Intro/Intention
We live in troubled times. Society had always been in the crosshairs, and its fragility, every so often, showed more than others. Ever since we celebrated the entry of the third decade of the 21st century, our health, first of all, and then our practices, norms, customs, morals, values, and beliefs, have all been put to the test. No matter how one looks at it unless you own a successful online business or a toilet paper factory, the outcome is disheartening and unfavourable, to say the least, for all of us. I believe that no matter what, though, the last few months, we all got some time to contemplate and re-evaluate life as we knew it.
In that spirit, as the title implies, you can find some of the most influential, dissuasive, and thought-provoking monologues that I carefully hand-picked. The purpose of the chosen ones is to entertain you, educate you, and potentially find an application in the way you see and experience life. Some of them include spoilers, so I recommend you watch the films first to get the full impact. If you have watched the films, on the other hand, they will, hopefully, make you hit “play” once more. Regardless, for all the films, I would recommend you watch them all. Starting from the opening scene. Enjoy reading!
The Films
V for Vendetta (2005): In a not-so-distant dystopian future, a masked vigilante called V will fight and plot against Britain’s authoritarian regime, recruiting a young and innocent woman.
Arguably, one of the most well-written and most eloquently introduced anti-heroes. Some of you, or me, would choose “hero”, but let’s not get caught up in semantics. V for Vendetta is inundated with influential, dissuasive, and thought-provoking monologues, so that could make an article on its own. Yet, I find that (anti)hero introduction one of the most impressive I have ever watched, and I can’t say with certainty how many times I have reminded myself to watch it over and over again. After all, how many times have you had the chance to encounter, in less than a minute, 48 words starting with the letter “v” (and 55 in total)? Hugo Weaving’s delivery throughout the film (even with his face hidden) is immaculate. There is so much detail in both the mise-en-scene and the dialogue that you will pick up something new every single time. If then you just want to watch the excerpt as many times as you like, you can do so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKn1R6fekk4
Speaking of heroes and anti-heroes, I picked the most odd one, and I’ll start backwards. The sole reason for its introduction is the avoidance of casting stones. So, please bear with me. It went under the radar due to the protagonist’s name, but also because it’s in French, and I really felt compelled to write about it. The actor in this film is portraying himself, and even though it is not biographical, per se, it sheds a strong light on the actor’s life off-screen. As I have watched most of his films (some were impossible to even watch the poster), this one is definitely the one that he uses all of his years of acting skills to perform on camera. So much so that this particular monologue was done secretly without any other crew member or cast – other than director Mabrouk El Mechri – knowing about it until post-production. Without further ado, I bring to you Jean-Claude Van Damme in…
JCVD (2008): Having to deal with personal and professional problems, Jean-Claude Van Damme returns to his home town to escape from Hollywood’s suffocating way of life.
Now, please put the stones down. You can find the excerpt here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMvdGC2FIEU
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992): The night will prove to be long and hard for a group of real estate brokers who need to start making sales by morning, or they lose their jobs.
Who is serious about sales? Do you know, or do you think you know, what the life of a real estate broker looks like? Do you know what you are asked to do? Alec Baldwin will go through it. Sharp, intense, insulting, degrading, and unintentionally funny, Blake’s monologue accurately describes how you could potentially be seen and treated should you decide to get a job in that kind of sales. The film itself has been used by real-life salesmen for training purposes, and Baldwin’s part in “A.B.C.” has become a Bible. His tone and performance are based on George C. Scott’s delivery in Patton (1970). Usually, when we refer to something as “too scripted”, it has a negative connotation. Not in Glengarry Glen Ross. Every dialogue and monologue is how David Mamet wrote it.
Watch one of Baldwin’s best performances in one of the greatest acting ensembles in film history. The film that the cast referred to as “Death of a Fuckin’ Salesman”, contains more “fuck”, “shit”, and “leads” (over 270 times) than you have ever heard before, and that puts the salesman between a hard place and a rock as, no matter what he does, he will never good be enough.
