If it wasn’t for its use of voice-over, Bono would have been a wholly one-dimensional character, but thanks to it the film becomes a model for character study. The technique humanises this largely immoral figure and makes us ambiguously empathise with a killer. Its unique quality comes from the fact it is spoken by narrator Lionel Stander (who was uncredited for being blacklisted according to the period’s McCarthyism) in the second-person, delivering gripping lines such as in the film’s opening: “You were born with hate and anger built in.”Īs the plot follows lonesome assassin Frankie Bono (performed by Baron himself) who returns to New York after time away for another killing, the use of voice-over helps heighten the film’s gloomy atmosphere, in harmony with the telling cinematography.Įven though the tone of the second-person omniscience can often make the audience uncomfortable, it is nevertheless used efficiently by Baron to expose the inner feelings of a mostly silent and deranged character, as exemplified with: “You’re alone. However, one of the film’s most distinctive techniques remains its striking and original use of voice-over narration. Its black-and-white cinematography lends it a realism that marks it as one of the final authentic film noirs while it’s contemporary jazz score perfectly places it in its beatnik New York setting. We can find works with varied but distinctively creative ways of employing voice-over, some based off literary works in order to preserve the author’s language, and others with entirely inventive uses – rather justifying why several were either nominated or won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.Īllen Baron’s Blast of Silence is greatly undervalued in many aspects. This list is an attempt of categorising the films with the most effective and innovative uses of voice-over narration in a somewhat suitable order, with the effort of avoiding to merely classify them on a best-film basis. Though voice-over is a technique that frequently causes debate in the cinematic world due to the claim that a film is inherently narrated – and thus that a supplementary voice would merely interfere in the storyline, it is surely due to the work of some remarkable screenwriters that voice-over has proven its ability of not necessarily intruding, but enhancing the effect of a narrative. However, by reflecting on which motion pictures have employed the most significant uses of voice-over narration, we can discern films that often transcend and defy this method’s conventional expectations.

It can be used as a way to recount past events and create an ambience, but is also recurrent in non-fictional films, such as documentaries or televised-news, due to its characteristically informative nature. Usually uttered by a character from within the work, voice-over typically aims to elucidate a story’s development and mise-en-scène, thus creating elements of structure and continuity.

Voice-over narration is a technique commonly used in film, theatre or television productions in which a voice, that is generally non-diegetic, occurs in the course of a work’s narrative.

Movies with a narrator