Film isn't just a visual medium
it's a verbal one too and nowhere is the brilliance of a good script
easier to hear than in the mouths of the characters bickering and bantering,
yelling and yapping, probing and pontificating these are our picks for
the best dialogue of all time. (Music) Kicking us off at #10, we're looking
at dialogue that was brilliant in its specificity and how it evoked a certain
place or time or sense of character by choosing words, pacing, structure,
cadence that was specifically evocative. This is dialogue from 'The Departed'. - Well, laudy (Bleep) dah. - 'On the Waterfront'. - A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville. - And 'Snatch'. - (Inaudible) with horses, you know. - 'My Cousin Vinny'. - Two youths. - 'Juno'.
- Honest to blog. - 'True Grit'. - (Inaudible)
- And 'The Big Lebowski'. - I'm the dude man. - However, for our number 10 pick we think
it's pretty damn hard to beat 'Hunger'. - I just won't go in. - Grand. - Filthy habit, disgusting. - Aye, awful. Lovely though. - Aye, praise the Lord. - We're not actually Irish so
this could be about as accurate as a Lucky Charms commercial, but goddamnit
if it doesn't sound bang on to us. And what's more important even than
its accuracy is how it uses it. How it dresses a most urgent of
conflicts in the most eloquent and specific of clothing. There's a certain musicality
to the sound of it. A rhythmic patter to what amounts to
a negotiation for a group of mens' lives. It transports you to a place in a time
where terrible decisions had to be made and illustrates it with
the most beautiful of language. (Sound)
- Next we're considering wordplay, verbal trickery, linguistic aerobics. The famous Who's on First routine
is the classic benchmark here. - Well, then who's playing first? - Yes.
- I mean the fellow's name on first base. - Who?
- But we also have to show some love for 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'. - A second copy of the second will. - Lucky Number Slevin'. - I never thought you were him,
I thought he was you. - And our Number 9 pick,
'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern' Are Dead. - A man talking sense
to himself is no matter than a man talking
nonsense not to himself. - Or just is mad. - Or just is mad. - And he does both,.
- So there you are. - Stark raving insane. - 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'
is Tom Stoppard's absurdist spinoff of Shakespeare's Hamlet following two of its
most interesting minor characters as they grapple with various existential dilemmas,
attempting to riddle their way through an inherently non sensical world in one
extended conversation the whole film long. So the turn of a phrase is tantamount
to the entirety of the drama. It is even physicalized in a verbal
tennis match as they match wits instead of swings. The word play is the plot. They seemingly live and die by their
language and it puts an urgency behind their conversation that is
both desperately hilarious and completely gripping. Of course, sometimes, it's not the words. So much is having relate
to the meaning underneath. We're talking subtext. Dalogue that takes the scenic route,
that zigs when the intention zags, that works to conceal or contain or
contrast the underlying truth. It's done wonderful all
over 'Double Indemnity'. - I wonder if you wonder. - 'The Third Man'
- You oughta leave this thing alone. - And famously in 'The Godfather.'
- I'm going to make him
an offer he can't refuse. - But come on, people, we'd have to be kidding ourselves
to not go Tarantino's way. And while he's written Cirque du Soleil
level verbal contortion all the way from Reservoir Dogs. - I'll bet you're a big Lee Marvin fan,
aren't you? - To 'Hateful Eight'. - Did I know him? Yep. (Laugh) Yeah, I knew him. - There's nothing that's had quite
the subtextual impact as 'Pulp Fiction'. - Looks like me and
Vincent caught you boys at breakfast. Sorry about that. - What you having? - Hamburgers.
- Hamburgers. The cornerstone of any
nutritious breakfast. - What kind of hamburgers? Cheeseburgers. - No, no, no, no. Where'd you get them? - Tarantino is the master of subtext,
and it's our favorite kind. He's not just writing subtext in that
awful literary way where both people are talking in a mutually thinly veiled
metaphor that's basically just a code. No, in Pulp Fiction,
they talk about hamburger. They talk about coffee. They talk about tomatoes, and
pot bellies, and oral sex, and the Bible. They talk about anything and everything that has nothing to
do with what's really going on. Because what they're really doing is
threatening and apologizing, and flirting, and falling in love, and
sparring, and opening up. And the results speak for themselves. Next up, we're looking at
the all-time best verbal conflict. Dialog that attacks and
digs and dodges and parries and goes straight for the heart. Words as warfare. Conversation as combat. Think 'The Master.'
