# Movies with the fewest spoken lines **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 1, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822 "2006-04-01T06:35:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/1 "2006-04-01T06:35:01Z")
Quoth [IMDB on Mel Brooks’s _Silent Movie_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0075222/trivia): > [@](#): > > Marcel Marceau, the famous mime, has the only speaking line in this movie: “Non!” (when refusing a role in the silent film). As a result, the movie has been listed in the Guinesss Book Of World Records as having the fewest spoken lines of any sound movie. So what were the runners-up in this category? (Let’s count feature-length films only, as I’m sure there have been many shorts with no spoken lines.) The only candidate that comes to mind is Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 _Modern Times_, a sort of bridge between his silent and sound movies. In that film voices are heard only from machines and electronic devices (phonographs, radios, intercoms, etc.); when a live character speaks, title cards are used. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/2 "2006-04-01T07:01:14Z")
It’s been a long while since I saw _Ballad of Gregorio Cortez_ but I don’t think it had much dialogue at all. There’s also a movie whose name I can’t remember which is all about a guy running away from cannibals/headhunters who have cooked his companions and want to get him. Drums, but, again, not a lot of dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/3 "2006-04-01T07:18:58Z")
In Luc Besson’s first film [Le Dernier Combat](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0085426/), there is not a single word of spoken dialogue. I am a Besson fan, so my opinion is admittedly biased, but this is an excellent film, and tells quite an involved story, all without any spoken words. No captioning, either. I guess Guinness overlooks it because it’s not an American movie. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/4 "2006-04-01T07:23:03Z")
What about Koyaanisqatsi? I don’t think that had any spoken words at all … or does the record imply fewest spoken lines greater than zero? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/5 "2006-04-01T07:42:30Z")
In fact, all 3 movies in the _'sqatsi_ series have no spoken words… but they are more like 90 minute montages than a serious attempt at telling a story. (They do rock tho… I own all 3!) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/6 "2006-04-01T08:26:03Z")
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > In fact, all 3 movies in the _'sqatsi_ series have no spoken words… but they are more like 90 minute montages than a serious attempt at telling a story. > > (They do rock tho… I own all 3!) Speaking of montages, I just remembered another one: Baraka (1992). I’m pretty sure that has no dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/7 "2006-04-01T09:35:36Z")
_One Million Years BC_ no dialogue at all, just a bit of narration. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/8 "2006-04-01T09:51:58Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > _One Million Years BC_ no dialogue at all, just a bit of narration. You don’t count grunts as dialogue? ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/9 "2006-04-01T11:12:32Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > You don’t count grunts as dialogue? If that’s true, I nominate every Sylvester Stallone movie ever made. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/10 "2006-04-01T12:14:54Z")
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > In Luc Besson’s first film [Le Dernier Combat](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0085426/), there is not a single word of spoken dialogue. > > I am a Besson fan, so my opinion is admittedly biased, but this is an excellent film, and tells quite an involved story, all without any spoken words. No captioning, either. > > I guess Guinness overlooks it because it’s not an American movie. No, it’s because _Le Dernier Combat_ has two lines of (whispered) dialog as opposed to one line in _Silent Movie_. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/11 "2006-04-01T12:35:17Z")
Quest for fire was pretty sparse in the words. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/12 "2006-04-01T13:22:20Z")
I am not a fan/expert as far as the genre goes, but I am positive there are a lot of feature-length porno films out there that would quallify. 😃 No, seriously! ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/13 "2006-04-01T13:24:52Z")
Didn’t Luise Rainer set some sort of record for winning an Academy Award in _The Good Earth_ with a tiny number of words of dialogue? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/14 "2006-04-01T13:30:31Z")
When I first saw [The Thief (1952)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045230/) on Matinee Theater or Films of the Fabulous Fifties or whatever TV show it was that had old film noir and detective and spy movies, I wasn’t expecting anything special or weird. There is a soundtrack and all sorts of incidental sounds like clocks ticking and traffic and phones ringing. But no dialog. Nothing spoken. Ray Milland gets in all sorts of situations where you just know he has to say something – but he never does. Read the link for some reactions to this “conceit” but if you give it a chance I think you would be favorably impressed. Now that you know there’s no dialog, it can’t hit you the way it did me, but it’s still fun to experience. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/15 "2006-04-01T17:28:19Z")
_Hell in the Pacific_ with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune had no real dialogue since dialogue by definition is two people talking to one another. Since the two characters (and two actors for that matter ) did not speak one another’s language, there was not true dialogue. _Jeramiah Johnson_ with Robert Redford had a limited amount of communication also. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/16 "2006-04-01T19:42:35Z")
> [@TV time](#): > > _Jeramiah Johnson_ with Robert Redford had a limited amount of communication also. Less dialogue than average, maybe, but it had some, like the scene of the preacher urging Johnson to track down some lost settlers. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/17 "2006-04-01T19:46:53Z")
In fact, [here](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068762/quotes) are a bunch of quotes from the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/18 "2006-04-01T19:55:20Z")
> [@LiveOnAPlane](#): > > t I am positive there are a lot of feature-length porno films out there that would quallify. **"** You don’t coun’t grunts as dialogue? **"** ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/19 "2006-04-01T21:18:27Z")
> [@Hilarity N. Suze](#): > > There’s also a movie whose name I can’t remember which is all about a guy running away from cannibals/headhunters who have cooked his companions and want to get him. Drums, but, again, not a lot of dialogue. Man, that was a great film, can anybody remember the title? The main actor’s name is also on the tip of my tongue, but won’t come out either. It did have a couple scenes where he met kid and they spoke alittle, IIRC. I love the end where after being pursued for days on end, he finally ran towards an army fort. In the middle of the field in front, he looked back and the natives were just standing there looking at him. Finally, the leader waved in a salute to his fortitude. Somebody tell me the title, please, want to get it from Netflix! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822/20 "2006-04-01T21:22:17Z")
It’s been a while since I saw it, but as memory serves Jerry Lewis’s [The Bellboy](http://imdb.com/title/tt0053644/) has very little dialogue, just lots of slapstick comedy with enough dialogue to set it up. Jerry plays the title character and also plays himself, and IIRC his only lines are as himself until the final minute of the movie. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-fewest-spoken-lines/350822.md?page=2)