It’s not funny, but I dare you not to laugh. Welcome to the ABC’s of sales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9XW6P0tiVc&feature=emb_title
BlacKkKlansman (2018): An African American and a Jewish police officer manage to infiltrate Colorado Springs’ KKK with the purpose of taking it down.
My next choice is Kwame Ture’s speech, delivered by Corey Hawkins. To some extreme, to some, the expression of truth, but no matter what, one cannot ignore it. Ture’s words find meaning to people who share African physical characteristics, and for that reason alone, they are treated as children of a lesser God. What if the same speech was about mental health characteristics? Are people with mental disabilities treated as equals? As the “normal” ones? If you have ever in your life been singled out, would you still think his speech is extreme? Regardless of what you believe or where you stand, Ture makes a point and as Plato put it: “Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” As for the content of the speech, I follow Desmond Tutu’s example: “A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons”.
Listen and decide for yourselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgJSPpYvaKY
Precious (2009): A pregnant, obese, and mentally and physically abused girl who lives with her cruel mother wants to join an alternative school to escape the reality she is currently in.
Ture’s speech about black people is political and reaches an audience, no matter how small or large. What if you are black and what you have to say doesn’t even reach your front door? That is the root of Mary’s emotional outburst: Loneliness. Heart-breaking, soul-sucking, unbearable loneliness. Mary has suffered what Ture describes, and even though she belongs to the same ethnic group, no speech, profound or otherwise, can heal the tormented reality she has endured.
In 2010, Mo’Nique, who deliberately took the role as she’s a victim of incest herself, got the Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. How did that propel her career? It didn’t! As per IMDb, from 2009 to the present day, it took her five years to land another role and since 2016, none! She was “blackballed”. Why? Because she “didn’t play the game”. Welcome to Hollywood!
You can watch her jaw-dropping performance (while wishing for her comeback) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVUflz0HwUk&t=22s
Mr. Robot (2015-2019): A cyber security engineer during the day and a hacker at night, Elliot, a young man with numerous mental disorders, decides to fight corrupt governments and shadowy organisations.
At this point, I felt it would be fair to add a couple of series to the mix. TV writers spend incalculable hours trying to develop both characters and stories and stay true to them, so I believe they deserve recognition. From season 1-4, Mr. Robot becomes the gospel of monologues. The inner voice in his head is the never-ending motive and guidance throughout his every move. Out of all the monologues he’s having throughout the years, I picked this one: Season 2, Episode 3, where Elliot loses control of what he says and goes against God and organised religion.
One of the reasons I picked this one is because, in this instance, mankind is the victim of vicious Gods who make us hate each other for being different. Rami Malek may not have won the Golden Globe he was nominated for, but his performance in Sam Esmail’s creation will always be remembered by all of us who “religiously” watched, discussed, and analysed this 4-year journey. Have a taste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fj74k8lqxY
Westworld (2016 – ): In the not so distant future, large corporations invest in a world where androids (hosts) can perform all sorts of fantasies for humans (guests); but not without consequences.
Picking up from Mr. Robot’s God/mankind relationship, very interestingly, in Westworld, Season 3, Episode 5, happens exactly the opposite in a selfsame environment. God, having offered us a paradise, becomes the victim of mankind, which vandalised everything He gave us. And now, we have to live with ourselves. This time, the speech is delivered by Man in Black, the Oscar nominee Ed Harris, whose cynicism is the outcome of love – or the lack thereof.
Before clicking on the link, please remember this crucial information: In storytelling, the importance or meaning of something heavily relies on what has happened before you encounter it and what will happen after you do. More often than not, we appreciate the value of something or someone only retrospectively (and, unfortunately, in life, too late), and that is only after all the information received has been accumulated and processed.
In Westworld, people with money have assumed the role of God, and scientists, as Dr. Malcolm very eloquently put it in Jurassic Park (1993) “[…] were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKZYQ72N0To
Field of Dreams (1989): An American corn farmer who is hearing voices feels compelled to build a field; a field that will host the 1919 Chicago White Sox.
