# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/121 "2007-06-28T17:38:04Z")
**Serenity**. Two opening scenes, really, both amazing in their own way. Joss Whedon had to cram in some exposition to get the backstory across to first-time viewers unfamiliar with the TV show. The first scene details the main plotline, that of River Tam being rescued from her confinement by her brother Simon, while an Operative pursues her. The amazing thing is the levels. It opens on a filmstrip that tells how the Solar System was settled. Pull back to reveal the classroom withe young River watching. Pull back to reveal that it’s actually a hallucination she’s having while undergoing some kind of shock therapy. Pull back to reveal that we’re actually watching security footage of the therapy and subsequent escape. So it opens on a filmstrip within a memory within a hallucination within some security footage within the movie we’re watching. Incredible. Now that we know what’s going on, it’s time to meet the cast. The camera follows the captain of the Firefly as he moves about in his ship. We get an 8 minute unbroken shot where he walks on nearly every square inch of the ship and spends some time with every member of the crew. Whedon shows us (not tells us) everything we need to know about the characters, and it’s filmed beautifully. Just watched it again for the Equality Now fundraiser last weekend. God, it looks SO GOOD on the big screen. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/122 "2007-06-28T18:46:55Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] 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.) [/QUOTE] [There’s no Berlioz on that soundtrack](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/soundtrack). However, the tune is the \*[Dies Irae](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_Irae) \*, from a well-known plainchant, which Berlioz did indeed use in the his _Symphonie Fantastique_, in the last movement. I believe the opening titles are by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/123 "2007-06-28T19:46:10Z")
**Ghost World** opens with a particularly wild Bollywood musical production. Gets my vote! ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/124 "2007-06-28T20:32:16Z")
[QUOTE=JSexton] **Serenity**. Two opening scenes, really, both amazing in their own way. Joss Whedon had to cram in some exposition to get the backstory across to first-time viewers unfamiliar with the TV show. \ Just watched it again for the Equality Now fundraiser last weekend. God, it looks SO GOOD on the big screen. [/QUOTE] I watched it for Equality Now as well. That was a fun night, and I agree, \*\*Serenity \*\*did have quite a good opening. I also very much liked the end. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/125 "2007-06-29T02:31:04Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier] I know it’s been said before, but NOBODY saw Star Wars for the first time without thinking “holy Jesus!” and tingling with excitement. Nothing beats that opening star destroyer angle. [/QUOTE] Agreed. Interesting bit of trivia: that ship is **much** narrower than it appears. It was shot with an extremely wide-angle lens. My bids? 1. The Birdcage. Three shots morphed into one, brilliant, like taking flight. Or, rather, landing. 2. Bless The Beasts and Children. All of those bison being killed. Haunting. 3. Dr Strangelove. You get to watch the hilariously sexual “mating” of a fuel tanker in air with the plane needing to be “fed”. Kubrick at his black comedy finest. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/126 "2007-06-29T02:43:31Z")
**Sunset Boulevard** had a pretty memorable start (with the dead guy in the pool narrating). ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/57b2e6/32.png) [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/127 "2007-06-29T05:31:42Z")
Star Trek: First Contact The zoom out goes from Picard’s eyeball to the entirety of a borg cube. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/128 "2007-06-29T06:13:29Z")
[QUOTE=drm] **Fargo** The long shot of Lundegaard driving down the snowy road with that music in the background is a beautiful thing. [/QUOTE] Yes - one of my favorites. The opening shot actually starts with a completely white screen, introducing one of the film’s main characters: the weather. The car emerges gradually from the whiteness as the shot progresses. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/129 "2007-09-14T21:04:12Z")
Oops. Didn’t mean to resurrect this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/130 "2007-09-14T22:00:44Z")
[QUOTE=melvin coznowski] **2001: A Space Odyssey** opens showing the the African plain, setting up the bleak barely-alive existence the proto-men suffer through on a day-to-day basis. Until the obelisk shows up, and intelligence is sparked in Moonwatcher’s brain. [/QUOTE] I agree with any good superlative about 2001, but the real, and wonderful, opening is the alignment of the earth, moon and sun to Strauss,. which was not a cliche in 1968. But I have to say that Star Wars was the very best. The crawl set the tone, that this movie was going to be like a '30s serial, and then the shot of the rebel ship and the Star Destroyer told you that this was going to be better than any serial ever made. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/131 "2007-09-15T00:34:39Z")
Well, since we brought this back from the dead, I’m going to mention **A Knight’s Tale**. The noble is dead, his squires are starving, and Heath Ledger decides to impersonate him in the joust so they can win and get something to eat. So they enter the arena while the clap-clap-stomp thread of Queen’s \*We Will Rock You \*plays, and you know you’re in for a treat. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/132 "2007-09-15T00:46:15Z")
