Has too much dialogue ruined movies?

Photo Courtesy: Warner Bros

The question up for debate in this article has arisen because of recent comments by ‘Dune: Part Two’ director Denis Villeneuve in an interview with The Times. In the interview he is quoted to have said: “Frankly, I hate dialogue […] Dialogue is for theatre and television. I don’t remember movies because of a good line, I remember movies because of a strong image […] Pure image and sound, that is the power of cinema.” 

To a certain extent, I am inclined to agree. In recent films, there has been a phenomenon of over-explanation via dialogue, often to the detriment of the film. According to critics, this has occurred in Sony’s recent superhero venture ‘Madame Webb’ starring Dakota Johnson. In the film, dialogue and exposition felt over-used, to the extent that it stopped the audience from being able to speculate and to consider what could happen next in the plot. There seems to be an over-cautiousness in the assumption of what the audience would be able to understand themselves which, in the end, narrating the entirety of the plot, effectively insults their intellect. 

So, I agree with Villeneuve, that there is a certain subtlety to filmmaking which means that a director should ‘show but not tell’ the audience what is happening. However, for this to be successful, the director would have to trust an actor to give a convincing performance through facial expressions and body language alone, or rely on other factors such as cinematography, the music score, and even costuming, hair, and makeup. Without skilful storytelling or messaging, as one anonymous reviewer said about Villeneuve’s own films: “Yes, [his visual style] looks nice. But there’s typically not a ton of meaning behind his shots outside of looking ‘impressive’ or ‘epic’.”

Villeneuve’s comments, therefore, border on snobbery as he does not consider a balanced approach to filmmaking. Behind his words is a suggestion that his films or others with little to no dialogue are somehow a higher art form than those that use dialogue. There is certainly a place for the films that Villeneuve alludes to, but for them to be successful, directors must find other methods of making meaning beyond including strong images. In some genres of film however, such as in comedies, romances, action movies, or dramas, a lack of dialogue would ensure certain failure; plots are always reliant on a certain amount of exposition to allow the story to move forwards. 

So, has too much dialogue ruined movies? To an extent, yes, as too much dialogue leads to the filmmaker telling the audience what is going on in the film instead of showing them. This is an important distinction to make because film is a visual form, not a literary one, and there’s a reason that we sometimes choose to reach for a film to watch instead of a book to read. However, too little dialogue can also negatively impact most modern and mainstream films. There is an obvious place for a lack of dialogue, namely in silent films or in more avant-garde films that rely on audience members to do most of the work to figure out the plot of the film.

For most of us, however, we go to the cinema for escapist purposes, not to leave the movie theatre with our heads aching and the only thought on our minds being of utter confusion and bewilderment to what we just saw. There exists a fine balance.