Best opening scenes of all time?

[JCoz]

If someone has one better than this one I'd like to see it.....this one is chock full of Win.

[aoxo1]

[FUDU]

Seriously?, Private Ryan.

End of thread.

[jfiling]

Seriously?, Private Ryan.

End of thread.

O, RLY?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgnlu-kpdOs&feature=player_embedded#[/youtube]

[hermanfontenot]

[Lubber]

[JCoz]

Wolfgang Gullich has some really amazing scenes in that movie.

I think he died shortly after that unfortunately.

[swerb]

Hands down, Saving Private Ryan. A total no brainer. The actors, the realism, the cinematography, the stunning violence, the signifigant moment in American history that was being depicted. Spielberg let the entire world know what it was like to walk in those mens shoes on that day.

The most jaw dropping 30 minutes in American film history IMO, and they hit you with it like a vicious uppercut the second the bell sounds. Even lull you in a little ... opening briefly with the scene of the older Ryan at the cemetary. Dream sequence ... troop mover boats, soldier throwing up, and then it's ON.

Never saw that film at the theater. Will never forget the first time I saw it though. Bachelor pad, living with Pup. Had just hooked up our other new roommates massive big screen TV (before everyone had em) and surround sound. Got our minds right, dimmed the lights, cued up the flick.

Needed to pause it after that scene and suck down a couple cigarettes to process what I just saw.

[leadpipe]

Blazing Saddles.

[jb]

NFW I can top the Normandy invasion scene of SPR , easily arguably the most gripping scene of all time. But yo , technicality, wasn't that actually the SECOND scene and the opener was the family going to the cemetary? A tear jerker when paired w/ scene two - the invasion - but on it's own, just awe ite. Old dude walking in front of family and breaking down crying. Not until you know whet he went through does it completely take your breath out.

This was always one of my favs. If yer impatient, advance to about 2:05 into the clip. It never gets old. I wish Nino Brown were the Browns' GM.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgdIP6ZDHnM&feature=PlayList&p=CB02D8EA068A2C01&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=11[/youtube]

I can't find it easily, but the opening scene of the original Jaws garbbed you immediately as well.

[waborat]

1-5. Saving Private Ryan

6. Raiders Of The Lost Ark

7. Pulp Fiction

8. Reservoir Dogs

9. Kill Bill

10. Jackass

[Cease]

Not best of all time, but... I loved the open to Hustle and Flow, the in-car conversation between ho and pimp (Terrance Howard) could have run the full hour and a half. Too bad it didn't.

[British_Pharaoh]

Seriously?, Private Ryan.

End of thread.

Old dude walking to a cemetery??

doesn't scream win to me

I don't count the amphibious landing as the opening scene

[rebelwithoutaclue]

Couldn't agree more.



Love the opening scene from The Big Lebowski, but oddly couldn't find it on youtube. Can't beat The Dude writing a check for $0.69.

[British_Pharaoh]

No one mentions...........




Just for the line

Well your best better get a hell of a lot fucking better or you are gonna feel a hell of a lot fucking worse

[waborat]

No one mentions...........




Just for the line

Well your best better get a hell of a lot fucking better or you are gonna feel a hell of a lot fucking worse

Gawd, I wish the entire movie was like the first 1/2 hour...

Could've been a classic

[British_Pharaoh]

No one mentions...........




Just for the line

Well your best better get a hell of a lot fucking better or you are gonna feel a hell of a lot fucking worse

Gawd, I wish the entire movie was like the first 1/2 hour...

Could've been a classic

regard for your opinion on movies has be drastically de-valued

[jb]

No one mentions...........




Just for the line

Well your best better get a hell of a lot fucking better or you are gonna feel a hell of a lot fucking worse

Gawd, I wish the entire movie was like the first 1/2 hour...

Could've been a classic

regard for your opinion on movies has be drastically de-valued

gimme the first 30 mins and the lst shoot out vampire sceme. Dump the cereal filler.

[JCoz]

Seriously?, Private Ryan.

End of thread.

Old dude walking to a cemetery??

doesn't scream win to me

I don't count the amphibious landing as the opening scene

Agreed, once you change the location like that the opening scene is over.

[British_Pharaoh]

No one mentions...........




Just for the line

Well your best better get a hell of a lot fucking better or you are gonna feel a hell of a lot fucking worse

Gawd, I wish the entire movie was like the first 1/2 hour...

Could've been a classic

regard for your opinion on movies has be drastically de-valued

gimme the first 30 mins and the lst shoot out vampire sceme. Dump the cereal filler.

so you'd cut out Salma Hayek??

