Best Movie Monologues ?

[Cato]

Ned Beatty in Network:

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

Network has turned out to be prescient in many ways, even if it did simply follow some paths beginning to appear in news shows back then and exaggerate them.  The unhinged speech by the Peter Finch character was mentioned above: this is another good choice!

Anton Walbrook in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp:

https://www.youtube.com/v/hcZ6fnRLDLU

[North Star]

A few suggestions here 
https://www.youtube.com/v/h0rsTSaEx3M

[Cato]

A few suggestions here 
https://www.youtube.com/v/h0rsTSaEx3M

I typed in "Best Movie Monologues Ever" and got all kinds of suggestions, most of them from the last 20 years or so, and good number from movies I had not seen, because they looked to be of no interest.

Some were highly debatable e.g. The Blair Witch Project    I was actually paid to watch it (LONG story) and thought everything in it was laughable: yes, I know, $100,000,000 cannot be wrong.  Still...

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

Speaking of Humphrey Bogart ...

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

We have the two scenes in Casablanca, the "Play it, Sam" (he does not use the word "again") scene, and the good-by scene at the airport with Ingrid Bergman.

Watch him "direct" a scene of strangulation...from In a Lonely Place :

https://www.youtube.com/v/9EitK0vaEWU

[JBS]

Jack  Nicholson in the courtroom scene in A Few Good Men

[North Star]

Jack  Nicholson in the courtroom scene in A Few Good Men

The no. 1 pick on the video I posted:

Caddyshack (1980)
Bill Murray's purportedly 100% improvised speech about his character meeting the Dalai "Laama" is one of the many high points of the film.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Voice over can be pretty egregious, but Morgan Freeman's delivery of Red's final thoughts of the film really brings the whole thing together.

TIE: The Devil's Advocate (1997) & Cape Fear (1991)
Two great performances where two villains are literally shouting at the heavens.

Persona (1996)
Ingmar Berman's take on the declaration-of-love monologue really takes the monologue to another level.

Good Will Hunting (1997)
Robin Williams' delivers a speech that breaks down the audience - and Will's - guard, and changes the dynamic of the two characters' relationships.

Rocky Balboa (2006)
A father-son talk that caps of a series full of Rocky wrestling with heartbreak, disappointment, and everything else life could throw at him, we could pick no better monologue to represent the "inspirational" speech trope.

Network (1976)
We'd be mad as hell if we'd left this speech off our list.

Jaws (1975)
Quint's story of how he survived a shipwreck as his crewmates were slowly picked off by sharks succeeds in creating a truly chilling mood.

The Great Dictator (1940)
A bold condemnation of fascism in an era when few were so bold, this movie would not be the same without Shultz's speech.

A Few Good Men (1992)
There may be no greater setting in movies for a good speech than a court of law, and Jack Nicholson's speech in A Few Good Men is simply perfection of the art form.

[Ken B]

Mark Antony in Julius Caesar.

[Cato]

Mark Antony in Julius Caesar.

Back when Marlon Brando knew how to act:

https://www.youtube.com/v/7X9C55TkUP8

Another candidate: Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Braveheart:

https://www.youtube.com/v/h2vW-rr9ibE

[JBS]

When the screenwriter is Shakespeare, Olivier can claim a spot with Henry V.

Another candidate: Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility, when she reveals her love for Edward to her sister.

[Cato]

When the screenwriter is Shakespeare, Olivier can claim a spot with Henry V.

Now there is a debate: Olivier vs. Branagh in Henry V !

[Karl Henning]

Watch him "direct" a scene of strangulation...from In a Lonely Place :

https://www.youtube.com/v/9EitK0vaEWU

Indeed!

[Cato]

Concerning Humphrey Bogart...

We have the two scenes in Casablanca, the "Play it, Sam" (he does not use the word "again") scene, and the good-by scene at the airport with Ingrid Bergman.

Watch him "direct" a scene of strangulation...from In a Lonely Place :

https://www.youtube.com/v/9EitK0vaEWU

Indeed!

Excellent movie!

Another candidate has come to mind: Henry Fonda in...

https://www.youtube.com/v/i2JR3FmvVAw

and also...

https://www.youtube.com/v/DkVlth5_Fz0

[Cato]

For some reason one of my favorite movie monologues popped back into my head today...from Doctor Zhivago.

It is delivered with clenched-teeth intensity by Rod Steiger through the character of Komarovsky.  I cannot find a clip of it on YouTube, but IMDB has the text:  he is speaking at first about the young radical (Tom Courtenay) who will later turn into the murderous Communist Strelnikov. 

There are two kinds of men and only two. And that young man is one kind. He is high-minded. He is pure. He's the kind of man the world pretends to look up to, and in fact despises. He is the kind of man who breeds unhappiness, particularly in women. Do you understand?   I think you do. There's another kind. Not high-minded, not pure, but alive. Now, that your tastes at this time should incline towards the juvenile is understandable; but for you to marry that boy would be a disaster. Because there are also two kinds of women. There are two kinds of women and you, as we well know, are not the first kind. You, my dear, are a slut.

You have to see the movie to hear the great way that Steiger delivers the phrase "....and in fact despises."

[bwv 1080]

Rip Burt
https://www.youtube.com/v/5zzYEi38mhU
[/quote]

[mc ukrneal]

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

EDIT: Good Will Hunting has some good ones too...

[SimonNZ]

The Sweet Hereafter

https://www.youtube.com/v/8Wjy1mpt_Gg

[geralmar]

It might not qualify as a monologue; but I enjoy Richard Basehart's doomsday rant in The Satan Bug (1965).

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/218427/Satan-Bug-The-Movie-Clip-The-Possibilities.html

[Cato]

It might not qualify as a monologue; but I enjoy Richard Basehart's doomsday rant in The Satan Bug (1965).

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/218427/Satan-Bug-The-Movie-Clip-The-Possibilities.html

One of his best performances is in an under-appreciated movie (about Korean-War-POW's) called Time Limit, with Richard Widmark and Rip Torn (YES!).

The entire movie is available in seven 13-minute chunks on YouTube: if I posted the scene, it would spoil the entire movie.  The Basehart character makes a great, intense plea to a general of the Army at the end, but his monologue contains the essence of the plot.

Here is the beginning:

https://www.youtube.com/v/b5IjVwG4qZ4


Highly recommended!

[Omicron9]

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

You beat me to it, Sarge.  A long-time favorite here.  Not part of the monologue, but Diane Keaton's thinly-veiled attempt to hide her boredom at 0:30 is classic.

-09

[vandermolen]

For some reason one of my favorite movie monologues popped back into my head today...from Doctor Zhivago.

It is delivered with clenched-teeth intensity by Rod Steiger through the character of Komarovsky.  I cannot find a clip of it on YouTube, but IMDB has the text:  he is speaking at first about the young radical (Tom Courtenay) who will later turn into the murderous Communist Strelnikov. 

You have to see the movie to hear the great way that Steiger delivers the phrase "....and in fact despises."

That's a great extract Leo.

[Cato]

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.
\

A very determined and ominous phrase!  Gladiator is one of the better Roman epics.

That's a great extract Leo.

From Doctor Zhivago, yes!  This is a case where (I believe     ) the film is better than book.  I know people have disagreed with this idea, but I find that Zhivago's inner conflict is more profound in the movie, and is much less so in the book.

Anyway, Rod Steiger's performance - and his delivery of that opinion on men and women! - are both most excellent!