# Best talking movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862 "2010-06-29T00:04:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/21 "2010-06-29T16:04:30Z")
**Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead** If you don’t like movies which are largely people standing around talking, this is one to skip. But if you do, it has some wonderful stuff. Great writing which is too complex to be readily quotable, so you haven’t heard it done to death by wits. Funny in some parts, thought provoking in others, with a huge helping of WTF. Plus, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth! It also has the passage which is my sig on another board: “Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one. A moment. In childhood. When it first occurred to you that you don’t go on forever. Must have been shattering. Stamped into one’s memory. And yet, I can’t remember it.” ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/22 "2010-06-29T16:27:47Z")
I think **Sling Blade** qualifies and it is a great movie. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/23 "2010-06-29T20:19:15Z")
**Frost/Nixon** ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/24 "2010-06-29T20:50:51Z")
> [@Hallucinex](#): > > [The Man From Earth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/) Seconded. Not perfect, but quite a movie in a small space. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/25 "2010-06-29T20:53:18Z")
> [@kelly5078](#): > > I see your **A Man For All Seasons** , and raise you **The Lion in Winter**. Eleanor of Aquitaine gets all (well, most of) the best lines. Aww, I was going to say this. Two great movies. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/26 "2010-06-29T21:15:20Z")
His Girl Friday. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/27 "2010-06-29T21:17:29Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Mindwalk Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/28 "2010-06-29T21:59:50Z")
**Dr. Strangelove** , is almost all talking, really. Most of the action is just there to give the characters something to talk about. That’s probably even more true of **Fail Safe** , which covers much the same ground, but seriously. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/29 "2010-06-29T22:20:31Z")
_ **Inherit the Wind** _, about the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. The dialog, especially in the court scenes, is riveting. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/30 "2010-06-29T22:26:47Z")
**In The Company of Men** and **Your Friends and Neighbors**. I was going to recommend all of Neil LaBute’s movies, but I can’t in good conscious recommend the guy who wrote the screenplay and directed the remake of **The Wicker Man**. I _can_ recommend all of the aforementioned Whit Stillman’s movies - **Metropolitan** , **Barcelona** and **The Last Days Of Disco** , all worth seeing. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/31 "2010-06-30T11:13:35Z")
Another recommendation: [Night On Earth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102536/) by Jim Jarmusch, five episodes about nightly taxi rides in different cities. Other than driving and talking, nothing much happens, but it’s one of my favourite movies. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/32 "2010-06-30T12:21:24Z")
Richard Linklater movies (like _Before Sunrise_ and _Before Sunset_) tend to be pretty talky. See [Tape](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275719/) for another example (also featuring Ethan Hawke). Also check out Linklater’s first movie [Slacker](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102943/) (not to be confused with _Slacker **s** _). ---
**Author:** ![Promethea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/33 "2010-06-30T12:52:24Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There’s a whole group of directors who I have referred to as “the children of Woody Allen.” They are, more or less, a generation younger than Allen. They all write and direct movies that resemble Allen’s in the way that much of the action of the story takes place in the dialogue. The directors in this group are Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Whit Stillman, Nicole Holofcener, and Noah Baumbach. Another director who uses a lot of dialogue, but who is different enough that I don’t think of him as part of this group, is David Mamet. Wendell Wagner and Morbo mentioned Whit Stillman and that’s the first name that popped into my head on reading your OP. “The Last Days of Disco” is one I especially enjoyed, being a film set in the very early 1980s about a gang of young New Yorkers whose lives revolve one way or another with getting into what is plainly supposed to be Studio 54 near the end of its days. Faveourite quote from that film and one i’ve sometimes pondered: “You know that Shakespearean admonition, “To thine own self be true”? It’s premised on the idea that ‘thine own self’ is something pretty good, being true to which is commendable. But what if ‘thine own self’ is not so good? What if it’s pretty bad? Would it be better, in that case, \*not \*to be true to thine own self?.. See, that’s my situation.” ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/34 "2010-06-30T12:56:04Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Mindwalk Although I love the cast and I’m interested in the subject matter, I had a hard time with this movie. It didn’t seem like dialogue so much as people reading essays to each other. I wonder what Mamet would have done with it. ---
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/35 "2010-06-30T13:57:49Z")
I came in to say **The Man From Earth** , but remembered **The Breakfast Club** along the way. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/36 "2010-07-04T02:49:11Z")
Looks like I’m late to the party with my offering: The Man From Earth. The last thirty minutes make the movie. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862/38 "2010-08-02T04:41:12Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **a Man for All Seasons** – There’s lots of movement and pageantry, but it’s really all about the dialogue. And Thomas More gets all the best lines Exactly. Like AMFAS, _Inherit the Wind_, and _12 Angry Men_, many of the other mentions here have been based on successful stage plays, so you’d expect them to depend on dialog. I’ll throw in _Becket_ and _A Streetcar Named Desire_, as well as any movie of a Shakespeare play. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-talking-movies/544862.md?page=1)