5 Great Movie Monologues

“It's too late, Diana. There's nothing left in you that I can live with. You're one of Howard's humanoids. If I stay with you, I'll be destroyed. Like Howard Beale was destroyed. Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed. Like everything you and the institution of television touch - is destroyed. You're television incarnate, Diana - Indifferent to suffering; insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. War, murder, death are all the same to you as bottles of beer. And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. You even shatter the sensations of time and space into split seconds and instant replays. You're madness, Diana. Virulent madness. And everything you touch dies with you. But not me. Not as long as I can feel pleasure, and pain... and love. And it's a happy ending: Wayward husband comes to his senses, returns to his wife, with whom he has established a long and sustaining love. Heartless young woman left alone in her arctic desolation. Music up with a swell; final commercial. And here are a few scenes from next week's show.”

Network (1976)
William Holden as Max Schumacher
Screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky


“There was this kid I grew up with - he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together - worked our way out of the street. Things were good; we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada; made a fortune - your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him - and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man - a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque, or a signpost, or a statue of him in that town. Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen. I didn't ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business. (Clears throat) There are 2 million in a bag in your room. I’m going in to take a nap. When I wake, if the money’s on the table, I’ll know I have a partner. If it isn’t, I’ll know I don’t.”

The Godfather Part II (1974)
Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth
Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo


“Get out, go anywhere you want, go to a hotel, go live with her, but don't come back. Because, after 25 years of building a home and raising a family and all the senseless pain that we have inflicted on each other, I'm damned if I'm going to stand here and have you tell me you're in love with somebody else. Because this isn't a convention weekend with your secretary, is it? Or - or some broad that you picked up after three belts of booze. This is your great winter romance, isn't it? Your last roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years. Is that what's left for me? Is that my share? She gets the winter passion, and I get the dotage? What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to sit at home knitting and purling while you slink back like some penitent drunk? I'm your wife, dammit. And, if you can't work up a winter passion for me, the least I require is respect and allegiance. I hurt. Don't you understand that? I hurt badly. Oh, say something, for God’s sake.”

Network (1976)
Beatrice Straight as Louise Schumacher
Screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky


“Fredo, you're nothing to me now. You're not a brother, you're not a friend. I don't want to know you or what you do. I don't want to see you at the hotels, I don't want you near my house. When you see our mother, I want to know a day in advance, so I won't be there. You understand?”

The Godfather Part II (1974)
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone
Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo


“Why not? They’ve got strike force, task force, swat. Why not Che Guevara and his own little mod squad? Look, I sent you all a concept analysis report yesterday. Did any of you read it? Well, in a nutshell, it said: "The American people are turning sullen. They've been clobbered on all sides by Vietnam, Watergate, the inflation, the depression; they've turned off, shot up, and they've f@cked themselves limp, and nothing helps." So, this concept analysis report concludes, "The American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them." I've been telling you people since I took this job 6 months ago that I want angry shows. I don't want conventional programming on this network. I want counterculture, I want anti-establishment. I don't want to play butch boss with you people, but when I took over this department, it had the worst programming record in television history. This network hasn't 1 show in the top 20. This network is an industry joke, and we'd better start putting together one winner for next September. I want a show developed based on the activities of a terrorist group, "Joseph Stalin and His Merry Band of Bolsheviks," I want ideas from you people. This is what you're paid for. And by the way, the next time I send an audience research report around, you'd all better read it, or I'll sack the f@cking lot of you. Is that clear?”

Network (1976)
Faye Dunaway as Diana Christensen
Screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky


For those of you playing at home, that's a total five monologues from Network, including those found here and here. And from 5 different characters. Best screenplay ever.