achamings at 2013-02-20 12:32:09:

Apocalypse Now, immortal opening lines, delivered in VO by Willard (Martin Sheen) under a ceiling fan/napalm/helicopter blades... "Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle."

Mark Walker at 2013-02-20 13:07:36:

Following on from yesterday I would mention Dogville again. I think the narration in that film (and Manderlay) really add to the feel of a filmed play and set up each scene nicely without being too "obvious". They don't just tell us what we are about to see, but give us further insight into the thoughts and behaviour of the characters, almost putting us in a god-like position, watching the experiment unfold below us. They way the set is laid out almost feels like a lab experiment and the narrator is providing us with his findings. In another sense they kind of act like the old cue cards that you would get in the old days of silent movies, helping you move from one scene to the next, just with a little more info. I think they are used well to give us just enough information without doing what would be a cardinal sin...just telling us what we are about to see.

mk at 2013-02-20 13:57:37:

"Notes on a Scandal" starring Judi Dench, is a terrific example of the unreliable narrator. Using an unreliable narrator is one of the best reasons to add v.o. narration. In this film, there's a wealth of dark humor to be found in the difference between the way she describes herself and the events happening around her, and what we actually learn about her from observing her actions ourselves.

Alan D. at 2013-02-20 15:30:37:

I agree with the multiple mentions of "A Christmas Story." The adult telling his childhood story brought a unique perspective and several jokes were based off the voice overs transitioning into the scene. Plus, Jean Shepard's voice is iconic. One snippet and I am instantly transported into the movie.

jwindh at 2013-02-20 18:48:07:

DEFINITELY: "Y tu mamá también" - even though it's in Spanish and sub-titled in English. This is one of the few films where I thought the VO is really effective - and it's because the narration basically has nothing to do (on the surface, at least) with what the images being shown under it are. It's a real example of film being a visual medium, and that you shouldn't have to tell, you should show. So what they tell basically enriches what they show (both in that VO segment and in the film as a whole), because it does not duplicate what they are showing. I think it's brilliant.

Phil Hopersberger at 2013-02-20 19:31:05:

In case you kids haven't seen it...on my Top 100 of all time! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hExHLM2raJA Cookie: I don't know about you, but it always makes me sore when I see those war pictures... all about flying leathernecks and submarine patrols and frogmen and guerillas in the Philippines. What gets me is that there never w-was a movie about POWs - about prisoners of war. Now, my name is Clarence Harvey Cook: they call me Cookie. I was shot down over Magdeborg, Germany, back in '43; that's why I stammer a little once in a while, 'specially when I get excited. I spent two and a half years in Stalag 17. "Stalag" is the German word for prison camp, and number 17 was somewhere on the Danube. There were about 40,000 POWs there, if you bothered to count the Russians, and the Poles, and the Czechs. In our compound there were about 630 of us, all American airmen: radio operators, gunners, and engineers. All sergeants. Now you put 630 sergeants together and, oh mother, you've got yourself a situation. There was more fireworks shooting off around that joint... take for instance the story about the spy we had in our barracks...