# Great movie/TV segments with little/no dialogue **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 2, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086 "2015-07-02T22:09:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/1 "2015-07-02T22:09:16Z")
What are some great movie or TV segments that use little or no spoken/written dialogue? What makes them work so well? As examples, the starting Carl & Ellie love segment in the movie Up or the starting introduction in Wall-E work quite well although I haven’t pinned down why. 2001 Space Odyssey’s first 25 minutes have no dialogue and the movie as a whole gets a honorable mention because out of 142 minutes, 88 don’t have dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/2 "2015-07-02T22:22:26Z")
[Niles ironing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mWiPaQ872c)! David Hyde Pierce’s performance really makes it. He’s great at the snarky/sarcastic responses, but his physical comedy is so spot on. I’ve never really been into physical comedy myself, but this is an amazing segment. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/3 "2015-07-02T22:30:36Z")
Not much into physical comedy myself but I get the impression that it would be more accurate to say that I’m not into _usual_ physical comedy. My question was sparked by this essay: [Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag) which basically makes the case that TV and movies’ major advantage as a medium lies in its ability to use visual motion and that many movies don’t leverage that much. Then I started remembering the segments I mentioned and how effective they were perhaps in large part because they didn’t rely on dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/4 "2015-07-02T22:37:25Z")
There’s the famous Buffy episode [Hush](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush_(Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer)), with almost 30 minutes free of spoken dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/5 "2015-07-02T23:10:59Z")
I’ve mentioned [The Thief (1952)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045230/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_86) before in similar contexts. Noteworthy is > [@](#): > > Interesting, but sometimes slow film about a nuclear physicist working in Washington DC who also spies for some unnamed foreign country. It does have a rather funny, patriotic/propagandist ending. It’s most interesting aspect is that it is filmed entirely without dialogue. Plenty of sound effects and every now and then you just _know_ somebody has to say something. But they don’t. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/6 "2015-07-02T23:15:23Z")
The 1955 French heist film [Rififi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rififi) is another well known example. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/7 "2015-07-02T23:21:25Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I’ve never really been into physical comedy myself, but this is an amazing segment. To add to what I said, do you like Shaun of the dead, The fuzz and The World’s End? The video I linked to shows how that uses visuals (including physical comedy) to good effect. British comedy is often a league above American comedy. E.g.: House worked largely because the lead actor was a British comedy actor. An American actor would likely have played if goofy (ala Adam Sandler or Robin Williams) or mean. Hugh Laurie had the right mix of deadpan, snark and layering that made the show funny. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/8 "2015-07-02T23:22:59Z")
In _Lawrence of Arabia_, the whole scene of Lawrence and his Bedou guide at the well, ending with the introduction of Sherif Ali on a camel. You can almost hear the heat shimmer in that scene. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/9 "2015-07-02T23:35:07Z")
The truel in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Amazingly tense, with only music and closeups. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/10 "2015-07-02T23:38:23Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > To add to what I said, do you like Shaun of the dead, The fuzz and The World’s End? The video I linked to shows how that uses visuals (including physical comedy) to good effect. > > British comedy is often a league above American comedy. E.g.: House worked largely because the lead actor was a British comedy actor. An American actor would likely have played if goofy (ala Adam Sandler or Robin Williams) or mean. Hugh Laurie had the right mix of deadpan, snark and layering that made the show funny. I did really like Shaun of the Dead. And yes, I do love British comedy. I loved Hugh Laurie on Blackadder in particular. The video you posted is very interesting. I’m watching it now–makes me think (and rethink) about a lot of what I see and take for granted! ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/11 "2015-07-02T23:49:02Z")
You might like his other videos. More of them seem to be available on Vimeo than Youtube so here’s the link: [Videos in "Every Frame a Painting" on Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/channels/everyframeapainting/videos/page:1/sort:preset) If you speak French, Karim Debbache does equally interesting (and funny) stuff about movie adaptations of video games. Even someone with interest in only cinema and none in video games would likely find them interesting: [http://www.jeuxvideo.com/chroniques-video-crossed.htm](http://www.jeuxvideo.com/chroniques-video-crossed.htm) or [Karim Debbache - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/KarimDebbache) ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/12 "2015-07-02T23:50:07Z")
I’ve hyped this film before, but I think [Locke](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2692904/?ref_=nv_sr_1) is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last few years. The combination of dialogue and lack of dialogue in between is, in my view, awesome. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/13 "2015-07-03T00:17:35Z")
There’s the [mirror scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKTT-sy0aLg)in **Duck Soup**. Silent films did this all the time, of course. Much of the railroad scenes in **The General,** for instance, don’t use title cards to tell the story. **The Last Laugh** is an entire movie told visually (there’s one title card at the end, but no dialog cards). ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/14 "2015-07-03T02:02:24Z")
Hula hoop scene from **The Hudsucker Proxy** [link](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng3XHPdexNM) ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/15 "2015-07-03T02:41:08Z")
The end of Witness was p good on the DVD commentary they say they wrote some dialogue for it but then just shot it without it because it’s better like that ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/16 "2015-07-03T03:52:21Z")
The _Twilight Zone_ episode “The Invaders” begins and ends with Serling’s narration of course. But otherwise only one of the characters speaks at the very end of the episode. Twenty minutes of Agnes Moorhead being silently terrified by tiny little aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/17 "2015-07-03T03:56:23Z")
The animated film _The Triplets of Belleville_ is mostly dialogue-free. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/18 "2015-07-03T04:05:51Z")
> [@zombywoof](#): > > The 1955 French heist film [Rififi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rififi) is another well known example. I came in to mention _Rififi_. A fantastic 28-minute safecracking scene that occupies a fourth of the movie without music or a single word. Supposedly, the Paris police briefly banned the film for fear it would serve as an instructional guide, but that may be just an Urban Legend. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/19 "2015-07-03T08:23:08Z")
For action, there’s the [cliffside](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ZisDHg6v0) scene from\*\* Last of the Mohicans\*\*. Director Michael Mann is very fond of long, dialog-free sequences in his movies. ---
**Author:** ![Sasori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Sasori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sasori)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086/20 "2015-07-03T08:29:26Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I came in to mention _Rififi_. A fantastic 28-minute safecracking scene that occupies a fourth of the movie without music or a single word. > > Supposedly, the Paris police briefly banned the film for fear it would serve as an instructional guide, but that may be just an Urban Legend. Not only in France, but also in Germany. They had to cut out a whopping seven minutes before it could be shown in the cinemas. Thankfully, it has been restored in all its glory. You will find an hommage to that silent scene in Jean-Pierre Melville’s _The Red Circle,_ where the burglary at the jeweller’s is also silent. Originally, Melville was supposed to film _Rififi,_ but gave Jules Dassin the script out of friendship, because Dassin was in a hard place after beeing denounced by Edward Dmytryk and kicked out of the US by the HCUA. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-tv-segments-with-little-no-dialogue/724086.md?page=2)