[jb]

No one mentions...........




Just for the line

Well your best better get a hell of a lot fucking better or you are gonna feel a hell of a lot fucking worse

Gawd, I wish the entire movie was like the first 1/2 hour...

Could've been a classic

regard for your opinion on movies has be drastically de-valued

gimme the first 30 mins and the lst shoot out vampire sceme. Dump the cereal filler.

so you'd cut out Salma Hayek??

OK, she and the snake must stay.

[waborat]

No one mentions...........




Just for the line

Well your best better get a hell of a lot fucking better or you are gonna feel a hell of a lot fucking worse

Gawd, I wish the entire movie was like the first 1/2 hour...

Could've been a classic

regard for your opinion on movies has be drastically de-valued

gimme the first 30 mins and the lst shoot out vampire sceme. Dump the cereal filler.

so you'd cut out Salma Hayek??

Once she turns into yet-another body-exploding vamp? then yes...

Same goes for Cheech

[FUDU]

You guys are nitpicking the SPR opening scene. The attack on the beach is just a continuance of the few moments in the cemetery, very critical and relevant to point of the old man actually visiting the grave of PFC. Ryan.

As Swerb mentioned, never has a movie made me feel as if I were there or as humbled by historical human events. (the only other exception was TPOC when Jesus gets beaten by the Romans, you have to either believe or have been raised to believe to really appreciate that part as well).

[aoxo1]

You guys are nitpicking the SPR opening scene. The attack on the beach is just a continuance of the few moments in the cemetery, very critical and relevant to point of the old man actually visiting the grave of PFC. Ryan.

As Swerb mentioned, never has a movie made me feel as if I were there or as humbled by historical human events. (the only other exception was TPOC when Jesus gets beaten by the Romans, you have to either believe or have been raised to believe to really appreciate that part as well).

I would contend that, in nearly every movie in existence, one could say "... is just a continuance of the few moments..." about the next 2 hours. Doesn't make the next 2 hours part of the opening scene.

[JCoz]

No one mentions...........




Just for the line

Well your best better get a hell of a lot fucking better or you are gonna feel a hell of a lot fucking worse

Gawd, I wish the entire movie was like the first 1/2 hour...

Could've been a classic

regard for your opinion on movies has be drastically de-valued

gimme the first 30 mins and the lst shoot out vampire sceme. Dump the cereal filler.

I think you are spot on...the movie before it goes in the direction of vampires, had the makings of an incredible movie.

I'd would have loved to have see them redo the movie and just go an entirely different direction.

Clooney was a badass in that movie, one of my favorite charactors

[JCoz]

You guys are nitpicking the SPR opening scene. The attack on the beach is just a continuance of the few moments in the cemetery, very critical and relevant to point of the old man actually visiting the grave of PFC. Ryan.

As Swerb mentioned, never has a movie made me feel as if I were there or as humbled by historical human events. (the only other exception was TPOC when Jesus gets beaten by the Romans, you have to either believe or have been raised to believe to really appreciate that part as well).

No one is saying it isnt a great scene, but I don't think its nit-picking at all.

When they shot the scene, they shot the cemetary, then they shot the battle. I think that is two different scenes.

Scene:
2. The place where an action or event occurs: the scene of the crime.
3. The place in which the action of a play, movie, novel, or other narrative occurs; a setting.
4.
a. A subdivision of an act in a dramatic presentation in which the setting is fixed and the time continuous.
b. A shot or series of shots in a movie constituting a unit of continuous related action.

[FUDU]

You guys are nitpicking the SPR opening scene. The attack on the beach is just a continuance of the few moments in the cemetery, very critical and relevant to point of the old man actually visiting the grave of PFC. Ryan.

As Swerb mentioned, never has a movie made me feel as if I were there or as humbled by historical human events. (the only other exception was TPOC when Jesus gets beaten by the Romans, you have to either believe or have been raised to believe to really appreciate that part as well).

I would contend that, in nearly every movie in existence, one could say "... is just a continuance of the few moments..." about the next 2 hours. Doesn't make the next 2 hours part of the opening scene.

Well by most logic in here we could technically dissect all sorts of opening scenes and end up saying they are multiple scenes as soon as anything deviates from the original first 10-20 seconds of the movie?

What's the first scene of Rocky 2? The fight from the end of Rocky 1 or the ambulance/hospital scene?

[waborat]

You guys are nitpicking the SPR opening scene. The attack on the beach is just a continuance of the few moments in the cemetery, very critical and relevant to point of the old man actually visiting the grave of PFC. Ryan.