- "Who's (Inaudible) you except for me?" - Or 'The Lion in Winter'. - You can expire. - You first, old man. - Or 'Doubt'. - You have taken vows. - Or 'Glengarry Glen Ross'. - What is this courtesy class? - You bet your ass it's all
over 'The Social Network' but for our number seven pick our favorite
of Sorkin's psychological sadism belongs to Steve Jobs. - We're there. - No, it's gotta a one and
six change of working. - God damn it. - Well, we're not a pit crew at Daytona,
this can't be fixed in seconds. - You didn't have seconds. You had three weeks. The universe was created
in a third of that time. - Well, someday you'll have
to tell us how you did it. - Love it or hate it, Sorkin's
writing is something to marvel at. And nowhere is it more talky, more play-like, more reliant on
what characters say than here. The conflict bubbles so
turbulently just below the surface. Always swirling around and constantly
being dredged up by Jobs himself who flies about like
a conversational Juggernaut. Arguing and threatening and bludgeoning the people around him into
the shape of the world as he envisions it. Sorkin's dialog stages a war on many
fronts while always connecting it to Jobs essential trust. For a result that is a frenzied
whirl of a character desperately clawing about in a fight for
his own self worth. On the other hand, the flip side of this
kind of linguistic aggression takes us to the calmer world of
dialogue story telling. Where the pleasure lies not in
the conflict, but in the honest and vulnerability of humans sharing
their personal narratives. It's 'The Big Chill'. - Wise up folks,
we're all alone out there. - And 'Magnolia'. - The past is not through with us. - 'The End of Tour'. - I'm sure that I still have
those same parts in me. - And,' Coffee and Cigarettes'. - I know a guy, freezes coffee. - But for our number six, there can be
none other than 'My Dinner with Andre'. - See, I've seen a lot of death
in the last few years, Wally. And there's one thing that's for
sure about death. You do it alone, you see? That seems quite certain, you see? That I've seen. But the people around
your bed mean nothing. Your reviews mean nothing. Whatever it is, you do it alone. And so the question is when
I get on my death bed, what kind of a person am I gonna be? And I'm just very dubious about
the kind of person who would've lived his life those last few
years the way I did. - 'My Dinner with Andre' is quite
literally just a conversation. There is no plot, no external conflict,
no ticking clock. Just two men with various disagreements,
as men have, talking them through. There is no character arc or grand
reconciliation or great big epiphany. The film is just talk, and
yet It's utterly fascinating. Written by the two actors distilled from
months worth of their actual conversation. It is nothing more than two men gradually,
and articulately revealing their inner selves. At number five,
we wanna reserve a spot for dialogue that manages to feel
as true to life as possible. And sure it'll never be realistic because
have you listened to real people talk, its awful. But with careful balance and
compromise, an imperfection, a talented scribe can achieve a subtle
naturalism worthy of these list. 'Primer' is an excellent example of this. - (Crosstalk)
- As is 'End of Watch'. - Shit, dude. - The entire 'Before' trilogy. - (Crosstalk)
- Most mumblecore. - (Sound)
- And even 'Superbad', in parts. - Yeah. - And Kenneth Lonergan is hot as hell
right now with 'Manchester by the Sea' but we wanna turn new Lonerganians on to
an older lesser known gem of his that's flushed with this kind of dialog,
'You Can Count on Me'. - So how are you? - I'm fine Terry. - So, how's Rudy. - We're fine Terry. How are you? Yeah. - The magic of 'You Can Count On Me'
is that so much happens in the dialogue without resorting to the extraordinary,
the unbelievable or the melodramatic. It is subtext but a tamer sort. Deep familial conflicts of love and
responsibility and respect and dependability lie underneath the everyday
topics of plumbers and car rides and the quotidian how are you? On the far opposite end of
the naturalism spectrum, we end up with the hyper stylized,
uber suave, quick wit of banter. Where everyone always seems to
know the exact right thing to say. David Mamet is sharp as a tack
in 'Heist' and 'House of Games'. - Let's talk turkey, pal. - Woody Allen's is quick and
frenetic in 'Annie Hall' and 'Manhattan'. - People should mate for life,
like pigeons or Catholics. - And Scott Frank's take on Elmore Leonard
is never better than in 'Get Shorty'. - I don't say any more than I have to,
if that. - But for our fourth and last slot, we're going with Shane Black,
who was iconic in 'Lethal Weapon'. - That's a real badge, I'm a real cop and
this is a real (Inaudible) gun. - Hilarious in 'The Nice Guys'. - Excuse me. I'm carrying a dead body and
I have his schwanz in my face. So I'm sorry I'm not Baryshnikov. - You can't even say Baryshnikov. - But never better than
in 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'. - I want you to picture
a bullet inside your head. Can you do that for me? - Fuck you (Sound)
- Anyway, that's ambiguous. - Ambiguous? No, I don't think so. - No, I think he means that when you
say picture it inside your head, okay? It that a bullet will be inside your head,
or picture it in your head? Like form an image. - Okay, can you shut up? - No, he's got a point.
