I am still asking myself the question in the title though.
Does narration need to be justified? Sometimes it's not justified while used in a "very great" film. What works about it, what doesn't?
Each and every one of those movies would be greatly improved by a lack of narration. Narration/voiceover indicates a failure by the creative team to properly communicate the story. ALWAYS. Know why everyone always remembers Quint's speech from Jaws? Because it's fuckin' hardcore yet doesn't convey ANY part of the story. Know why nobody remembers Tom Hanks' speech from Castaway? Because it serves solely to make Tom Hanks the actor happy while absolutely gutting every effort the screenwriter made to convey the story without putting it in Tom Hanks' mouth. That is a heroically nonsensical sentence.Still, even the most anti-narration snob would have to concede that the larger film canon contains some pretty notable exceptions to this rule. The Naked City, A Clockwork Orange, Sunset Boulevard, GoodFellas, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Big Lebowski, The Shawshank Redemption — all use narration, and far from stalling story or characterization, with them it pushes everything forward.
If a diversity of type speaks anything to the value of a particular storytelling device, then film narrators definitely don’t deserve their bad reputation.
Only a Sith deals in absolutes... (bwahahahaha..... I'm just completely poking the bear....) Look - academically - I would agree - Narration is often a tool poorly used to make up for poor storytelling.... but I gotta agree with his Ferris Bueller reference.... I don't think "narration" (if you could really call it that) hurts the film at all. I think it proved a fun, inclusive way of bringing you in on the whole adventure. I dunno - I don't have super strong feelings about it. Narration usually sucks... but I don't mind it on a rare occasion, in the right way.ALWAYS
Ferris Bueller doesn't narrate. He breaks the 4th wall. That's a whole 'nuther thing with a tradition going back to Seneca. Characters breaking the 4th wall (a term that goes back to Moliere) occupy an entirely different purpose than narration, which started with the Chorus. It's also a whole 'nuther can of worms in that the minute you start breaking the 4th wall you're delving into metafiction, for better or worse. Voiceover, on the other hand, is a narrative shortcut.
He's providing asides and insights. It's much in line with what John Hughes did in Breakfast Club - he had Anthony Michael Hall deliver a greek chorus like intro and outtro to cast the players as larger representatives of society. It's very much a "and these children that you spit on as they try to change the world" approach. None of what follows is relevant to the plot. It's all an aside which exists solely to increase our affinity for Ferris.
Fuckers were literally ad-libbing psychobabble on set. See this asshole? Ridley Scott loved him as the bartender in The Shining so cast him as Tyrell without so much as making him read a line. Which worked out well for Joe Turkel because he couldn't remember a single line. This is why his dialogue is stilted, stunted, and delivered over the shoulder of whoever he's talking to. Don't get me wrong - I love Blade Runner. Always will. But it is a quintessential example of reach exceeding grasp and an archetypal flawed masterpiece.
Hm. Or, alternately, the ultimate story that narration tells is that the director/actor couldn't manage to tell the story in pictures, so they threw in the towel and took the easy way by adding narration. I'm not highly opinionated about the use of narration, myself. I've enjoyed it. I've hated it. It's just another tool, to me. Like choosing to shoot in black and white, or the framing choices made by the cinematographer in Mr. Robot. But like any tool in the kit, overuse it, and it gets worn and tired-looking. And, it isn't always the right tool for every job.
agreed? I think? Perhaps I'm reading the sentence wrong - or perhaps I'm reading your comment wrong. Narration is a tool. Sometimes narration works, and sometimes it doesn't (although it looks like kb falls into the "doesn't" camp). And one measure (in my mind) is if it complements the film or not. Does it add or detract?