By Steven Hartman · April 1, 2024
Dialogue is often challenging to write. Screenwriters of all skill levels fall victim to on-the-nose dialogue and a little too much exposition. Read some of these scripts and discover new ways to raise the interactions between your characters and create memorable quotes that could live on for generations.
Screenplay by: Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman
In the 1930s and 1940s, the world was in a really bad spot. Naturally, this is reflected in art, such as The Great Dictator (1940), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), and Duck Soup. The Marx Brothers comedy is about a country named Freedonia during a financial crisis whose neighboring country plans to overthrow the government. Yes, this is a comedy, and its silly dialogue and witty jokes make it still enjoyable to watch 90-plus years after its release.
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Screenplay by: Murray Burnett, Joan Alison, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch
A movie that’s considered one of the best films of all time will surely have some excellent dialogue. Casablanca is about Rick, an American living in Morocco with a café dedicated to serving those in transition out of Europe as well as the Nazi occupiers, whose former love and her partner show up in need of exit visas. With lots of humor, drama, and suspense, Casablanca is still a case study in great filmmaking.
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Screenplay by: Paddy Chayefsky
Imagine a world where a TV anchor rails against the problems of society in a manic tirade that captivates its audiences. That tends to happen every day on cable news channels. But long before cable news, this was something considered controversial. Network centers around an anchor who loses his cool and the network that chooses to exploit it for ratings. Even today, it’s filled with relevant points about how far people will go to push a narrative at the expense of others.
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Screenplay by: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
Annie Hall is about a neurotic stand-up comic in New York City looking back on a relationship with an aspiring nightclub singer. This isn’t like any other romantic comedy but has everything from breaking down the fourth wall to Family Guy-esque breaks to humorous quick beats. It’s a unique film in many ways, but the back-and-forth in the movie line scene is one of the many classics in this classic film.
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Screenplay by: Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron was the queen of the romantic comedy with honest dialogue and situations that touched the hearts of many. One of her early works that made her name a mark of quality was When Harry Met Sally. The dialogue throughout is a study of how to make talking heads compelling. One of the best scenes in the film is the final one.
Read More: 6 Lessons from Nora Ephron’s “When Harry Met Sally…”
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Screenplay by: Spike Lee
In Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Mookie observes the smoldering bigotry and hatred on the edge of boiling over in a Brooklyn neighborhood during the hottest day of the year. Its harsh, yet truthful dialogue is as powerful today as it was 35 years ago.
Read More: 5 Trademarks of a Spike Lee Script
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Screenplay by: Thomas Harris, Ted Tally
If you ever want to see a great interaction between two characters in which one needs information from the other who withholds it, the scene in The Silence of the Lambs where Clarice meets Hannibal Lecter is a great study. Perhaps the amazing thing about the movie is how the screenwriter made us sympathetic toward a psychopathic cannibal, showing that people love an anti-hero.
Screenplay by: David Mamet
An inside look at a real estate office doesn’t sound like an interesting story, but the way David Mamet crafted this film makes the stakes high and the characters intriguing to watch as they fight to be the number one salesman in the office. Watch the scene where we learn that “coffee’s for closers.”
Screenplay by: Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin famously created the walk-and-talk scenes in TV shows like The West Wing, but he got his start with the brilliant film A Few Good Men, which boasted an all-star cast and Rob Reiner at the helm. The film follows a cocky, young military lawyer who must defend marines accused of murder. A young Tom Cruise was able to hold his own in a climactic scene with Jack Nicholson, who shouts the famous line: “You can’t handle the truth!”
Screenplay by: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary
Pulp Fiction made Quentin Tarantino a household name and revitalized John Travolta’s career. The film was unique with sharp dialogue and unconventional structure. Tarantino won his first Oscar for the screenplay, which included thought-provoking dialogue centered around a quarter-pounder cheeseburger, better known in Paris as a “Royale with cheese.”
Read More: 3 Keys to Writing Dialogue Like Quentin Tarantino
Screenplay by: Frank Darabont
Two convicts in the Shawshank Prison become friends and spend years surviving inside its walls. But young Andy is playing the long game. While he becomes friendly with the guards and other inmates, he tries to figure out a way to shorten his stay in Shawshank. Check out the Academy Award-nominated screenplay by Frank Darabont.
Screenplay by: Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan
Before Sunrise explores the life of a young man and woman who meet on a train in Europe, spend the night together in Vienna, and fall in love knowing that their relationship will only last until sunrise. It might be a challenge to get such a dialogue-heavy feature made these days, but the conversation between the two is a great study in maintaining the audience’s interest amid two people talking.
Screenplay by: Amy Heckerling
Cher comes from a wealthy home and is considered one of the most popular girls in her school. She is smart, shallow, and socially accepted by almost everyone. She means well in all she does and uses her gifts of persuasion and niceties to secure A’s in class, play matchmaker with teachers, and help the new girl acclimate to her surroundings—a very much nicer Regina George in Mean Girls (2004). Clueless is loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma as it focuses on the teenage lives of the mid-1990s Angelenos.
