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People who consider dialogue scenes 'boring'.
I noticed this a lot on the Skyfall thread, lots of comments about 'nothing happens' or 'too much talking' or 'not enough action' etc.
I have also seen similar comments regarding Inglorious Basterds being talky and boring.
People forget that Bond films are supposed to be spy films...they have been indoctrinated into believing the quintessential Bond movie is an action spectacular with a set piece every 5 minutes. With a lot of silliness thrown in between, and when things start to flag, lob in a few gorgeous girls.
But didn't we tire of that back in the 80's and 90's when the franchise was practically on it's knees?
And of you look at the early Connery films, set pieces were kept to a minimum.
But the issue is there seem to be a lot of people who just don't seem to actually get diaogue at all...and crucially they don't seem to listen and switch off until something big and loud happens. A dead giveaway are the ones who say the plot made no sense, or point out what they call 'plot holes', that are usually nothing of the sort...they just were not paying attention.
Inglorious Basterds is another good example of this...there will be those who will expect the same things from a Tarantino movie...blood, guts, violence etc. And yet a staple of his movies has always been very well written dialogue...Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown to name three noteable examples. And for me the dialogue in Basterds is actually the best thing about the movie...especially the farmhouse and tavern scenes.
But there seem to be a section of people who 'switch off' during dialogue scenes and just don't listen to whats going on.They equate dialogue with boring.
I watched Glengarry Glen Ross with a friend once, and the whole thing went completely over her head, and she just described it as a film about people talking, and used that classic phrase 'nothing happened'. It really makes you wonder what she expected to happen, and also maybe it says something about the state of modern cinema, how movies are sold and marketed, and what people expectations are from watching a movie.
I have also seen similar comments regarding Inglorious Basterds being talky and boring.
People forget that Bond films are supposed to be spy films...they have been indoctrinated into believing the quintessential Bond movie is an action spectacular with a set piece every 5 minutes. With a lot of silliness thrown in between, and when things start to flag, lob in a few gorgeous girls.
But didn't we tire of that back in the 80's and 90's when the franchise was practically on it's knees?
And of you look at the early Connery films, set pieces were kept to a minimum.
But the issue is there seem to be a lot of people who just don't seem to actually get diaogue at all...and crucially they don't seem to listen and switch off until something big and loud happens. A dead giveaway are the ones who say the plot made no sense, or point out what they call 'plot holes', that are usually nothing of the sort...they just were not paying attention.
Inglorious Basterds is another good example of this...there will be those who will expect the same things from a Tarantino movie...blood, guts, violence etc. And yet a staple of his movies has always been very well written dialogue...Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown to name three noteable examples. And for me the dialogue in Basterds is actually the best thing about the movie...especially the farmhouse and tavern scenes.
But there seem to be a section of people who 'switch off' during dialogue scenes and just don't listen to whats going on.They equate dialogue with boring.
I watched Glengarry Glen Ross with a friend once, and the whole thing went completely over her head, and she just described it as a film about people talking, and used that classic phrase 'nothing happened'. It really makes you wonder what she expected to happen, and also maybe it says something about the state of modern cinema, how movies are sold and marketed, and what people expectations are from watching a movie.
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But then he's the kind of person who will fast forward through the dialogue and just watch the action scenes. He also wonders why Steven Segal has never won an Oscar... because "his films are better than the crap that does win!" :rolleyes:
Action scene after action scene gets boring, you need to have a breather and some build up to the next one.
I often suspect a lot of apparent "big fans of Tarantino" only have any real knowledge of Kill Bill, which is actually pretty left-field and gory for Tarantino.
:rolleyes:
Two of my favourite films are Before Sunrise and its sequel Before Sunset but these movies are just two people walking around talking so most people I recommend them to find them boring.
Now I don't think it in most cases it has anything to do with them being too stupid but it seems more to do with people not having the attention span to listen to dialogue. Its much easier for them to appreciate explosions or simply setup/punchline jokes found in rather poor films like Transformers or Valentines day over movies like Clerks, Before Sunrise/sunset, Social Network and the likes which are all about the dialogue.
Tarantino mind you is someone who seems to get away with pleasing both sides as there is enough action and gore for people who don't have the attention span for dialogue to still enjoy
Couldn't agree more, while some talky films are boring, I could listen to Tarantino's dialogue for hours! Films such as Shawshank and Green Mile (3 hours long, mostly dialogue) are not boring in the slightest
Protracted dialogue isn't always a good thing by default, just like it isn't always a boring thing. It all depends on the quality of the writing, how the actors put it across, etc.
Yes, but I think the OP is referring to people who take the position that dialogue scenes are dull by default.
I was just adding the relevant point that some dialogue-heavy films are dull because it's dull dialogue. I love Glengarry Glen Ross for example, just like the OP, but also find myself wishing certain other films would 'get on with it' and show more action/have less talky bits.
Way to miss the point. There are people who can't tell the difference between good dialogue and terrible dialogue; they consider all dialogue boring - regardless of the quality. That is what the OP is talking about. You opinion is perfectly valid, just not what the thread is about.
Jeez, let it go.
Sadly there are plenty of films made for people who find dialogue boring.
well there's good dialogue and there's ... all sorts in between .
Good dialogue is great , Goldfinger has some great examples , Skyfall not so much .
as for Tarantino - I'm not sure it even counts as dialogue most of the time , it's monologues , characters giving tediously long monologues on their theories about Jews , Superman , whatever !
did last year as 'The Hollow Crown'. Good plots
in all four,but a lot of 'talking'.
Written by some chap called Shakespeare.
It'll never catch on!!!!!!
For sure there is badly written, pedestrian and just plain boring dialogue that can drag a movie down.
But I am not really talking about the difference between good and bad, more about those people who just seem to switch off when there is no mayhem happening on screen and get bored, whilst crucially not even paying attention to what is actually being said.
I personally believe that well written dialogue is the main strength of Tarantino's movies, and always get irked when he is tagged with that 'violent movie maker' tag.
The actual instances of violence in his movies (Kill Bill movies aside) actually make up about 1% of the running time. Look at Reservoir Dogs...very, very little actual violence, and the famous ear cutting scene happens off camera. I always find it odd that for a film with so very little actual violence in it to have garnered Tarantino a reputation for being a violent filmaker.
And by the same token, considering that his first movie was 99% dialogue and 1% violence, I find it even stranger that a lot of Tarantino fans critiscised Inglorious Basterds for being too talky...! What exactly were they expecting from him?
However, I have to say he does not aways get it right...Death Proof did not do it for me at all...I cannot recall one single line of dialogue from that film, or indeed any memorable dialogue scenes or monologues.