Unreliable Narrator in Movies. Movies where the Narrator is either lying or are themselves wrong about facts
Unreliable Narrators Movie. Movies where the Narrator is either lying or are themselves wrong about facts. Some of them are Possible Spoilers!
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- DirectorEdgar G. UlmerStarsTom NealAnn SavageClaudia DrakeThe life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.The 1945 film noir Detour is told from the perspective of an unreliable protagonist who may be trying to justify his actions.
This movie is the best case of use of an Unreliable Narrator, which upon repeated viewings increases the charm of the movie. - DirectorBryan SingerStarsKevin SpaceyGabriel ByrneChazz PalminteriThe sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.The 1995 film The Usual Suspects reveals that the narrator had been deceiving the characters in the movie, and hence the audience, by the story he is telling. The character Keyser Soze has something to do with the unreliable narrative.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsGuy PearceCarrie-Anne MossJoe PantolianoA man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.The Narrator himself is not in the know of things happening around him. A Great example of unreliable narrator.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsBrad PittEdward NortonMeat LoafAn insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.In the 1999 film Fight Club, it is revealed that the narrator suffers from dissociative identity disorder and that some events were fabricated. The Character Tyler Durden has something to do with the unreliable narrative.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMachiko KyôMasayuki MoriThe rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.In Rashômon (1950), a Japanese crime drama film directed by Akira Kurosawa, adapted from "In a Grove" (1921), uses multiple narrators to tell the story of the death of a samurai. Each of the witnesses describe the same basic events but differ wildly in the details, alternately claiming that the samurai died by accident, suicide, or murder. The term "Rashômon effect" is used to describe how different witnesses are able to produce contradictory accounts of the same event, though each version is presented with equal sincerity and each is plausible when considered independently of the others. The film does not select the "authentic" narrator from the differing accounts: at its conclusion, all versions remain equally plausible and equally suspect.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsLeonardo DiCaprioEmily MortimerMark RuffaloTeddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.The Narrator is lying to himself and to the audience. Great Ending btw.
- DirectorM. Night ShyamalanStarsBruce WillisHaley Joel OsmentToni ColletteMalcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, starts treating a young boy, Cole, who encounters dead people and convinces him to help them. In turn, Cole helps Malcolm reconcile with his estranged wife.The Narrator himself doesn't know what is happening around him or even to him!!! Classic Unreliable Narrator.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsMarlene DietrichJane WymanRichard ToddA struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence after he's accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.The 1950 Alfred Hitchcock film Stage Fright (1950) uses the device of unreliable narration by presenting the aftermath of a murder in a flashback, as told by the murderer. The details of the flashback provide an explanation which helps convince the innocent main protagonist of the film to help the murderer, believing him innocent.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsBen AffleckRosamund PikeNeil Patrick HarrisWith his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.Amy and Nick both are unreliable narrators, they are lying to the audience in the full first half of the movie.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsJoan CrawfordVan HeflinRaymond MasseyAfter being found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, a severely catatonic woman tells a doctor the complex story of how she wound up there.In Possessed (1947), Joan Crawford plays a woman who is taken to a psychiatric hospital in a state of shock. She gradually tells the story of how she came to be there to her doctors, which is related to the audience in flashbacks, some of which are later revealed to be hallucinations or distorted by paranoia
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsTom HanksRobin WrightGary SiniseThe history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.In the movie version of Forrest Gump (1994), the title character narrates his life story, and in the process naïvely refers to Apple Computer as a "fruit company" while also assuming that sustaining a "million dollar wound" meant that one would get paid for it. He also states that Jenny's dad treated her well because "he was always kissing and touching her and her sisters."
- DirectorRon HowardStarsRussell CroweEd HarrisJennifer ConnellyA mathematical genius, John Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.In the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind, it is eventually revealed that the narrator is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and many of the events he witnessed occurred only in his own mind.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsJet LiTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungA defense officer, Nameless, was summoned by the King of Qin regarding his success of terminating three warriors.In the 2002 film Hero, the protagonist is identified as an unreliable narrator by the antagonist, who responds by constructing his own alternate version of the false story. In the last part of the film, the protagonist tells the real story, which explains his presence in the current situation.
- DirectorMary HarronStarsChristian BaleJustin TherouxJosh LucasA wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.Patrick Bateman makes "Money's" John Self look even more out of shape, when it comes to commenting on the big brands and applying his murderous hands to the unsuspecting and the vulnerable. Yet Ellis's great comment on consumerism and the death of high culture could just be a mirror to our own deluded thoughts, and Bateman nothing more than a sickly funny fantasist.
- DirectorGregory HoblitStarsRichard GereLaura LinneyEdward NortonAn altar boy is accused of murdering a priest, and the truth is buried several layers deep.One Character is lying to other characters and to the audience too, and everyone fell for his con.