As Swerb mentioned, never has a movie made me feel as if I were there or as humbled by historical human events. (the only other exception was TPOC when Jesus gets beaten by the Romans, you have to either believe or have been raised to believe to really appreciate that part as well).

No one is saying it isnt a great scene, but I don't think its nit-picking at all.

When they shot the scene, they shot the cemetary, then they shot the battle. I think that is two different scenes.

Scene:
2. The place where an action or event occurs: the scene of the crime.
3. The place in which the action of a play, movie, novel, or other narrative occurs; a setting.
4.
a. A subdivision of an act in a dramatic presentation in which the setting is fixed and the time continuous.
b. A shot or series of shots in a movie constituting a unit of continuous related action.

Damn, splittin hairs on TCF...

The flick's no different from a prologue in a novel...

Starts with a setup of a main character and goes into the first scene...

Just my 2 pennies

[jb]

You guys are nitpicking the SPR opening scene.

I like the opening scene in Amadeus where Tom Hulce dies.

That opener in Gone with the Wind where Rhett tells Scarlet that "Frankly, I don't give a damn", is an all time classic as well.

And no list is complete without that epic scene where King Faisal breaks down post-war reality to the overly idealistic Peter O'Toole playing Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia.

[jb]

As Swerb mentioned, never has a movie made me feel as if I were there or as humbled by historical human events. the only other exception was TPOC when Jesus gets beaten by the Romans, .

Is that novel?

As Tony Soprano used to point out, the Roman's descendants beat people down all the time.

[jb]

You guys are nitpicking the SPR opening scene. The attack on the beach is just a continuance of the few moments in the cemetery, very critical and relevant to point of the old man actually visiting the grave of PFC. Ryan.

As Swerb mentioned, never has a movie made me feel as if I were there or as humbled by historical human events. (the only other exception was TPOC when Jesus gets beaten by the Romans, you have to either believe or have been raised to believe to really appreciate that part as well).

No one is saying it isnt a great scene, but I don't think its nit-picking at all.

When they shot the scene, they shot the cemetary, then they shot the battle. I think that is two different scenes.

Scene:
2. The place where an action or event occurs: the scene of the crime.
3. The place in which the action of a play, movie, novel, or other narrative occurs; a setting.
4.
a. A subdivision of an act in a dramatic presentation in which the setting is fixed and the time continuous.
b. A shot or series of shots in a movie constituting a unit of continuous related action.

Damn, splittin hairs on TCF...

The flick's no different from a prologue in a novel...

Starts with a setup of a main character and goes into the first scene...

Just my 2 pennies

And I call that Chapter One and Chapter Two.

"Here's my ten cents, my two is free."
- M Mathers

Now.... were we talking the first 30 minutes of a film?

Kumquats and Starfruit.

Like syaing a 40 yard dash = 100 meters race.

[Cease]

Totally forgot that the opening scene of Super Troopers actually gets you to watch the rest of the film.

[jb]

Totally forgot that the opening scene of Super Troopers actually gets you to watch the rest of the film.

U mean Starship Troopers?

One of my fav guilty pleasures.

[Cease]

Totally forgot that the opening scene of Super Troopers actually gets you to watch the rest of the film.

U mean Starship Troopers?

One of my fav guilty pleasures.

Nah- it's Super Troopers.

"I'm freakin out, man."



I've only seen bits of Starship Troopers.

[davemanddd]

Seriously?, Private Ryan.

End of thread.

Old dude walking to a cemetery??

doesn't scream win to me

I don't count the amphibious landing as the opening scene

what a technicality. you sound like butch davis talking about kelly holcomb only having a "teeny-tiny break" in his leg. that's like a girl saying she's only "a little bit pregnant". yeah right, the dude's leg was broke. no "ifs", "ands" or "buts" about it.

it's the same thing as far as the opening scene to "saving private ryan" goes. it's all part of the same scene as the old guy walking thru the cemetary is actually remembering what led him to that point.

most people understand that that opening war scene is hands down the most powerful opening scene in any movie ever. get with the program.

my kids would say it's "finding nemo" though when the barracuda eats choral and all the kids except of course "nemo". hee-hee!!!

[hermanfontenot]

No one mentions...........




Just for the line

Well your best better get a hell of a lot fucking better or you are gonna feel a hell of a lot fucking worse

Sheriff Earl McGraw FTW: "Don't you know them things'll kill you faster 'n a bullet? Only people them things are good for is a hippie... when he's high on weed." Or something like that.

[British_Pharaoh]

You guys are nitpicking the SPR opening scene.

I like the opening scene in Amadeus where Tom Hulce dies.

