It’s been several decades since the era of “talkies” ushered in sound to film, but the power of dialogue, how to use it, what to say, what not to say, and how to carefully employ it while still controlling the information you give an audience is critical in movies. Good dialogue can make or break a film. Are you spoonfeeding information? Are you being too coy?
Now You See It explores the power of dialogue in film and starts in the era of the aforementioned talkies and how they revolutionized cinema at the time. Sound and dialogue also created a complex writing transition from radio performances, such as that of the 1957 film “12 Angry Men,” which audiences could have followed as if it were a radio broadcast, with identifiable voices in mind.
The best part of dialogue is its efficiency, the ability to relay information from screen to audience. Expository dialogue does, however, have its limitations and risks a loss of interest from the audience. Over dramatic villain monologues like in ‘Captain America: Winter Soldier,’ can often be perceived as a scapegoat to more complex dialogue revealing plot points and plans of characters that are revealed in the latter half of a film.
The video essay also focuses on the subtlety of dialogue. With the example of the absence of a character’s parents, techniques including not using dialogue complimented with visuals can reveal there are important figures that are not in the picture, like in “Dan in Real Life.” The telling of this information can, conversely, be treated comically, as in the case with the 2007 Best Original Screenplay winner “Juno.”
Quentin Tarantino is a master of quick quipped, layered dialogue as evidenced in “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs.” Not only do audiences grapple with information from his films, but evaluate and understand the meanings behind what the characters say. The video essay argues that, while dialogue is a tricky piece of storytelling to master, it can be just as, if not more, effective as the visuals that it compliments.