Use Of Voice Over In Movies

P

Phil Maker

Well-known member
I believe most of the best movies of all time used voice over. Can we compile a list of movies that used this technique? Which ones did it sucessfully? Which ones didn't?

I'll start with a few of my favorites:

A Clockwork Orange
Good Fellas
Shawshank Redemption
Fight Club
Suicide Kings
 
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Voice-over is often mis-used, usually to fix holes or resolve plot points withut showing it, but I think it's an art in of itself, and when used properly, to really NARRATE the story, it can enhance the film and add another dimension and style to it. Here's some films I feel pull it off well:

Taxi Driver has great introspective voice-over.

Jules et Jim , Amelie, and Y Tu Mama Tambien all used third person omniscient voice-over narration (Amelie was oviously inspired heavily by Jules et Jim) to great effect.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had great source material from Hunter S. Thompson.

Nicholas Cage did pretty well narrating Raising Arizona and Adaptation.

The Virgin Suicides has great voice-over with the voice of Giovanni Ribbisi.

Can't forget Goodfellas and Casino.

Fight Club has anti-poetic anarchistic narration.

There's also City of God, A Clockwork Orange, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Oldoby.

The Royal Tenenbaums has really wimsical, omniscient book-style narration with the voice of Alec Baldwin.

I think I'll let someone else take over.
 
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I dunno why, but the Mosquito Coast just popped into my mind.

And even though it's television and not film, I always loved the voice over narration in The Wonder Years.
 
I know its already been mentioned but Fight Club and Fear and Loathing. I love the narration in both of these movies as they tend to weave in and out of the story. Most notably in Fear and Loathing. Voiceover cuts into Johnny talking on screen and then back out to voiceover. I loved the way that was done.
 
Wong Kar Wai's films often have V.O. they are great, introspective V.O's, and serve to character development- they are almost like music on his hipnotic imagery. "Fallen Angels", "Chungking Express" use great V.O. He starts to get away in "In The Mood For Love", but occasionaly there's still some great V.O.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" also uses V.O in an interesting, creative manner.

Anyone seen Hot Shots, part deux? They made an interesting spoof on introspective V.O, When Charlie Sheen crosses with Martin Sheen on the river...

EDIT- Sorry about repeating titles, here (thanks for the heads up, Weston)
 
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Both have been mentioned.....but I think the Sheen voiceover from Apocolypse Now is far superior to the one in Platoon.

For tv shows Ron Howard's arrested development VO is pretty great.
 
And apparently it's not even martin sheen, but actually his brother Joe Estevez.

From the all holy imdb:
It took Francis Ford Coppola nearly three years to edit the footage from Apocalypse Now. While working on his final edit, it became apparent to him that Martin Sheen would be needed to tape a number of additional narrative voice-overs. Coppola soon discovered that Sheen was busy and unable to perform these voice-overs. He then called in Sheen's brother Joe Estevez, whose voice sounds nearly identical to Sheen's, to perform the new narrative tracks. Estevez was also used as a stand-in/double for Sheen when Sheen suffered a heart-attack during the shoot in 1976. Estevez was not credited for his work as a stand-in or for his voice-over work.
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I still love the voice-over in Apocalypse Now though. It has more of an edge to it compared to the voice-over in Platoon, although I think they're both good.
 
bballplaya283 said:
I especially liked the VOs in Charlie Kaufman movies and The Shawshank Redemption.
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...and God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.

Great line from Adaptation. Comes right after a VO.
 
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