Who's the Narrator?

Cafe Society
1

I was watching 10,000 B.C. again last night, because Pepper Mill hadn’t seen it, and I wanted to show her what a magnificently awful thing it was, and it struck me that the film never tells you who the narrator is. If you go to the “deleted scenes” section you can se that the finally do tell you.

It was Baku. Don’t you feel happy that I put this in a spoiler box?

But that’s almost as odd – In that incarnation, this was that class of movie that doesn’t tell you the narrator until the very end. The Road Warrior did that, too.

I find this kind of annoying. There is a slim justification to this – if they don’t tell you who narrated it, you don’t know which characters are going to die. But it really wouldn’t have made any difference to me. In The Road Warrior, there’s some mild shock value, since

The Narrator is the Feral Child. Although no way can I buy him being that facile with language, even in his old age.

Any other films that do this – don’t tell you the narrator, or leave it to the end?

2

Most documentaries.

3

Har.

Besides, isn’t it moot anymore? Morgan Freeman narrates all the documentaries.

4

300 does the narrator revealed at the end thing too.

Although I think it worked out awesome in 300.

5

They never actually say who the narrator of The Right Stuff is, but you’d have to be pretty tone-deaf not to get it.

6

The problem is, first you have to have a movie that HAS narration.

Conan the Barbarian had a narrator (the skinny old dude).
Plan 9 From Outer Space had a narrator (The Amazing Criswell).

7

Vicky Cristina Barcelona has a narrator who’s not part of the story, not identified, and not needed.

8

Not a movie, but a game. God of War doesn’t reveal who the narrator is until the sequel game, appropriately titled God of War 2.

It’s Gaia.

9

I’m not sure this is necessarily a fair assessment. Yes, they don’t explicitly point out who the narrator is until the end of the movie, but he has a very distinct style of speaking, and it was fairly obvious when the character spoke during the movie that he must be the narrator.
The only examples I can think of probably don’t really fit with the spirit of the OP, like with the Mike Myers version of The Cat in the Hat. Quite frankly, I just don’t think this works out to well on film because, with a case like 300, the voice is recognizable, and with a case like The Road Warrior, it’s a different actor. I haven’t seen 10,000 BC (from the looks of it, I should count myself fortunate), so I can’t comment on how they implemented it.

10

It’s a different actor there, too – They got Omar Sharif to narrate it.

11

Chariots of Fire has a sort of narrator twist.
Though, there isn’t much narration.

12

Charles Grey.

13

It bugged the shit outa me all through the Royal Tenenbaums as to who was narrating;

It’s Alec Baldwin, for no apparent reason

14

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” had a narrator that wasn’t a character - it was just sort of the “Voice of God.” The cast simply lists Hugh Ross as “Narrator.”

15

Actually, The Narrator I like is William Conrad.

He was the omnipresent and usually omniscient narrator on Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Although even he was threatened by Boris Badenov. And one time they showed “him” all tied up.

16

Also the very excellent narrator in the classic series The Fugitive.

17

No love for Arrested Development?

18

If I recall correctly, the narrator of The Name of the Rose isn’t revealed until the end.

It’s Christian Slater, er, Adso.

19

Really shoddy narrating. Just pure crap.

20

:smiley:
I’ll tell you what I always thought was strange - when they get actors to narrate commercials, then never acknowledge who it is. IIRC there was Michael Douglas for Infinity, Richard Dreyfus for Honda, Donald Sutherland for Volvo, Jeff Goldblum for Apple…

Also when they use actors for the voice of animated characters in commercials with no acknowledgment: Chris Rock as Lil’ Penny, Antonio Banderas as the Nasonex Bee, etc.