Dialogue in Film: How Should Characters Talk?

Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet. Wait a minute, I tell ya, you ain't heard nothin'. This moment in the Jazz Singer in 1928 led to standing ovations in movie theaters. The first moment of dialogue marked the beginning of a boom in the motion picture industry, improving sales from 1928 to 1929, despite the beginning of the Great Depression. Good, good, good, team. Goodbye. Good, good, good. Warner Bros. surged in profits from $2 million to $14 million a year as millions flocked to these talkies, which, for the first few years, consisted mostly of musicals. Talking provided a layer of realism missing in movies by allowing more character development and plot. Innovation in radio and television writing paved the way for strong, dialogue-driven movies. 12 Angry Men is written in such a way that you can follow the entire story with your eyes closed. Talk and talk and talk, even when it's an open and shut case like this one. I mean, did you ever hear so much talk about nothin'? Well, I guess they're entitled. It has an intensity and pace that's impossible for a completely silent movie to achieve. I want to talk about dialogue and look at how dialogue enhances a story while also seeing its limitations. Probably the biggest immediate benefit of dialogue is it's just so damn efficient. How are you, Captain Whitney? Fine, thanks, Mrs. Mallory. Why, whatever are you doing in Arizona? I'm joining Richard in Lordford. He's there with his troops. It's a lot nearer than that, Mrs. Mallory. It's an order to drive forth. Why, that's the next stop of the stagecoach. You'll be with your husband in a few hours. From ten seconds of dialogue, we know who Lucy is, where she is, where she's going, why she's going there, what her husband does, where her husband is, where the stagecoach stops next, and how long it should take until the couple is reunited. Dialogue is quick and easy, but exposition through dialogue runs the risk of being boring, like when we have to sit through a villain monologuing his evil plan through a computer. I think voiceover narration can be a lazy substitute for strong, efficient dialogue on screen, although sometimes there's no other way to do it. There are right and wrong ways to do exposition dialogue. Let's say a character's parents died. Should dialogue tell us like this? Oh, what would mom and dad say? I don't know. They're gone. They died when I was three, remember? Or like this. Leave it, Bully. Mom would allow us. Expositions should be descriptive and also not completely plain. It's the difference between saying something and revealing something. I call it the dead parent test for dialogue, because so many movies seem to have trouble telling us a parent isn't around anymore. My mother's name was Susan. She was killed in a car accident with my father, and they're both dead. So stop trying to bring them back. Dialogue should reveal a character isn't in the picture instead of just saying it out loud. It doesn't always have to be through dialogue. And it can even be comedic. Oh, and she inexplicably mails me a cactus every Valentine's Day, and I'm like, thanks a heap, Coyote Ugly. This cactus gram stings even worse than your abandonment. But it just has to reveal something instead of saying it. It passes the dead parent test if it's not completely dry, because frankly, just saying is lazy writing. And with the number of lifeboats times the capacity you mentioned, forgive me, but it seems that there are not enough for everyone aboard. I think the same idea goes for dialogue that explores the movie's major ideas. Interstellar is a gorgeous movie, but this dialogue is very heavy-handed and just being said. Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it yet. Maybe it's better to have themes hidden in more ordinary dialogue. And **** the Air Force Academy. If I want to fly, I'll find a way to fly. Or revealing the themes through visuals. Dialogue always serves a narrative or comedic purpose, no matter how random it feels. In Pulp Fiction, the dialogue feels meaningless, but it sets up major plot points and conflict. Vincent and Jules have a ten-minute conversation about whether or not it's cheating for a man to give a woman a foot rub. And look, I've given a million ladies a million foot massages, and they all meant something. We act like they don't, but they do. I mean, that's what's so ******* cool about it. There's a sensuous thing going on where, you know, you don't talk about it, but you know it, she knows it. ------- Marcellus knew it. And Antoine should have ******* better known better. This conversation, while at the surface very casual, reinforces that Marcellus Wallace is not to be trifled with. As Vincent spends his night with Mrs. Wallace, that earlier conversation reminds us that the stakes are high. And Vincent may or may not be overstepping his boundaries. Tarantino uses dialogue to show character flaws. Jules and Vincent get a great cup of coffee and praise it in an attempt to be polite to Jimmy. All it does is make him mad because Jules and Vincent are not focused on the crisis they just created. Their signature suave and charming dialogue failed them. But Winston Wolf, he knows the appropriate way to respond, because he's the wolf. Tarantino's dialogue is masterfully layered. They may be talking about nothing, but in actuality, the dialogue foreshadows the major conflicts in the rest of the movie. Don't listen to anybody that says dialogue is bad and visuals are always better in film. It's just false. Dialogue is beautiful, revealing, and hilarious. Just know when to use it. Oh, yeah! I am the walrus. Shut the **** up, Donnie! V.I. Lennon! Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov! What the **** is he talking about? If you liked this topic, you should check out Channel Criswell's video on the same idea. He talks about dialogue with even more depth than I did. Also, a big thanks to all my Patreon supporters. And follow me at my ridiculous Twitter handle, SwagThug4Life. Thanks for watching.