- DirectorGore VerbinskiStarsJohnny DeppArmie HammerWilliam FichtnerNative American warrior Tonto recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid, a man of the law, into a legend of justice.In the 2013 film The Lone Ranger the narrator, Tonto (Johnny Depp), is identified quickly as potentially unreliable by a child attending a 1930s carnival sideshow during extensive questioning about the events leading to the origin of the Wild West character the child emulates. The child is wearing the costume identified with the fictional Western hero of radio, comics, films, and television. The events related by the narrator vaguely follow an alternative version of character development that occurred during its radio dramas and the beginning of its television series, but with novel disclosures of graphic details that occur as a series of flashbacks portraying the elderly Tonto's memories of the events. Along with the child, the audience is left to make their own judgments about the memories of Tonto.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMagali NoëlBruno ZaninPupella MaggioA series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.The title Amarcord apparently translates in Roman dialect as "I Remember", yet this chaotic film is in no way a straightforward recollection of childhood experiences. As Fellini himself once commented: "My films from my past, recount memories that are completely invented." The scatological jokes about belching, and farting coexist with an air of melancholy that's maintained by Nino Rota's evocative music. Fellini constantly draws our attention to the fact that we're watching a piece of fiction: the residents' stories are far from reliable, actors deliver their lines to camera, and the elderly narrator (Luigi Rossi) is interrupted by off-screen disruptions.
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsEwan McGregorAlbert FinneyBilly CrudupA frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.As William retraces his father's steps, revisiting his old stomping grounds and seeking out witnesses to what may or may not have happened, the truth is revealed to be anything but the simple black-and-white affair that any of us expected. What William discovers is that even his father's most over-arching conceits and purely fantastic fictions contain an essence of truth, an essence more valuable than what might be gleaned from a more literal version. Dad, of course, was right: reality is overrated. And all of those impossibly tall tales told over the course of the movie eventually come to resemble some enormous, sweet onion, with endless layers of story to be peeled away before getting to a core of meaning.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsWerner KraussConrad VeidtFriedrich FeherHypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.The deranged mind in Caligari was revealed through flashback. Cinema moving backwards and forward in time, a quantum leap that thrust the oneiric engagement of the viewer within the frame of flickering images from passive observer to a participant who must engage actively in constructing a narrative. The revealed unreliability of the narrative throwing the viewer into an abyss of incomprehension and confusion in movies like Un Chien Andolou. A fractured kaleidoscope where meaning is continually undone and rewoven before the audience’s eyes.
- DirectorAlexandre AjaStarsCécile de FranceMaïwennPhilippe NahonBest friends Marie and Alexia decide to spend a quiet weekend at Alexia's parents' secluded farmhouse. But on the night of their arrival, the girls' idyllic getaway turns into an endless night of horror.We watch this story through the eyes of Marie (Cécile de France), who goes to stay with Alex (Maïwenn) and her family in a remote French house.
Which is when a serial killer turns up.
Spoiler :- In the film's shocking final twist, Marie is revealed as the serial killer – she merely created a separate persona in her mind to carry out her killings. - DirectorAndrew GrieveStarsDavid SuchetPhilip JacksonOliver Ford DaviesPoirot comes out of retirement when his industrialist friend is brutally murdered a short while after a local widow who was suspected of killing her husband commits suicide.In this classic Agatha Christi story there are multiple unreliable narratives. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was hailed as a cornerstone in the genre and is still known as “one of the most influential crime novels ever written,” as said by Howard Haycraft in 1941.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJames MasonShelley WintersSue LyonA middle-aged college professor becomes infatuated with a 14-year-old girl.Never straight with himself, let alone the ladies and gentlemen of the jury to whom he is ultimately addressing his words, Humbert Humbert arrived halfway through the 20th century, intent on justifying his appalling crime. Nabokov's syntactical genius is the one true triumph.
- DirectorJack ClaytonStarsDeborah KerrPeter WyngardeMegs JenkinsA young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.Is it a ghost story, or the tragic tale of a young woman undergoing a breakdown? Believing her two young charges are communing with the spirits of her two dead predecessors, the prim governess of Bly House becomes increasingly panic-stricken and erratic, until she's left with a dead boy in her arms.
- DirectorNicolas RoegStarsTim RothJohn MalkovichIsaach De BankoléA trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.Right at the start we're told that Marlow likes to spin yarns. However, his tale of journeying up the Congo, in search first of ivory, and then the infamous Kurtz, is one of the most powerful stories in literature. Whether his story is strictly faithful becomes irrelevant, as Marlow ends up highlighting the moral corruption at the heart of all humans.
- StarsNick FrostVincent KartheiserEmma PiersonJohn Self is good at making money, he's due to make a hell of a lot more. The only trouble is... he's better at spending it.John Self is one of literature's most repulsively addictive narrators. The book might be subtitled "A Suicide Note", but it is in fact a love story, with Self dreaming up ever more extravagant ways to shed his wedge while pursuing entirely corruptible Selina Street, among others. The fact that Self might never have actually existed, revealed towards the end, is Amis's sly take on the death of the self.