what's your favorite opening to a movie?

[pres2032]

in other words, what's the best way a movie has opened that grabbed your attention right away?

mine would have to be Saving Private Ryan with the D-day invasion and Armageddon which starts with the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hitting the earth and Charlton Heston narrorating.

[JohnKleeb]

1. Saving Private Ryan

Enemy at the Gates has a great one too, not a step backwards!
As for games though, Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault has a beautiful yet oh so sad one.
"Two week wonders we called them, they didn't last very long, everytime you strap up and go on a battlefield it changes you forever. For many of us Tarawa would be the last place we ever saw." :cry: that always movse me and now I have to play that game tonight because the music is moving me.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. The Godfather. Amerigo Bonasera's face. "I believe in America."

Asking a favor in the Don's study.

Couldn't find a pic of the classic opening close-up of Bonasera's face, as he utters this line.



On the DVD Coppolla talks about this. He was going to open the film with a shot of the wedding, since this sequence opens the movie and introduces the characters. That would've been okay. But either he had the idea, or someone gave him the idea, to open with this dark scene in the study. Really grabs you and immerses you into the darkness of the movie right away. A classic. I love it...

[JohnKleeb]

4. ahhhhhhhh yes!

[ET Awful]

7. You mentioning that (which is one of the greatest opening scenes ever)

makes me think of another great one . . . at least in my opinion . . . Scarface. The boats full of immigrants coming to Florida. Very good opening.

[JohnKleeb]

8. Yeah thats cool too ET

I agree. Goodfellas has a great one too.

[kodi]

29. nicely done MM. it was my immediate choice as well.

although,

STAR WARS!

when i saw SW in august of '77 and that john williams score hit you the very first time and the words scrolled, i gotta' say, it blew me away.

perhaps we have become jaded about star wars since it has pervaded our culture so much in three decades, but when it first came out...... nothing ever like it before......the first "Elvis" of movies.

btw: my grandparents' first language was italian, and i have been to and in family weddings akin to the film's corleone's. i do recall as a child sitting around the dinner table listening to accented relatives also say that they believe in america, just like in the movie.

did you know that my great uncle built by his own hand the sculpted wrought iron doors of the national cathredral in 1937? and he looked just like Amerigo Bonasera. He was my Uncle Nick.

i know that scene well.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

32. I was too young to see Godfather in the theater on original release, but

I remember watching it on its first network broadcast. The movie casts a dark, intense, malevolent spell. I was spellbound.

I posted on Star Wars further down in this thread as possibly the doozie of all opening hooks.

I remember going to see this with my school chums. The movie was released without a lot of hype as I recall, it kind of snuck up on everyone, and by a couple weeks out the buzz, and lines, were unbelievable. I waited in lines snaking around the block to go see it at the Uptown theater, Connecticut Ave in D.C. Sitting on the sidewalk playing Crazy 8's while waiting for the movie. I was SO blown away by the opening, and the whole thing. Great times!

[Crankie Avalon]

49. On the DVD, Coppola says he got the idea from the opening of "Patton"...

...which is another film with a great and arresting opening. At least, that's how I remember Coppola's commentary.

Both start off with a close-up of someone's face and make you interested in what the heck this person is saying or about to say.

[madison2000]

3. I grew up watching the Wizard of Oz on television every year

and I'll never forget the year I realized that the people in Dororthy's real world were the same ones playing her three companions on the way to Oz. Its obvious when you're an adult, but I'll never forget the first time I watched the beginning and realized how it all fit together.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. "Touch of Evil"...

amazing three-minute uncut tracking shot...described here: http://www.filmsite.org/touc.html

[CarpeVeritas]

45. mine too. i love that shot.

nt

[Kire]

6. several X-Files episodes

especially the one with the baby that follows the balloon onto the train tracks at the kiddie park, when the balloon goes up in the air -- well, how else are you going to open a show with the murder of a baby on prime time television?

[LizW]

10. Jeez, that was the first episode of X-Files I ever saw

and I was so horrified I didn't watch it again for a year. Then I got hooked and it became my favorite series of all time.

[DrWeird]

9. Apocalypse Now.

Beautiful shot of lush Vietnamese with the opening chords of "The End" by The Doors playing. Then some napalm.

[DrWeird]

12. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

Crazy bad opening credits followed by an incredibly bleak desert landscape. Off camera you hear a coyote howl. The same howl that inspired Morricone's unique score for the film. Pan down and it's an extreme close up of an ugly desperado.

[DrWeird]

15. Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Blue sky, pan down and you see an billboard advertising the Tour de France. Suddenly dozens of expert bicyclists go racing by, it IS the Tour de France. Cut to the lead racers, desperately trying to out do each other. Then here comes Pee-Wee pedaling along on his goofy ass bike, easily taking the win, and the trophy, then his alarm clock goes off.

[flamingyouth]

11. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Priceless.

[Guaranteed]

13. Hey, Roger Ebert made that movie.

I remember Mike Royko writing a column on it....hilarious. :)

[flamingyouth]

14. He co-wrote the screenplay

I can't wait for it to come out on DVD. I've about worn out my video of it. :D

[Guaranteed]

16. Oh, ya like it that much, huh?

:P

[flamingyouth]

17. I'm a sick woman

I've afraid everything you've heard is true. :D

[Guaranteed]

21. Unfortunately...and I'll deny this if it ever gets back to me...

I could never find it at the video store...

