rshapiro@arris.com (Richard Shapiro) (04/10/91)
In article <7309@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> vicki@mathcs.emory.edu (Vicki Powers) writes: >Two films by Terrence Mallick (spelling may be wrong): > >"Badlands", narrated by the lead female character (played by Sissy >Spacek), one of my all-time favorite movies. > >"Days of Heaven". If I remember correctly, the young female character >narrates at least part of the movie. These are interesting examples in that both of these narrators are unreliable. That is, what the say is often at odds with what is being depicted on the screen. This is quite unlike the more usual voice-over situation, in which the narrator is reliably speaking the truth -- often more reliably than the characters' direct speech. It's notable that Malick chose his unreliable narrators to be (a) female and (b) immature. Would Badlands have worked if the older, male lead had done the unreliable voice-over narration? I think the innocence of the narrator is essential to the functioning of the voice-over in Badlands. Is femininity also essential?