Let’s celebrate Big Hollywood’s opening day with opening scenes, the memorable ones that set the tone and sweep us into the story.
1. Touch of Evil (1958) – Not only did director Orson Welles set up most of his story and lead characters in a spectacular, single 3:30 shot, but reportedly he saved his job knocking it off in a single take as nervous producers looked on. And don’t listen to the film Ed Wood (1994). Welles was not forced to give Charlton Heston the lead role. In fact, it was Heston who fought to have Welles hired to direct.2. Apocalypse Now (1979) – Director Francis Ford Coppola’s vivid nightmare opens on the slow-motion sound of helicopters over a jungle exploding in napalm all set to The Doors’ The End. Familiar, intoxicating, hellish, and something no CGI could ever recreate.
3. Elmer Gantry (1960): Burt Lancaster’s larger-than-life Elmer Gantry holds court in a seedy bar, throwing back the whiskey and preaching the word: Jesus had love in both fists! And what is love? Love is the mornin’ and the evenin’ star. But it’s a head fake – misdirection. You only think you know who this character is. A few minutes later the complexity thickens when, shoeless and exhausted, Gantry enters a black church and breaks into a gospel song few white men would know.
4. The Searchers (1956): John Ford opens the front door of a tranquil pioneer family’s cabin. A big man (John Wayne) on a big horse slowly makes his way toward us, and without a word we’re told nothing will ever be the same for this family again.
5. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966): It might only be a credit sequence, but what a credit sequence. Vibrant colors and the kind of rousing, iconic score, courtesy of Ennio Morricone, no one seems to want to try anymore.
What say you?
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