In Praise of Brilliant Voiceover

Comments · 574

• KE

  @kell-n5d · 3 months ago · pinned

  Makes me want to watch all the movies mentioned that I haven't seen!

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• AD

  @Advent3546 · 3 months ago

  I mean, Blade Runner's voice over sounds like Ford is not even trying. If he went for it like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now it might have been something.

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• MU

  @muckduck3 · 3 months ago

  Fight club is an excellent use of vo. It strengthens the theme of the mc's experience being "in his head"

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• VG

  @VGeek42 · 3 months ago

  Worth noting that Ford himself was against any voiceover/narration in the film. He even worked with Ridley Scott and the writers/producers to rework all the written narration into the scenes, but Warner Bros rejected the cut and told them to put the voiceover back in. Kinda speaks to the disconnect between production houses and the artists themselves.

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• AL

  @albegian · 3 months ago (edited)

  I love when Wes Anderson does voice overs by making the narrator stand in front of the camera and monologue it out loud, as if you were watching a theatre play. And in some cases like the Henry Sugar short the characters themselves become the "voiceover" narrators of their own scenes. Simply amazing

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• PE

  @PepeSilvia20 · 3 months ago

  Morgan Freenman in Shawshank Redemption, Edward Norton in Fight Club and Ray Liotta in Goodfellas are definitely some of the most iconic voice-overs in film, add Sunset Blvd too if we look at classic films.

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• JO

  @johns123 · 3 months ago

  The mistake people make is that they think film is a visual medium, when it's actually an audiovisual medium. While a film should be understandable completely through the visuals, the audio side of the equation should add new dimensions to the visuals

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• JA

  @jaxmusicmixes2550 · 3 months ago

  American Psycho and A Christmas Story have pretty memorable voiceovers as well. Both of them fit the characters we see on screen well, but in very different ways.

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• PE

  @PepeSilvia20 · 3 months ago

  Voice over could also be used effectively for humor. Ron Howard as the narrator in Arrested Development is the best example. <br><br>That show popularized the whole character saying something and the Narrator confirming the opposite joke. Like:<br><br>&quot;Im sure everything will go just fine.&quot;<br><br>Narrator: &quot;it didn&apos;t&quot;

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• RE

  @recreationaldrama · 3 months ago

  Clueless is a great example of well-used voiceover and it uses a generous amount of it. Without being able to be in her head, the main character of Cher would come off entirely different and much more unlikeable. I hate that voiceover continues to be so frowned upon

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• MR

  @mrtspence · 3 months ago

  Harrison Ford intentionally and hilariously tanking that track for BladeRunner probably saved us from hundreds of mediocre voiceovers over the decades. There were probably a bunch of screenwriters, directors, and the suits hovering over their shoulders that heard it, saw the movie bomb critically and financially, and learned the right lesson. He did the entire medium a great service.

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• PI

  @pichael2405 · 3 months ago

  Imagine trying to understand LoTR for the first time without Cate Blanchett&apos;s VO at the beginning of Fellowship, totally needed &amp; a great way to set the tone.

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