Yesterday, I was flicking through the top stories on Digg.com and came across an article by one of the editors over at Kontraband entitled ‘Awesome Opening Movie Scenes which contains over twenty scenes (some are worthy of being called a scene, some should be described as the opening ten minutes) from Hollywood movies that the author feels have made a significant impact over the years.
Looking at his list, several of his choices I have to agree with, a couple of the films I haven’t seen, and a quite a few I disagree with. So, I thought I’d try to put together a list of five films that I have seen, in order of impact if possible, that have opening scenes that left their mark on me for all of time. It is such a difficult task as, like most people, I’ve seen more films than I can remember and I’m sure I could come up with a totally different list tomorrow, and the next day etc. Anyway, on with the list.
1) The Matrix - After the rather cool ‘green code’ intro, Trinity dispenses with the police officers in Bullet Time ™, before escaping the agents with *that* jump and then vanishing in the phone booth. Sci-fi at its best.
2) Saving Private Ryan – The landings on Omaha Beach during the morning of D-Day during WW2. This scene is quite possibly the most realistic combat sequence I’ve ever seen, and brings home the brutality of war.
3) 28 Days Later – The beginning of this film is nothing short of haunting, and is a cinematic masterpiece. Completely alone in the middle of London, one man wanders aimlessly through the streets, looking for answers.
4) Transformers – An MH-53 Pave Low helicoptor violates U.S airspace at a Qatar airbase, transforms into a big frakkin’ robot, tries to hack their network and lays waste to everything in its path; enough said?
5) Full Metal Jacket – Gunnery Sergeant Hartman welcoming his new marine recruits to their training by dishing out a verbal onslaught of abuse has a certain replay value, and is a vintage Kubrick scene.
Films that I toyed with putting into the top five also include Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Planet Terror and Pulp Fiction.
If I could criticise this list, I’d say that I’m surprised that I haven’t considered any particularly great classics. Films like Apocalypse Now do have superb opening sequences, but for me the above have the biggest impact. Sure, the opening scene of The Dark Knight was superb and contained some beautiful shots, but that scene in itself didn’t blow me away.
I’d love to hear your top five opening film scenes, so please feel free to leave a comment on this blog with your choices and justifications for picking them; or why not be critical of my selections?
Good night, and good luck.
2 Comments
I always loved the intro to Scrooged with a weird high-pitched music as the camera decends through the clouds to Santas workshop which is promptly under attach by masked gunmen launching grenades and rockets. Then Lee Majors turns up with a chain gun! You’re sat there thinking “Did I just tune in to the right film?????” :-)
I’m also like the beginning of Ferris Bueller’s Day off with him talking to the camera. The ending is even better. Could this make a future post???? :-)
On a related note I loved that scene in Iron Man where he blows the tank up but it seem to be copied in every action trailer at the moment. I’ve just seen it in the new Wolverine trailer. I wonder if Iron Man was the first or whether you can think of any other that came first?
I love the beginning to Ferris myself! That film is an absolute masterpiece.