- Where Sorkin's characters always seem in danger of destroying each
other with their words. Shane Black's are just slap boxing. In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
is him at his quippiest, throwing the most hilarious of
shade in the cleverest of ways. It's verbal slapstick. Characters tripping over their own
words in an attempt to prove themselves smarter than each other. Of course,
that last slot was all Hollywood. And while you may have noticed by
now that we've limited this list to English language films only, because we
didn't feel properly qualified to evaluate dialogue in languages we couldn't speak,
English isn't only the purview of America. The UK has their own special
kind of banter, too. You can find it 'Lock,
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'. - That boy doesn't know his
arsehole from his ear-hole. - Trainspotting. - They're just wankers. - Withnail and I. - They must be delighted with your career. - And 'Hot Fuzz'. But to our ears there's one modern
master who stands above them all, Martin McDonagh. And while 'Seven Psychopaths' is
a fantastic second effort our hearts still belong to 'In Bruges'. - Harry let's face it,
and I'm not being funny, I mean no disrespect
- But you're a (Bleep). You're a (Bleep) now. You've always been a (Bleep) and
the only thing that's going to change is, you're going to become
an even bigger (Bleep). Maybe have some more (Bleep) kids. - Leave my kids (Bleep) out of it. What have they done? You (Bleep) retract that bit
about my (Bleep) (Bleep) kids. - I retract that bit about
your (Bleep) (Bleep) kids. - You insulted my (Bleep) kids
That's going overboard, mate. - I retracted it, didn't I? - While Martin McDonagh only has
two features films to his name, he's an accomplished
playwright of the funniest, darkest theater you'll ever read. We personally recommend 'The
Pillowman' if you ever get a chance for the most hilarious take on child murder
you'll ever hate yourself for laughing at. And some of that sneaks over into 'In
Bruges', too, because McDonagh goes dark, he takes his comedy to
the blackest of places. And everyone in' Bruges' should be
despicable for what they've done, and for what they'll
undoubtedly continue to do. And yet, you love them for
their cleverness, their humanness, and their sense of the absurd. But, banter isn't a modern invention. And we want to take these last two
slots to pay homage to its origins. And in America, that means your noirs. - What is your nationality? I'm a drunkard. - And your screwball comedies. - Here, you better give me a receipt. - I'll give you a scar. - Your Houston. - I mean you paid us more than if
you'd been telling us the truth and enough more to make it all right. - Your Wilder. - I'll say. - Your Sturges. - You find him, I'll push him. - Your Lubitsch. - Must you flirt? - I don't have to, but I find it natural. - Your Hawks. - How do you like your brandy, sir? - And a glass. - However, we're gonna take it back one
step further to some of the original kings of banter. The Marx Brothers and their brilliant
back and forth of "Horse Feathers'. - Who are you? - I'm fine, thanks. Who are you? - I'm fine too. - 'Animal Crackers'. - You know conductor Hennessey, don't you? - Inspector. - Inspector yourself. - And our number two pick, 'Duck Soup'. - Not that I care, but
where is your husband? - Why, he's dead. - I bet he's just using that as an excuse. - I was with him till the very end. - No wonder he passed away. - I held him in my arms and kissed him. - I seem, then it was murder. Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first. - While the screenplay was written by
a handful of scribes over a handful of years, the mouthful of dialog is
distinctively brothers Marxist. In an act refined over decades from
vaudeville, to broadway, to the screen, the Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Zeppo combination was honed into one of
the best comedy formulas of all time. The type of banter they sling,
rapid fire and nonstop is specific to the wild smorgasbord of
characters the brothers had created. And 'Duck Soup' is probably the best
incarnation of their particular brand of madness and by God does it sing. Finally for our number 1, we're tracing
British's banter's origins to another place and it's not to Mony Python. - I'm your king. - Well I didn't vote for you. - Or James Bond. - That's a Smith and Wesson. Well, you've had your six. - Or 'Kind Heats and Coronets.'
- Said he wanted to improve his mind. - He has room to do so. - No, it comes from before all that,
way before all that. Our top scribe of our top slot
goes to a young man by the name of Bill who wrote some of the prettiest
dialogue you ever did see. He did it in 'Romeo and Juliet.'
- Why then is my pump well - (Sound)
- He did it in - 'Julius Caesar'. - He's a tried and valiant soldier. - So is by horse, Octavius. - And he did it in our top pick, 'Hamlet'
- Guildenstern, Rosencrantz? Good lads, how do you do both? - As the indifferent
children of the Earth. - Happy in that we are not over happy on
fortune's cap we are not the very button. - Nor the soles of her shoes. - Neither my lord. - By then you live about her waist,
or in the middle of her favor. They a private suite. - In the secret parts of fortune. Most true.
She is a stumpet, what news? - Are we cheating because this dialogue
was originally written for the stage? Sure, maybe. But to separate the origins of cinema
dialogue from theatre is disingenuine, and likely impossible. And the Bard is simply the goat,
and Hamlet is even better. If you haven't given him a shot since
high school, do yourself a favor and try. Try him on film. His dialogue is so
much more fun in the hands of and mouth of a smart actor
than it is on the page. They can reveal the humor, the wit,
the musicality, the subtext, the emotion, the conflict,
the humanity beneath it all. And it hardly gets better
than Kenneth Branagh. There's nothing on this list that
Shakespeare didn't do better and first, which is why we think this is
the best dialog of all time. So what do you think? Disagree with some of our picks? Did we leave out any of
your favorite dialog? Think my voice sounds sexy and wanna take
me out for a night of passionate romance? Is anyone still actually listening? God, I hope not. Let us know in the comments below and
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