That opener in Gone with the Wind where Rhett tells Scarlet that "Frankly, I don't give a damn", is an all time classic as well.

And no list is complete without that epic scene where King Faisal breaks down post-war reality to the overly idealistic Peter O'Toole playing Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia.

LOL you Americans DOOOO know sarcasm


this made me laugh heartily by the way

[JCoz]

You guys are nitpicking the SPR opening scene. The attack on the beach is just a continuance of the few moments in the cemetery, very critical and relevant to point of the old man actually visiting the grave of PFC. Ryan.

As Swerb mentioned, never has a movie made me feel as if I were there or as humbled by historical human events. (the only other exception was TPOC when Jesus gets beaten by the Romans, you have to either believe or have been raised to believe to really appreciate that part as well).

No one is saying it isnt a great scene, but I don't think its nit-picking at all.

When they shot the scene, they shot the cemetary, then they shot the battle. I think that is two different scenes.

Scene:
2. The place where an action or event occurs: the scene of the crime.
3. The place in which the action of a play, movie, novel, or other narrative occurs; a setting.
4.
a. A subdivision of an act in a dramatic presentation in which the setting is fixed and the time continuous.
b. A shot or series of shots in a movie constituting a unit of continuous related action.

Damn, splittin hairs on TCF...

The flick's no different from a prologue in a novel...

Starts with a setup of a main character and goes into the first scene...

Just my 2 pennies

I thought it was pretty clearly setting based (chage the place, change the scene), but it's all good, certainly there is no scene listed here that is as powerfull as SPR.

If the consensus is that its all one scene, it's really not that big of a deal. Close enough.

[yogi]

Hands down, Saving Private Ryan. A total no brainer.

No offense meant Swerb, but if you havent seen any of the Indiana movies, you cant be so sure.

Saving Private Ryan was a great opening sequence, but shoot it was D-Day for goodness sake...pretty dramatic day? no?

The 1st Indy movie opening sequence was the best I've ever seen and the most memorable.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Predator 2.

[Erie Warrior]

U mean Starship Troopers?

One of my fav guilty pleasures.

Nothing guilty about enjoying a cinematic masterpiece. Guns, giant bugs, football, boobs, corporal punishment, Jake Busey's enormous teeth, and the guy who plays Richter in Total Recall. If you can find something in that list that isn't awesome, let me know.

And a villain that looks like an 8-eyed vagina.


Classic.

[waborat]

U mean Starship Troopers?

One of my fav guilty pleasures.

Nothing guilty about enjoying a cinematic masterpiece. Guns, giant bugs, football, boobs, corporal punishment, Jake Busey's enormous teeth, and the guy who plays Richter in Total Recall. If you can find something in that list that isn't awesome, let me know.

And a villain that looks like an 8-eyed vagina.


Classic.

Gross, looks like Rosie O'Donnell sitting on a rabbit

[Cerebral_DownTime]

U mean Starship Troopers?

One of my fav guilty pleasures.

Nothing guilty about enjoying a cinematic masterpiece. Guns, giant bugs, football, boobs, corporal punishment, Jake Busey's enormous teeth, and the guy who plays Richter in Total Recall. If you can find something in that list that isn't awesome, let me know.

And a villain that looks like an 8-eyed vagina.


Classic.

Gross, looks like Rosie O'Donnell sitting on a rabbit

Dude....... That's pretty fucked up right there.

[e0y2e3]

Zombieland...

Oh, wait, CDT won't go to the fucking movies to back me up on this....

Intro/Teazer/suck my ballz or go see it....

[Erie Warrior]

Gross, looks like Rosie O'Donnell sitting on a rabbit

Quality.

[Triple-S]

Casino and Goodfellas are tied for my favorite movies of all time list.

"...Ace Rothstein was an excellent handcapper"

I would pay money to go see a Martin Scorsese directed movie with Pesci and De Niro reading the Phonebook for three hours.

[British_Pharaoh]

U mean Starship Troopers?

One of my fav guilty pleasures.

Nothing guilty about enjoying a cinematic masterpiece. Guns, giant bugs, football, boobs, corporal punishment, Jake Busey's enormous teeth, and the guy who plays Richter in Total Recall. If you can find something in that list that isn't awesome, let me know.

And a villain that looks like an 8-eyed vagina.


Classic.

did anyone else feel sorry for him when they captured one?

[No Mistake]

Boogie Nights anyone?

[Spin]

Pretty much set the tone for the rest of the movie

[OldDawg]

Gross, looks like Rosie O'Donnell sitting on a rabbit

Quality.

I confess. I laughed.