Watched Blake Edwards classic film “The Pink Panther” the other day and was reminded how great the opening credits were. The 1960’s spawned a number of other films with memorable title sequences e.g. all of the James Bond movies come notably to mind.
The Pink Panther title sequence was good enough to spawn a whole Saturday morning cartoon series during the 1970’s. The 1970’s was also decade that saw the creation of what is probably the funniest title sequence ever.
What films stand out in your mind as having the best or most memorable title sequences?
Spartacus is my favorite Bass title, but they’re all terrific.
I also love the Wayne Fitzgerald titles for Total Recall and Basic Instinct (and it doesn’t hurt that they both have music by the great Jerry Goldsmith).
I’ll second the Superman title sequence, because I think it’s the overall best transition from the humble comic book reading on the living room carpet, through space, to Krypton. The R/Greenberg Associates slit-scan title sequence, following on the heels of the innovative trailer they made, really blew people away. slit Scan had been around for over a decade, but their application was fresh and new. as a result, R/Greenberg got to do a lot of other titles (Alien, Altered States, Flash Gordon, not to mention effects work in films like Flash Gordon and xanadu.
I’ll second the Bond title sequences, too, at least after the first three (Dr. No used animated dots, then From Russia with Love and Goldfinger had the credits projected onto women). Starting with **Thunderball ** we had the signature Maurice Binder titles with nude silhouettes over colorful backgrounds and artistically changing images. Binder did them all after this until License to Kill in 1989. He died during the hiatus, but they carried on in his style after that.
I’m sure that madsircool mentioned Charade and arabesque because Binder did those titles, too. He also did the animation for Dr. No, and he contributed a “dream sequence” to the 1979 Frank Langella Dracula.
Another title sequence that has to be mentioned, because it has a Hitchcockian suspenseful edge to it, is Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, with the bomb placed in the trunk of the car we follow through the border checkpoint.
There are plenty of other great title (or at least “opening”) sequences
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Star Wars
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
Jason and the Argonauts
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Forbidden Planet
Baby Driver is something else. I felt that I got everything I was gonna get from that movie in the first ten minutes, but what a ride those ten minutes were–and the opening credits were shameless and fun, in their depiction of a dude who dances through life perfectly in tune with the music he listens to.
The opening sequence of Top Gun awes me every time. This version of Faltermeyer’s anthem is the perfect backing music for this segment: they eliminated Slash’s obnoxious guitar work, turning it into a mellow and reverent hymn. No special effects here, you’re watching a real carrier deck crew up at the crack of dawn prepping for the day’s flights, guiding heavy machinery into position to be flung off the deck and into the air. And then you get Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” jacking up your adrenalin while you watch planes launch and trap - afterburners screaming for release, airframes shuddering as they land HARD on the fantail. Metal under tension, begging you to touch and go…
Sadly, this segment is over all too soon and you’re left to face 90 minutes with a smirking dickweed Scientologist.
Superman was the first one that came to mind for me, too.
Also to cross my mind are some of the more recentish animated movies. The Little Mermaid counts because some credits play during the opening sequence. The Lion King probably doesn’t count, because all it shows is the title at the very end.