“If you build it, he will come…” Field of Dreams represents a field of hope. And James Earl Jones, the man with one of the most characteristic deep voices (Darth Vader) and the greatest stage actors, raises our hopes that “people will come…” The speech might be more appealing to the American audience due to the nature of the sport, but baseball is not just American, and it’s not just a sport. Its existence has influenced history, politics, sociology, human rights, and more.
Jones’s signature speech represents the principles and values that elevated the sport to what came to be an American way of life and national pride. It is the speech that defies all odds against you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=153&v=7SB16il97yw&feature=emb_title.
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961): Following the end of WWII, in 1948, an American court set in Nuremberg, Germany, tries four Nazi officers for crimes against humanity.
Allow me to give you a few reasons why you should definitely watch the whole film before you get to Judge Dan Haywood’s speech: Spencer Tracy (the Judge), Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, William Shatner. All in one film! In the 1962 Oscars ceremony, most of the actors nominated for the golden statuette were from this film. One of the best ensemble films and strongest court dramas of all time where, in the end, after everything is said and done and all sides have been heard, Tracy will come out to deliver his summation speech in one take from two different angles.
In times where political “leaders” couldn’t have acted more irresponsibly or even criminally, this almost 60 y/o speech could not have been more relevant and current. Watch but also listen to the verdict of a trial that is not from our time but makes one wish for actual leaders who can inspire these words, transcend them, and build a world where everyone is welcome to live in: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=N3BwK51YFgQ
The Great Dictator (1940): While a fascist dictator is expanding his empire, a poor, Jewish-lookalike barber is avoiding his persecution.
Isn’t it funny? The further back in time we go, the more truth and meaning we find in words. How is it that the turned-80 y/o speech by Charlie Chaplin could as well have been written… yesterday? You know what else is funny, but actually funny? The film itself. The Great Dictator will make you laugh all the way. That’s what Chaplin does (yes, not did!). And somehow, the shift from one genre to the other, from comedy to drama, will hit you like a shock wave.
Hitler banned the film in Germany and every other Nazi-occupied country*. Years later, the same nation that praised Chaplin hunted him down as a Communist. I guess the wind changes both figuratively and metaphorically. The Great Dictator‘s diachronic message on freedom and democracy, though, hopefully, will be echoing way after our generations leave this Earth, and it is my wishful thinking that the generations to come will actually learn from its gravitas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7GY1Xg6X20
*Fun fact: The reels were switched in a cinema somewhere in the Balkans, and, watching this, German soldiers either left the cinema or started firing at the screen. (Source: IMDb)
Outro
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito” – Dalai Lama. No one is too small. Actors, writers, and directors may have left a powerful legacy behind them for all of us to watch and learn from. There is genuine material out there to make us laugh, cry, and educate us. But you don’t have to become an actor, writer, director or any other household name or persona to leave your legacy. If anything, the current pandemic made room and brought to light the real heroes/heroines who have always been amongst us: the nurses, the doctors, the paramedics, the supermarket employees, every essential worker out there, and yes, the police officers who risk their lives to keep the order. For every crime committed, there are numerous acts of gallantry by everyday people who never see the light of publicity. By people who do not have the time or the interest for petty arguments on social media. By people whose only goal is to leave this world a little bit better than they found it. And that’s the humble speech I leave you with.
Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici
Complimentary monologues that also deserve your attention:
Coupling (2000 – 2004): Steve Wants a Lock on the Toilet – https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=167&v=IezFzsZwxwE&feature=emb_title
Newsroom (2012 – 2014): America is Not the Greatest Country in the World – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTjMqda19wk
Scent of a Woman (1992): I’ll Show You Out of Order! – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd10x8LiuBc
25th Hour (2002): Fuck Everyone – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgL_5QcZCMo
Network (1976): I’m Mad As Hell and I’m Not Gonna Take This Anymore! –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRuS3dxKK9U
True Detective (2014 – ): The Philosophy of Pessimism – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8x73UW8Hjk
Alpha Dog (2006): The Denouement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPx-nF6-IZQ&t=4s
Thanks for reading!
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
