Favorite Opening Movie Scenes.

[FAST FRED]

Hard to beat the start of the very first "Star Wars" movie ever released or "Jaws" or "Saving Private Ryan" or "Patton."

But I'll nominate Francis Ford Coppola starting off "Apocalypse Now" with Jim Morrison of The Doors singing, "This is the end....." while the jungle goes up in napalm flames or Sergio Leone's very cinematic, yet so understated, train station set beginning for "Once Upon a Time in the West" or Alfred Hitchcock's rooftop chase in "Vertigo" or the shots of New York City in either Woody Allen's "Manhattan" or Robert Wise's "West Side Story" or John Travolta styling down the street to The Bee Gees' "Staying Alive" in "Saturday Night Fever" or Robert Altman's very, very long lasting tracking shot that kicks off "The Player" or Werner Hertzog's steep mountain path descent (into the very depths of Amazonian Hell, as it turns out) which opens "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" or Stanley Kubrick's dramatic sunrise as seen from space, accompanied by "Thus Spake Zarathustra," from "2001: A Space Odyssey" or John Wayne initially returning home in John Ford's "The Searchers" or Martin Scorsese brutally beginning "Goodfellas" with a knife/gun murder of a reviving victim in a car trunk while Ray Liotta narrates: "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."


I also always dug the opening scene of "Gone With The Wind" wherein the slaves out in the field argue over who amongst them has the authority to call out, "Quitting time!!"

Others?

There are so many from which to choose.

 

[l00p]

You put too many. I had a couple in mind but you zapped 'em before I could get a chance so I guess I will give up now. Sigh.

 

[bevo barry]

Did you really mean The Empire Strikes Back or did you mean to refer to the original Star Wars (now called Star Wars IV: A New Hope)? I don't remember the beginning of Empire, but I recall vividly how the opening of the original back in '77 blew me away.

 

[OldHippie]

Raiders of the Lost Ark

 

[Statalyzer]

Best comedy openers, IMO:

Office Space - rush hour traffic.

Spaceballs - the ship taking a good 2 minutes to cross the screen.

 

[FAST FRED]

Thanks, bevo barry. I changed it.

 

[Crockett]

First in my mind is High Noon, the bad guys quietly gathering while Tex Ritter sang the haunting theme song foreshadowing the action to unfold.

 

[dillohorn]

You got it already........."Saving Private Ryan".

 

[ProdigalHorn]

I actually thought all three of the original Star Wars opening scenes were really good - they all had that "in medias res" feel, although the first one was obviously a lot more explosive in nature. The third I thought was great at setting the tone and building a feeling of tension leading into the film.

I always thought the opening from The Godfather was one of the most powerful openings I'd seen. Have to think about this one a little more...

 

[CanaTigers]

Tarantino has had a few Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds and Reservoir Dogs. Kubrick has had some memorable ones The Shining and Clockwork Orange were great and 2001 was different. Coppola's Apocalypse and Godfather. And I really liked Once upon a time in the west.

But my favorite opening in a movie has to be Blazing Saddles and I watch the first few minutes of it any time I just need a laugh.

 

[Clean]

All Time - Raiders of the Lost Ark. - It's a cliché now, but at the time, it was ground breaking. I loved the way the mountain from the Paramount Logo morphed into the scene.

Lately - I loved the opening scene from Casino Royale where Bond chased the guy up the building that was under construction, across the girders and crane arms, into an embassy and finally killed him.

Not a movie, but Breaking Bad had some great intros. I loved the scene featuring the prostitute, Wendy, done to the Association's song, Wendy. I'll never think of that song the same way again.

 

[accuratehorn]

Once Upon a Time in the West is the first to come to mind, greatness.

 

[dallastx]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

 

[71grad]

It is hard to choose. I really like Vertigo, A Clockwork Orange and High Noon but the Star Destroyer coming in over the top of the screen in A New Hope is my favorite.

 

[Basketball Jones]

The opening scene to "Apocalypse Now" was actually the scene with Martin Sheen wasted and trashing the hotel room. The exploding jungle and "This is the End" were part of the opening credits, not a scene.
For opening scenes that engage the audience immediately, look at pretty much any of the Bond movies.

 

[Bronco]

For suspense and thrill factor the opening scene of the fugitive was great

 

[Mesohorny]

Goldfinger: Bond knocks the guy trying to kill him into a full bathtub, then slaps an electric heater into the tub, electrocuting him. "Shocking. Positively shocking."

Young Frankenstein: Baron Von Frankenstein's coffin opens, two hands reach in to take a box holding his will off of the chest of his corpse which doesn't want to let go. "My name is pronounced Fronk-en-steen."

The Wild Bunch: the gang rides into a dusty town dressed in army uniforms to rob the train office and get into an epic gun battle, blowing the town to hell. "If they move, kill 'em!"

The classic opening scene is Citizen Kane: a distant view of Xanadu, cut shots closer in with one lighted window staying in the same place every shot, ending with an interior scene in the bedroom where a dying Kane drops and busts a snow globe. "Rosebud."

My favorite would have to be Saving Private Ryan, with the visit to the Normandy cemetery cutting to the invasion. Packs a realistic punch that never stops.

 

[Texanne]

The opening of Airplane! always amuses me:
Buh-DUM. Buh-DUM. Bug-DUM.