I tried, though. I tried hard. :)

[peekaloo]

18. Fight Club nt

[Guaranteed]

19. The Big Lebowski has a great beginning...

Pan out over L.A....tumbleweeds...the dude in his robe drinking milk out of the carton IN the grocery store, then writing a check for 67 cents....

"This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression...against Kuwait."

:)

Honorable mention to MallRats...

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

20. We're missing possibly the all time great.

[pres2032]

23. ah yeah, definitely!

[tjwash]

54. Self Delete

nt

[RagingInMiami]

22. I've always liked the opening to Scarface

Because it shows real footage of the Cuban refugees on boats pulling into Key West. I remember those days very clearly.

[hickman1937]

24. I love the start of Ordinary People,

Slow, almost dreamy, panning over the habitat of the upper middle class dwellings, but in dim colors. You look at and know that these people could never have any problems that money can't solve.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

25. close encounters of the 3rd kind

[Liberal In Texas]

34. Kick on that one, pretty eerie... n/t

[Richardo]

50. I like that one, too

Darkness, building chord, then bright light with that big major chord. A great foreshadowing of the importance of light and music in the coming story.

Also, the framing of the jeep headlights in the opening sandstorm shows them descending from left to right. You don't know right away whether it's a spaceship or not, then the sand clears enough to see that its just a jeep. :thumbsup:

A lot of people trash Spielberg, but that sequence is one of his best.

[mattclearing]

26. Gotta love the opening to American Beauty

Though if I were to describe it, the post would probably get deleted.

[Liberal In Texas]

27. "Rosebud"......snow and black & white mystery....ahhh...

Citizen Kane

Any early James Bond movie open.

Jaws-the first one that was actually scary.

[chelsea0011]

28. West Side Story

The Overture which turns to lower Manahttan, the flyover to the West Side, down to the basketball court and the snapping of fingers. Truly great.

[alvis]

30. The Wild Bunch

That had a pretty good opening. From the kids playing with the ants and the scorpion to the post office robbery. "If they move, kill 'em."

[chelsea0011]

42. Excellent opening. Disturbing.

[Cheswick2.0]

31. Sound of Music

Julie Andrews spinning around and singing the opening lyrics of the title song.
You don't have to even like the movie to remember that scene.

[frylock]

33. goodfellas..

the flash-forward scene when they finish off Billy Batts in the trunk of Henry's car.

"As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster."

[JohnKleeb]

38. then Tony Bennett starts sing, I'd always knew I'd go from rags to riches

[Shrek]

35. Patton

" . . . we're going to rip out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks!"

[yardwork]

36. Out of Africa

Meryl Streep's voice saying over and over again, "I once had a farm in Africa..."

[motely36]

37. Did you see "Angels In America" (the movie)

The opening pans over NYC, then zooms in on the angel fountain in Central Park. Then, very subtly, the angel comes to life. It's rather creepy, actually.

[Geek_Girl]

39. Kill Bill

I hated the opening when I was watching because it was so disturbing but then after seeing the whole film. I think it was the best opening of a movie I've seen.

[mcscajun]

40. 1776

John Adams hanging out alone with the Liberty Bell and being hailed from below with Congressional B.S.

[WMliberal]

41. Eric the Viking, High Plains Drifter, Hang 'Em High

only because I've seen them recently.

Clint Eastwood learned how to do a good beginning- and how important one is- after working under Sergio Leone.

Eric the Viking... brilliant. "Is this your first time? Don't you know how to rape me properly?"

[MissMillie]

43. Raising Arizona

I love that whole monologue that takes place in the beginning.

[ImpeachBush]

46. That was my pick, as well ....

Alright then!

[ImpeachBush]

47. "They say the neon lights are bright .... on Broadway"

All That Jazz - on of my alltime favs.

[Richardo]

51. Me too.

Love that movie. :thumbsup:

[Richardo]

53. The opening monologue in "Blood Simple" really set the tone...

"...It don't matter if you're Man of the Year, or the Pope of Rome. In Texas, you on your own."

[Jokerman]

61. Any movie that calls Reagan a "sonofabitch" in the first ten minutes

gets my vote.

[Aiptasia]

44. Pulp Fiction

Opening scene, debating robbing the diner by two bit characters. Classic.

[Mr. Blonde]

48. Once Upon a Time in the West

Runner up to True Romance.

[bif]

52. Puking scene from "The Great Santini"

Where Duval enters the officers party and his hogs pretend to puke (it's cream of mushroom soup) then he orders them to eat it! Brilliant.

[tjwash]

55. SOB

"Polly wolly doodle all the day", followed by a depressed and suicidal Felix looking at bleak theater reviews for that very movie.

Blake Edwards is ingenius.

[livetohike]

56. Contact with Jodie Foster

The opening shot is of the Earth as seen from space and the audio is different radio transmissions throughout the decades.

[Richardo]

57. 2001: A Space Odyssey

:wow: In 70mm Cinerama!

[bif]

58. One of my favorite movies of all time.

Great opening with the apes.

[kiraboo]

59. Lady Jane

It opens with a hunting scene where a deer is chased down by dogs and royalty. Foreshadowing.

[NGU]

60. Star Wars--A New Hope n/t