The Five Most Powerful Pre-Murder Monologues In Film

As you can probably guess, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ALL FILMS MENTIONED. This site has been linked to by Digg, Gorillamask, and i-am-bored. Welcome visitors! Feel free to check out the rest of the site or listen to our podcast]



For reasons that will become very clear as this article goes on, Daniel Day Lewis' recent Oscar win for There Will Be Blood prompted me to think of the art of the monologue and specifically, the pre-murder monologue. Murder plays to two binary aspects of our psyche: It both shocks the conscience and titillates us. This phenomenon of simultaneous revulsion and excitement goes as far back as the days of the Colosseum and stays with us in the modern age, every summer as we go to see the latest action killtacular blockbuster film.

People kill for all sorts of reasons. For pleasure, for power, for revenge, for fun. And when murderers open their mouths right before they do so, they give us insight into the will and the heartlessness that it takes to kill a man. Often the results can be profound, funny, and/or tragic. Here are the five most powerful pre-murder monologues of film:

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