Right. It’s a great scene, but it comes well into the movie, not at the beginning.
The first five minutes of the 2000 Disney CGI movie Dinosaur were absolutely briliant, and can stand by themselves as a short. In fact, they did release this as the long trailer for the movie.
The rest of the movie, with talking animals and such, and trying to tell a coherent story, can’t stand up to the first five minutes, even though it’s the same people and the same CGI making the film. It’s utterly brilliant storytelling and virtual cinematography
Yes, very good.
Already a couple of Saving Private Ryan 's and Touch of Evil 's - dece…
The brass balls scene in Glengarry is indeed special and lovable in that Hallmark kinda way, but isn’t the first scene in a restaurant?
(could be thinking of the stage version)
In the Polanksi version of MacBeth (and, like Zhivago), a good 65-ft wide screen is preferable to take in the vast expanses (here, of Scottish tidal flats). As the camera pulls back, a stick enters from the right of the screen, which we see is held by one of the three witches, proceeding to trace out a digging hole in the sand for placing a severed hand in.
Eight minutes of whole grain goodness in the continuous single take opening from The Player.
I’m trying to decide if any of the Monty Python films fit in this thread. Holy Grail has the “come and see the violence inherent in the system” scene, and possibly the Black Knight, quite near the beginning. And I think Life of Brian has the “blessed are the cheesemakers” bit within the first ten minutes.
The first thing I thought of was Raiders of the Lost Ark.
What’s fourth prize? There were four of them!
Citizen Kane. It never gets better after the newsreel!
Touch Of Evil is better as a result. One of only two films where Orson Welles gets shot and falls into water!
I will limit myself to three for now:
Amok (1934)
Warning NSFW in a National Geographic sort of way. What Exit?
Crime Without Passion (1934)
The Letter (1940)
The Wild Bunch.
La La Land. “Another Day of Sun” is one of the greatest expressions of pure joy to ever appear in a movie. Only “Singin’ in the Rain” tops it.
(If you don’t count the Terry Gilliam short as part of the feature) the “Every Sperm is Sacred” musical number in The Meaning of Life is easily the best scene.
I’d say the opening minutes of Watchmen fit.
The first chase in The transporter (the first in the series).
Ned Kelly with Mick Jagger as Ned. The intro shows him being hanged. What can top that?
(Ooops, sorry, another pun.)
And La La Land is often compared to the 1968 Young Girls of Rochefort. Its beginning dance sequence is lots of fun, but frankly it’s hard (for me) to watch all the way through.
I saw the topic and figured I’d have a perspective to contribute; just to open the thread and see that the FIRST POST AFTER THE OP nailed what I was going to say. Once Upon a Time in the West.
Sometimes I put in the DVD just to watch the first 10 minutes.
I thought of another good entry for this thread.
Beverly Hills Cop. Starts with a nice montage of Detroit, then Eddie Murphy at his fast-talking best trying to sell some black-market cigarettes, then a chase with an articulated semi-truck complete with smashing through a fruit truck. That movie really starts with a bang.
The tracking shot opening The Player should be on the list but my personal favorite is the opening to The Way of the Gun.
This is the one I came to post. I suspect some would question if it’s truly a great start to finish movie (I really like it) but the opening credits sequence and the first few scenes are amazing.
I’m surprised no mention of the opening scene in Star Wars (A New Hope).
You have the opening shot of Vader’s never ending Star Destroyer chasing Leia’s corvette over the Tatooine. But the scene also effectively introduces us to Leia, Vader, R2D2 & C3PO and immediately lets the audience know everything they need to know to kick off what will become a multi-billion dollar franchise spanning decades. We tend to take all this for granted now, but keep in mind that audiences in 1977 would have no idea what the heck any of this was walking into the theater.