millennium will whither and die on the vine of abandonment and neglect.

[Cato]

Among those not yet mentioned:

Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now

Woody Allen in Manhattan

Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas

Harry Dean Stanton!  Yes!  And a most unusual movie!

Many thanks to all for the suggestions! 

Elwood from "Blues Brothers 2K":
You may go if you wish. But remember this: ...the light of the world is extinguished because the music which has moved mankind through seven decades leading to the millennium will wither and die on the vine of abandonment and neglect.

I assume "Adele" would be a symptom of the "abandonment and neglect" ?   

[Alek Hidell]

Ned Beatty in Network:

https://www.youtube.com/v/yuBe93FMiJc