I didn’t read the entire thread, so my apologies if this has been mentioned already: Falling Down, with Michale Douglas. The camera is super-tight on a pore on his face, sweating, then slowly pulls back to reveal a very disturbed man sitting in LA traffic. Mayhem ensues. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/133 "2007-09-15T03:38:50Z")
I doubt that many people here have seen this (although probably more Dopers than average people) but [_This Is Cinerama_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0045231/) opens with a small B&W panel in which newscaster Lowell Thomas talks about the history of the movies, and explains how this new format is unlike anything that came before. He goes on a little too long, but when he finally says, “ **This** is Cinerama,” the theater curtains open to reveal a deeply curved screen three times larger than the the original panel. It’s like being transported. We’re sitting in a roller coaster, in color, coming to the top of its first hill. And we ride it the full length of its run. It’s truly stunning. The original 3-panel Cinerama was the predecessor of all the widescreen formats that followed, Todd-AO, Cinemascope, VistaVision, and ultimately, IMAX. At its best it was a remarkable cinema experience. Here’s one that even fewer people have seen: [_New Magic_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0086007/) (1983) was the first film Douglas Trumbull made in his new Showscan format. It was shown in a handful of relatively small theaters (about 100 seats) with a wide screen that was floor-to-ceiling, about 25 by 50 feet. The movie starts out like a fairly conventional documentary about a family of fireworks makers. But a few minutes in, the film breaks. From the back of the theater you hear the projectionist cursing and saying he’s going to find another print, and you hear him walk around the outside of the theater. Then a door opens behind the screen and the work lights in the storeroom back there go on, and you seem him rooting around in some boxes. At one point, he comes up to the screen, and puts his hands on it, leaving imprints. The Showscan format (70mm at 60 frames per second) was so absolutely realistic that many viewers were completely taken in. The movie goes on to show off the format’s capabilities with exciting POV shots and other great stuff. In many respects Showscan was more realistic than IMAX. It’s a shame it never became more widespread. (Long story short: Trumbull was a creative and technical genius, but not such a good businessman.) [QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] 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.) [/QUOTE] I know [the guy](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0532263/) who shot that scene. He made the IMAX film _To Fly!_, which opened with a copy of _This Is Cinerama_’s gimmick: a small panel in the middle of the giant IMAX screen that suddenly transforms at a key moment to fill the screen. ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/134 "2007-09-15T09:02:05Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] _A Møøse once bit my sister … No realli!_. [/QUOTE] What amuses me to no end these days is how much the “chatter” in the opening credits of _Holy Grail_ resembles the stereotypical AIM-chat that is so pervasive on the internet. How did the Monty Python troop forsee it? ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/135 "2007-09-15T09:03:41Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] Really? I totally don’t remember that. [/QUOTE] I think he’s talking about the remake that was just made by Rob Zombie. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/136 "2007-09-15T10:46:24Z")
**Pitch Black** - One of the best openings to a movie I have ever seen. **Little Shop of Horrors** - Though there are a lot of great moments and songs throughout that film. **Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure** - Just the opening titles with the spinning thingy and Big Pig on the soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/137 "2007-09-15T11:50:20Z")
[QUOTE=commasense] In many respects Showscan was more realistic than IMAX. It’s a shame it never became more widespread. (Long story short: Trumbull was a creative and technical genius, but not such a good businessman.) [/QUOTE] He also made **Brainstorm** which was supposed to be a regular feature film that made spectacular use of Showscan. Alas, theatres didn’t bite and the film became something less than it might have been. His lack of business acument was contagious. A part of the reason that Cinema Products Corporation went bankrupt was because of the costs ( never recouped, not even close to ) of the Showscan cameras and projectors they built for Doug. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/138 "2007-09-15T12:07:35Z")
The naked gun. > [@](#): > > [Frank has beaten a horde of America’s most-feared world leaders in a conference room and heads for a door] > Muammar al-Qaddafi: Hey, who are you? > Frank: I’m Lt. Frank Drebin! Police Squad! And don’t ever let me catch you guys in America! > [the door hits Frank in the face and he loses his balance] ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/139 "2007-09-15T12:17:49Z")
[QUOTE=JSexton] **Serenity** [/QUOTE] I enjoyed the individual parts of the opening so much I never thought of it like that, thanks 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357/140 "2007-09-15T13:06:11Z")
[QUOTE=Dr Teeth] Exterior. Swamp. Day. In a long helicopter shot we discover Kermit the Frog playin’ his banjo and singin. [/QUOTE] **The Muppet Movie** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-openings-in-film/409357.md?page=8)