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.
No no no. This movie (assuming you mean this one) opens with something immediately and grippingly funny even before this scene. A Møøse once bit my sister … No realli!.
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.
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.
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.
The opening scene for The Magdalene Sisters 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.
I really like the prologue 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.
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.
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.”
