# Narrated Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920 "2004-03-01T15:56:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/21 "2004-03-01T20:42:49Z")
_The Naked Gun_ series. _The Outsiders_ began and ended with a voice-over. Not really narration, but it bookended the film nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Erik\_the\_Viking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Erik\_the\_Viking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erik_the_Viking)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/22 "2004-03-01T21:13:37Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Not only is _Adaptation_ a great film with narration, but it also discusses this fact in the film and why it’s a bad idea and so on. The definitive film on why you should never, ever use it. So it uses it and it works! Actually, Robert McKee’s policy was that you should never use _voiceover_, not narration. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/23 "2004-03-01T21:50:00Z")
Actually, McKee calls it “voice-over narration,” lumping the terms together. He’s not dead-set against it, especially if it does things that can’t be done via visuals or dialogue. He singles out Woody Allen as someone who does it well, and says, “His narration offers wit, ironies, and insights that can’t be done any other way.” However, he also whips out the old “show, don’t tell” rule, and says, “Do not put [the audience] on your knee as if they were children and ‘explain’ life, for the misuse and overuse of narration is not only slack, it’s patronizing.” (As an example of this patronizing tendency, I would offer The Thin Red Line, which has incessant voiceovers from the main characters ruminating over What It All Means in … slow … ponderous … tones.) I think one key to successful narration is a liberal use of irony: i.e. the narration and the visuals need to be telling you subtly (or wildly) different things. Then the audience gets pleasure from the ironic contrasts between the two. For example, in A Christmas Story you’ll often have Jean Shepard’s mock-heroic narration about The Grand Quest for the BB Gun contrasting with visuals showing the mundane reality of being a kid. If the narration and the visuals are telling you the same thing, well, one of them is probably redundant. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/24 "2004-03-01T22:55:02Z")
**The Creeping Terror** , of course. Narrated because they either lost or couldn’t afford the sound track. **Dark City** and **The Dark Crystal** are notorious for narrations that were unnecessary and also _gave the plot away_. **American Splendor** uses narration brilliantly. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/25 "2004-03-01T23:08:33Z")
War of the Worlds ---
**Author:** ![Quack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e99b99/32.png) [@Quack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quack)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/26 "2004-03-01T23:13:09Z")
_High Fidelity_ is narrated off and on, marvelously. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/27 "2004-03-01T23:13:37Z")
My favorite recent example of a film that uses narration well is _The Royal Tenenbaums._ One of its themes is the slippery nature of nostalgic reminiscence; the voice-over (along with the chapter headings) provide a warm and fuzzy feeling of looking back at life, just as in many inferior and unapologetically sentimental films, but some very slight differences between what is being said and what is being shown provide (for me, at least) a major key to unlocking the film’s true depth. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/28 "2004-03-02T03:52:27Z")
_Tom Jones_ (1963) ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/29 "2004-03-02T04:10:56Z")
_Whale Rider_, an indie released last summer, has some narration bits, mostly at the start and end. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/30 "2004-03-02T04:12:43Z")
Okay. 'Splain please the difference between “narration” and “voice over”. I thought they were usually the same\* for film fiction but also different from “talk to the camera” bits like Cusack in _High Fidelity_. \*Some voice overs are not narration because they really aren’t telling you about the story. E.g., “We had a lot of fun making this film, hope you enjoyed it too.” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920/31 "2004-03-02T04:26:00Z")
The best narrated movie of all : **Badlands** read the script if you can. And the very clever **About A Boy** with 2 narrators and done perfectly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrated-movies/231920.md?page=1)