Read More: Bound for the Screen: 13 Great Book-to-Movie Adaptations
Screenplay by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
This Coen Brothers’ Academy Award-winning film takes a look at crime among a series of bumbling delinquents tasked with kidnapping a man’s wife and the police officer who stops them. It has all the hallmarks of a Coen Brothers movie, including its unique and witty dialogue.
Screenplay by: Elaine May
For the benefit of their son, a liberal gay couple must put up a facade to meet their son’s fiancé’s arch-conservative parents. The dialogue is smart, and the remarks are hilarious as everything that could go wrong does. It is fascinating how everyone is withholding the truth in some way, but the dialogue can’t reveal it, only the context. Check out the hilarious screenplay and see how opposites can add to conflict.
Screenplay by: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
Two kids from Boston wrote a script together about a poor janitor working at Harvard who is exceptionally and naturally brilliant. But he must fight his past demons and loyalty to his friends to reach his true potential. Good Will Hunting is filled with authentic dialogue that remains true to the blue-collar neighborhoods, Harvard elites, and early-twenty-somethings trying to make their way through life. Check out Matt Damon’s and Ben Affleck’s Academy Award-winning script.
Screenplay by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson was one of the hot indie filmmakers to break out in the 1990s. Coming off the heels of the hit Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia is another ensemble character study of seemingly random people in the Valley who are all connected in some way and going through massive internal conflicts.
As the narrator shares in the film, “It is in the humble opinion of this narrator that strange things happen all the time. And so it goes, and so it goes. And the book says, ‘We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.’”
Read More: Paul Thomas Anderson on the Screenwriting Process
Screenplay by: Diablo Cody
No one talks like the characters in Juno, and perhaps that’s what makes it so interesting to watch. The story follows a teenager who tries to figure out a life amid an unplanned pregnancy. This coming-of-age dramedy boasts sharp dialogue among colorful characters.
Read More: Diablo Cody Talks ‘Juno’ and How She Just Kept Screenwriting
Screenplay by: Paul Thomas Anderson
There Will Be Blood is the story of a man who discovers oil and rides the black gold to fortune and wealth. As a ruthless entrepreneur, he will do anything it takes to protect his business, whether it means the destruction or death of his enemies and their interests. The main character is sharp and speaks in short, plain sentences, often contrasting with his nemesis, who prefers longer gospel-oriented remarks.
Screenplay by: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan
The Dark Knight was a game-changer for comic book movies. It showed they could be Oscar-worthy films with compelling stories and characters that become immediate classics. The dialogue between the Joker and the others is the kind of meat that actors will love to say and could even win them an Academy Award, posthumously, unfortunately.
Read More: Comic Book Adaptations: No Superheroes but Still a Whole Lot of Bang!
Screenplay by: Aaron Sorkin
The origin story of Facebook looks at Mark Zuckerberg from the creation of the social media website from his Harvard dorm and the tumultuous times of starting a business and the lawsuits that followed. Sorkin’s Academy Award-winning screenplay is filled with fast, witty dialogue and worth a read.
Screenplay by: Steven Knight
What makes Locke an intriguing read is that it takes place in a car and the main character only talks via speakerphone with the other characters. As Locke travels from Birmingham to London, he must navigate through a series of increasingly challenging calls between his wife, sons, co-workers, and boss that evolve into possible career and personal crises.
Screenplay by: Jordan Peele
Suspenseful, thrilling, and a commentary on African-American life, Jordan Peele’s Academy Award-winning original screenplay is a great look into the subtext that goes into dialogue, how whispers and short sentences can turn into paranoia, and how to twist words to provide clues to what the hell is going on.
Read More: 5 Jordan Peele Tips for Writing Thrillers
Screenplay by: Greta Gerwig
Before Greta Gerwig gave the world Barbie (2023), she graced the cinematic universe with Lady Bird. This Oscar-nominated film centers around a high school senior coming of age at a Catholic school in Sacramento while dealing with her over-protective and surly mother and desire to attend college in New York, as far away from home as possible. Check out the opening scene and see how much context Gerwig gets between two people in a car.
Read More: A Chronological Timeline of Greta Gerwig’s Writing
Screenplay by: Rian Johnson
When an 85-year-old man dies unexpectedly and suspiciously, the suspects are endless as an eccentric detective tries to uncover the truth behind a mountain of lives. This clever who-dun-it can show screenwriters how to write dialogue amongst an ensemble cast of characters consistently spinning the truth and trying to push the detective off their tracks.
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Movies are a visual medium, but since the invention of the talkies, some of the most remembered parts of cinema are the catchphrases, speeches, and dialogue spoken by countless characters. Check out the screenplays above and see what makes great dialogue stand out.
Read More: 7 Examples of How Great Dialogue Can Reveal Character
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