# Great openings in film. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2007, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357 "2007-06-25T17:49:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/101 "2007-06-27T18:22:59Z")
Nobody’s mentioned **the Shining**? That long aerial tracking shot of the Rocky Mountains, leading to the Overlook Hotel, with Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” playing - makes the rest of the film look banal in comparison (and that’s saying something.) **Halloween** has a terrific opening - watching from Michael Myer’s POV as he murders his sister, until he’s unmasked as - a five year old! Woooooooo. **the Exorcist** - 15 (mainly) wordless minutes in Iraq, culminating in Father Merrin facing the statue of Pazzuzzu. Perhaps you’ve noticed I’m a horror movie buff? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/102 "2007-06-27T19:28:15Z")
We see thick mist. We hear the sound of hoofbeats approaching at a gallop. You know the rest. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/103 "2007-06-27T21:13:44Z")
> [@](#): > > My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos. Ruined dreams. This wasted land. But most of all, I remember The Road Warrior. The man we called “Max”. Pretty good opening for a summer B-flick. Especially a “furrin” film. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/104 "2007-06-27T21:30:30Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] We see thick mist. We hear the sound of hoofbeats approaching at a gallop. You know the rest. [/QUOTE] No, I don’t 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/105 "2007-06-27T21:34:29Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] We see thick mist. We hear the sound of hoofbeats approaching at a gallop. You know the rest. [/QUOTE] I don’t know either 😕 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/106 "2007-06-27T21:37:20Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] **Halloween** has a terrific opening - watching from Michael Myer’s POV as he murders his sister, until he’s unmasked as - a five year old! Woooooooo. [/QUOTE] Really? I totally don’t remember that. And I don’t know who’s galloping through the mist either. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/107 "2007-06-27T21:38:49Z")
We see thick mist. We hear the sound of hoofbeats approaching at a gallop. Two men emerge from the mist, one is banging coconut shells together. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/108 "2007-06-27T21:41:01Z")
You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves! [Mist and horses.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=415n_bntQjU) ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/109 "2007-06-27T21:47:22Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] We see thick mist. We hear the sound of hoofbeats approaching at a gallop. You know the rest. [/QUOTE] No no no. This movie (assuming you mean [this one](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/)) opens with something immediately and grippingly funny even before this scene. _A Møøse once bit my sister … No realli!_. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/110 "2007-06-27T21:55:32Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool] Another Disney movie with a fantastic opening which the rest of the movie doesn’t live up to is the very overrated **The Lion King**. [/QUOTE] I was going to say this - when they previewed the opening a year earlier in every other Disney release, it was breathtaking. That was the movie I wanted to watch, not whatever utterly unmemorable thing I’d just paid to come to the theater and see. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/111 "2007-06-27T22:03:33Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] We see thick mist. We hear the sound of hoofbeats approaching at a gallop. Two men emerge from the mist, one is banging coconut shells together. [/QUOTE] They made a movie of **Gilligan’s Island**? ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/112 "2007-06-28T00:56:45Z")
Has no one mentioned (and i might have missed it) Sunset Boulevard? Dead guy narrating his own death while floating in a swimming pool. Can’t beat that. ---
**Author:** ![seenidog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@seenidog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seenidog)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/113 "2007-06-28T02:00:41Z")
Many great ones mentioned, but I have to put in a vote for the first few minutes of **Who Framed Roger Rabbit**. The “Suckolux vaccum”, and the “Hotternell” oven had me laughing so hard I had tears. Yeah I know, a cartoon. I am a sucker for them. Mrs. Seenidog claims the main difference between me and a savings bond is that eventually, the savings bond matures. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/114 "2007-06-28T03:03:27Z")
[QUOTE=Ferd Burfel] … let me place my vote for **Once Upon A Time In The West**. Also, the long tracking shot in **Touch of Evil**. [/QUOTE] Hear, hear! ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/115 "2007-06-28T06:55:42Z")
The opening scene for [The Magdalene Sisters](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318411/) is amazing. You see scenes from a wedding, and everything is loud and in chaos, but it’s dead silent when a man starts playing the drum. He plays like he’s making love to the music (and I think one of the characters whispers something to that effect), and then we find out that he’s a priest. He hasn’t got any other outlet for passion but God and music. The scene really shows how oppressive the culture is and sets up one of the central themes of the movie right from the start. ---
**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/116 "2007-06-28T12:04:07Z")
[QUOTE=monstro] I always love the way **Crooklyn** opens. For three minutes, we watch kids, none of them main characters, playing every imaginable game out in the street. All ages. Not a single adult in sight. [/QUOTE] You forgot to mention “People Make The World Go 'Round” by The Stylistics playing in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/117 "2007-06-28T12:28:11Z")
I really like [the prologue](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__x8CYAVMbk&mode=related&search=) of Disney’s _Beauty and the Beast_. The use of the stained glass is brilliant, and the music is enchanting. (Though when you think about it, the enchantress is a total asshole - because an 11 year old boy turned her away, she turned him into a beast, plus cursed all the innocent residents of his castle.) I totally agree with the _Dawn of the Dead_ remake. I remember they showed the first 10 minutes or so on USA before it came out, and it was so effective and horrifying, I was truly scared to see the entire movie. The story starts with all these subtle references to the beginning of the plague, and then ratchets into high gear with some really disturbing makeup effects on the little girl, really good, gross special effects, and one of my favorite stunts of all time. The best thing is that the characters don’t know they’re in a zombie movie. The reactions, both large scale, which we hear at the hospital and on the radio, and personal, are very believable. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/118 "2007-06-28T12:28:48Z")
The opening of _The Prestige_ was great: a misty hillside with dozens and dozens of top hats. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/119 "2007-06-28T13:54:58Z")
[QUOTE=manx] The opening of _The Prestige_ was great: a misty hillside with dozens and dozens of top hats. [/QUOTE] Another good one because of its simplicity and beautiful cinematography. It made absolutely no sense, but you knew that somehow it would be important. It also gave you an idea of what kind of movie you were in for. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturna\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@Nocturna\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturna_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/120 "2007-06-28T17:31:01Z")
Another vote for _Contact_ and _Memento_. I also love the opening of _Manhattan_ - the street scenes, Rhapsody in Blue and Woody’s voiceover… “Chapter one…He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357.md?page=7)