In poorly narrated films, a voice-over is utilized to clear up jumbled plot points and provide context, often for a film crippled by a muddled script. In the best-narrated films, however, the voice-over provides insight into the mind of the main characters. Sometimes, the narrator is the main character, and sometimes it’s someone not appearing in the film, but it’s helpful to provide analysis and perspective otherwise not obtained.
In Martin Scorsese films, for instance, the characters are often unreliable narrators, and do things audiences won’t agree with. This makes the narration necessary, because it allows us to understand why they made the choices they did, and adds another layer of complexity and depth. In films like The Princess Bride, the narrative is necessary because the events of the film take place within the structure of a fairytale being read aloud, and serve a much more perfunctory purpose. Set your internal voice to a young Richard Dreyfuss, and proceed to 10 of the best narrated movies, ranked.
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
There’s not one character in The Wolf of Wall Street with any redeeming qualities, and you might even feel like taking a shower after watching it, but its pithy narration defies you to not be instantly sucked into the world of decadent avarice surrounding the New York Stock Exchange.
Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up with Martin Scorsese to tell the biographical account of Jordan Belfort, the “Wolf of Wall Street”, who in his ’20s went from having an entry-level position at a Wall Street firm to founding his own firm and swindling investors out of millions. The narration deftly explains why Belfort did what he did and, even after achieving success, continued to operate illegally even as the feds closed in.
BIG FISH
Some would argue the strength of Big Fish lies in Tim Burton’s ability to transport audiences to breathtaking fantasy worlds with his imaginative art-direction. The strength instead lies in Albert Finney as a narrator, a blowhard father in his death throes, chronicling for his cynical son a life well lived.
Young Edward Bloom (played by Ewan Mcgregor) encounters traveling circuses, wartime, fish the size of sharks, giants, and possibly Heaven throughout the adventure that is his life, and no one knows if it was really true. At the end of the film, it doesn’t really matter, because the legends gave his life meaning.
A CHRISTMAS STORY
A Christmas Story has become a holiday classic as reliable as receiving fruitcake in the mail. Not only is there something dependable about its showcase of an All-American Mid-Western family from the ’50s, there’s something comforting in the revelation of universal dysfunction inherent in celebrating the holidays.
Ralphie Parker just wants a Red Ryder air rifle for Christmas, but as the most important day of the year draws near, he has to stay out of the way of the schoolyard bully, his cantankerous father, and his worrisome mother, who contends that he’ll shoot his eye out if he gets it. The narration is done by Jean Shepherd, who also wrote it, and provides some of the most memorable dialogue in any holiday film.
AMERICAN BEAUTY
American Beauty is a different sort of movie now, in the wake of Kevin Spacey’s dubious reputation, but not so long ago, audiences listened to his dulcet tones as Lester, narrating a slice-of-life story in the American suburbs. He’s a salesman that’s stuck on the endless merry-go-round that is mid-life and the American Dream, and wants off.
Just as he has an awakening of his senses, his family suffers something of a collapse with the decisions of his wife and daughter causing him to rethink some of his choices. His poignant, sardonic, and often hilarious observations are what snagged him an Academy Award for Best Actor and the film the Academy Award for Best Picture.
THE PRINCESS BRIDE
Like all fairytales, The Princess Bride begins with “Once Upon A Time…” and ends with “And They Lived Happily Ever After”, and includes kidnapped princesses, daring swordsmen, evil lords, giants, and rodents of unusual size. The ’80s classic is recounted to a young boy (Fred Savage) by his grandfather (Peter Falk), and never gets old.
Its timeless quality is due to its enduring narrative structure, but beyond that, the pithy dialogue and hilarious situations that Westley, Buttercup, Inigo, Fezzik, and the rest of the misfit group get into are what make it stand up alongside other narrated films.
GOODFELLAS
That Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) narrates his own movie, giving an insider point of view to the depravity of the gangster lifestyle, is one of the most salient reasons why Goodfellas remains one of Martin Scorsese’s most brilliant films. The use of narration is one of the most effective of all time because Hill isn’t always a reliable narrator, but we forgive him for it because we can see his perspective.
Hill represents the romanticized nature of the gangster genre, as he’d prefer to be a gangster than the President of the United States. His intoxication with being somebody important ultimately allows for his abrupt rise into a superstar and inevitable fall into a mediocre nobody, which is almost worse than being gunned down by his best friend.
AMERICAN PSYCHO
There’s a hypnotic cadence to Christian Bale’s narration in American Psycho, which lulls you into a false sense of security shortly before his sociopathic Patrick Bateman strikes with an ax. His witty narration is supposed to invite you into the innermost recesses of his mind, yet all the exposition reveals nothing about the character.
Bateman is a shell of a man; a construct, a fabricated totem to ensure a certain guise is maintained while he gives into his dark urges. Bateman, for all his luxurious lifestyle and his Wall Street entourage, is a default setting. The real Bateman is unknown even to him, and the biting black comedy shows not only how a man becomes a monster, but how a monster pretends to be a man.
APOCALYPSE NOW
Hailed as one of the greatest movies of all time, Apocalypse Now is a remarkable journey into the heart of darkness during the final days of the Vietnam War. Told from the point of view of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), an Army officer sent on a mission to kill a rogue Colonel who’s gone insane, the narration allows viewers to feel like they’re experiencing each peril as he does.
As he journeys further in his Navy patrol boat to locate Colonel Kurtz (a career-best Marlon Brando), he realizes that much of the truths he clings to about the civilized world and the meaning behind war are artifice, and in the jungle become meaningless. Kurtz has discovered “the horror”, that only soldiers capable of truly suppressing their humanity are strong enough to win, and Willard sees how easy it becomes to cast off morality in favor of madness.
STAND BY ME
This ’80s classic coming-of-age film was based on Stephen King’s “The Body”, and provides one of the best examples of poignant voice-over narration. Richard Dreyfuss’s sonorous voice over the events of the film have been much-parodied over the years, as much out of homage than mockery.
Stand By Me involves the journey of four boys (Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, River Phoenix, and Jerry O’Connell) to find the body of a stranger who’s been killed near their country homes. Along the way, through encounters with colorful characters and leech filled marshes, they learn about each other and themselves in a way that profoundly changes their lives.
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
The calm, even-keeled timbre of the narration in The Shawshank Redemption isn’t just about providing context inside a prison; it’s about making the men behind bars seem like a family, and showcasing all of the love, friendship, dysfunction, and raw emotion that entails.
The “hero” of the film is Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a banker who is imprisoned for killing his wife and her lover. The film is ironically never shown from his perspective, but includes observations from Red (Morgan Freeman), a lifer who befriends Andy and watches him make something of himself under the harshest of circumstances.
