What Is Your Favorite Movie Opening?

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:16pm

THE LION KING - Says so much with such basic elements of storytelling, with some of the greatest hand-drawn animation of all time.

APOCALYPSE NOW - Sets the mood perfectly. A perfect symbiosis of sound, image, and acting.

MAGNOLIA - This prologue has been analyzed enough and I don't really have anything new to bring to the table. Either way, it's still amazing.

[pattifan2]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:19pm

'Forrest Gump' is a favourite. The feather blowing on the breeze - so random. Beautiful.

[Craig]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:22pm

Li'l Abner

Singin in the Rain (Dignity.. always Dignity!)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Annie Hall

Adventures in Babysitting (how can you not find Elizabeth Shue dancing around in her room to Then He Kissed Me)


Also love the opening animations of the Pink Panther movies, City Slickers, Brain Donors and Ruthless People

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:23pm

For some reason, I really like the opening to American Beauty. Just the view over the blocks of houses and then Kevin Spacey's voice-over. "I'm so-and-so, I'm so-and-so years old, and in less than a year, I'll be dead." Very powerful, in my opinion.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:24pm

I love the openings of Bond films...

[Craig]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:26pm

Oh.. also forgot THE PLAYER. Love that long opening shot

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:27pm

And as pathetic as this is, I loved the openings to all three Austin Powers movies.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:30pm

Citize Kane's fake newsreel.

Moulin Rouge's "shadow puppet" like overture into the time-lapsed surreal streets of the Montmartre.

Gone With the Wind's horizontal title streaking across the screen.

And the helicopter shot of Julie Andrews whirling around on a mountain top in The Sound of Music.

[Craig]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:32pm

best12

I have to ask - biases aside - what DVD do you think has the coolest opening menu?

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:37pm

Wow, I'm probably TOO biased to answer that.

Of the ones I've worked on, I'm still probably the proudest of the now-oldie Fight Club, with it's fake FBI Warning, smiley face, into the menu that basically melts off the screen during the loop. We were breaking new ground back then (almost 7 years ago now!).

Of the ones I didn't work on... too many to name! I'm stuck! What about you?? There are SO many good ones in the past few years.

EDIT: Okay, I'll give you a couple of random ones. I LOVED the James Bond menus when they first came out. So clever and well designed. That whole "activate navigational system" was cool. They're a few years old now too, but they're classics. Also loved the Terminator 1 & 2 menus a lot. More recent: I liked the Lemony Snickets menus and the Catch Me If You Can menus. Tons of others...

EDIT2: Okay, one more that I worked on that I love because it's so unique and fun... the menus to "An Evening With Kevin Smith." Not much as far as design, but we did an extended special shoot with Kevin, letting him do his "Silent Bob"-type stuff, and it goes on for several minutes. We have alternating A & B loops on both discs, so you keep coming back to see Kevin do different things, and he's so damn funny. Simple, but they still make me laugh. We did a similar thing for "Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder," but that's not out yet.

Updated On: 7/18/06 at 05:37 PM

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:40pm

I definitely agree with Apocalypse Now and Singin' in the Rain. I would like to add Eyes Wide Shut with its two glamorous stars doing unglamorous things and the sound of that beautiful piece by Shostakovich. I also adore the beginning of Postcards from the Edge, Purple Rain, Secretary, and An American in Paris.

[cturtle]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:43pm

i second B12B's choice of SOUND OF MUSIC. watched it yesterday on our brand new LCD HDTV. it was like seeing it in the theatre, which i remember fondly. the gorgeous aerial shots of the alps and austria. and then of course the shot of julie, spinning around with her outstretched arms.

wise's WEST SIDE STORY opening is equally brilliant with the aerial shots looking straight down on manhattan. love it

[Craig]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:44pm

Best.

Hmm a few that come to mind:

Star Wars Trilogy
The Abyss
LOTR Trilogy

Agree with Catch Me If You Can

Scrubs season 3 has a fun and appropriate opening menu

I'll have to go home and look - having a memory block on others...

[dirty rotten guy]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:46pm

Kill Bill Vol.1

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:48pm

cturtle---Glad you love the new TV!

You raise a good comparison too... both the Sound of Music and West Side Story have VERY similar openings. Aerial environmental shots that eventually close in on the opening musical sequences and characters of each story. Go Robert Wise for continuity in style!

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 5:59pm

Easy. Goodfellas!

Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro pull over to the side of the road to kill and bury Billy Bats, who is still alive in the trunk. Voiceover: "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster!" The camera closes in, the opening line of Tony Bennett's "Rags to Riches" comes up. Amazing!

[justme2]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:10pm

The opening to Working Girl - the drums and aerial shot of the Statue of Liberty, then the pan to the ferry with Cusack and Griffith on it.

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:13pm

Good one, justme. I actually really love the END of Working Girl, when Tess spins around in the chair in her new office, calls Cyn, Joan Cusack starts screaming and Carly Simon's "New Jerusalem" plays. Excellent!
Updated On: 7/18/06 at 06:13 PM

[aspiringactress]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:14pm

Breakfast at Tiffany's

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:20pm

Unquestionably, the opening of THE SOUND OF MUSIC.

[mateo]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:22pm

Ghost World

Austin Powers

Down with Love

9 to 5

Girls will be Girls
openings that have great songs and pack a punch!

[ilovedrsandNLB]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:23pm

i second the Lion King..and also Pirates Two has a great opening..and Jack Sparrow's first entrance is super awesome

[justme2]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:25pm

Definitely, blueroses...the whole "She made it!!!" screaming of Cusack and the camera pull back on Griffith to the outside of the building...incredibly well filmed. I saw your answer in the other thread, which made me remember the opening of that film! It always gave me goosebumps to hear those drums along with the shot.

[Incognito]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:27pm

My initial thought was the Sound of Music but since it's been taken a couple of times, i'll go with Once Upon a Time in America.

De Niro's character Noodles, entering the opium den at the bottom of the Chinese Theatre, set the scene, for one of the best films i've ever seen.

Ennio Morricone's score was haunting and beautiful and added to the ambience of the film immeasurably.

[James885]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:28pm

The Star Wars Trilogy
The Wizard of Oz (nothing visually stunning about it, but I LOVE the opening music)