Best opening scene in a movie...

slacker

Conventional wisdom states that the opening scene to Lawrence of Arabia is the best. I think it's boring. Worth watching though. 

lloyd

cacophony said:

surprised no one else has done this, but *sighs* here goes...


'saving private ryan'?, don't understand this, what's so good about the old boy and his family in the cemetery?.


/obvious pedant

One, my pedantry doesn't allow me to ignore the horrendous grammar in this post.

Two, what do you mean, what's so good about the cemetery scene? If you need someone to explain the emotion of that scene I think it's probably wasted on you-it's not just him or that cemetery is it, it brings your attention to the millions of people who died, your own family included. Every Rememberance Day you've been to or watched and even watching current events with the kids screaming in agony after airstrikes  in Syria, Iraq etc.

Three, I'm not sure what you're being pedantic about?

cacophony

lloyd said:

cacophony said:

surprised no one else has done this, but *sighs* here goes...


'saving private ryan'?, don't understand this, what's so good about the old boy and his family in the cemetery?.


/obvious pedant

One, my pedantry doesn't allow me to ignore the horrendous grammar in this post.

Two, what do you mean, what's so good about the cemetery scene? If you need someone to explain the emotion of that scene I think it's probably wasted on you-it's not just him or that cemetery is it, it brings your attention to the millions of people who died, your own family included. Every Rememberance Day you've been to or watched and even watching current events with the kids screaming in agony after airstrikes  in Syria, Iraq etc.

Three, I'm not sure what you're being pedantic about?

WOW!!!... that went right over somebody's head there...

whoooosh!!!.

lloyd

cacophony said:

lloyd said:

cacophony said:

surprised no one else has done this, but *sighs* here goes...


'saving private ryan'?, don't understand this, what's so good about the old boy and his family in the cemetery?.


/obvious pedant

One, my pedantry doesn't allow me to ignore the horrendous grammar in this post.

Two, what do you mean, what's so good about the cemetery scene? If you need someone to explain the emotion of that scene I think it's probably wasted on you-it's not just him or that cemetery is it, it brings your attention to the millions of people who died, your own family included. Every Rememberance Day you've been to or watched and even watching current events with the kids screaming in agony after airstrikes  in Syria, Iraq etc.

Three, I'm not sure what you're being pedantic about?

WOW!!!... that went right over somebody's head there...

whoooosh!!!.

I've just got up

RaymondLin

I still maintain that the correct answer to this question is Back to the Future.

There are some more dramatic, more memorable, more impressive, more expensive, more visual impact, more difficult to pull off but in terms of the OP's question, for a film class.  It has to be Back to the Future, purely because of its principle of what it does is so simple and easily translatable to any movie, compare to the opening scene of Star Wars, that idea is never going to work for a romantic comedy.  Saving Private Ryan's opening scene isn't going to work for Fairy Tale.

Back to the Future.

TimmyO

I'd go with 'Drive' - thought it was mesmerising 

xsheq

THERE IS NO BEST. 

stickyfiddle

Surprised no mention of Raiders of the Lost Ark yet.

Everyone remembers the parkour bit of Casino Royale, but wasn't the actual intro the black & white section of Bond getting his Double-O status. Absolutely brutal.

xsheq

If he hasn't got it, buy him this. Then he can quit film school.

BigBearKris

What first comes to mind:

"2001: Space Odyssey".

Kubrik's "Shining" is great too.

"Godfather" opening is fantastic, as is the whole picture. 

RocknRollDave

Helter Skelter in Rattle and Hum

Monkeybone

Up. The first time I watched it I had to pause it after the first ten minutes as I was a jibbering wreck of emotions. And the second time too.

Nikko

Reservoir Dogs

Rear Window

Dopesick

Full Metal Jacket for me - seeing them get their heads shaved with scared/vacant/empty (delete as app.) expressions on their face, completely unaware that soon they are going to begin the slow arduous process of being transformed into complete killing machines. It's the last time they will ever feel like a normal human being. Plus, Sgt Hartman is freakin' awesome, obv.

holnrew

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Possibly one of the best book adaptations ever too

thisisguitar

The opening for Blade is pretty amazing, I remember being shocked when I first saw it. Wesley Snipes is a badass when he turns up too.

Philly_Q

merlin said:

A Touch of Evil, Orson Welles back in 1958, the posthumously re-edited version according to Welles' notes...changing the game, again. Absolute genius.

Can't argue with that.  The long tracking shot which opens the film is brilliant.

RobDavies

He went for The Dark Knight in the end - a film he knows almost inside out, so that made writing five hundred words about it, much easier.

However, because he flunked his GCSE's, the college he was hoping to go to, to study film (amongst other things) have said they won't take him - so his essay was all in vain.

I wouldn't have minded but he went for an interview at the college on Tuesday, the showed him around and issued his student ID and then, after an hour and a half of lulling him into a false sense of security, a bloke looked at his GCSE results and said "Sorry, we can't admit you with grades like this".

****ing bastards.

DarnWeight

May not be regarded as his best film, but John Carpenter's The Fog has one of my favourite opening sequences ever.  Starts with John Houseman telling a ghost story to a bunch of wide-eyed kids on the beach, just as the clock strikes midnight, and then drifts into scenes of things going subtly, spookily awry across Antonio Bay...no dialogue, no soundtrack, beautifully shot and edited.  Lovely, disquieting atmospheric stuff.

therose789

Big fan of the opening scene of blade runner. 

Thats absolutely balls the way they have treated him like!