This week at Southern Vision, all the posts I’ve written have been to do with movie titles. That trend was completely coincidental, but it looks set to continue with this brief post I’m just writing on the spot as I don’t have much time today.
Today I’d like to highlight what I believe to be the best opening to a movie ever. And luckily for the mainstream movie-lovers reading, it is not from an indie or foreign film. Last night I had a chance to rewatch the opening of one of my all-time favourite films, this time on Blu Ray on my friend Stephen’s beautiful 60″ screen (rendering me all kinds of jealous). The film was Apocalypse Now.
I’d seen it many, many times before, but never like this. He’d set the place up so it looked and felt a lot like a real theatre, and then, to prove how amazingly he’d set the place up, he popped in a Blu Ray of Apocalypse Now: Redux and we watched the first few minutes with the volume kicked up to full and the screen just engulfing us.
I sat looking at the screen, dumbfounded like a young child, as a scene I’d always loved was brought to life so incredibly viscerally by his cutting edge sound system. He’d been working on it all for years, and to have it finally done was a huge accomplishment for him, so I congratulate him.
Anyway, that scene blew my mind in a way it never had before, and it has prompted me to write this, as well as ask you a special question. Before I ask the question, I’ve supplied a YouTube clip of the opening below. It’s nowhere near as amazing to watch as it was on the big screen, but it should give you a tiny feel of how amazing it must be to see it in the cinema.
Amazing, isn’t it? The music, combined with the explosions… so surreal, and beautiful. The best opening sequence I’ve ever seen and a great way to close out a winning streak of 70s masterpieces for Francis Ford Coppola.
Enough of that… now I bring the question to you:
What is your favourite opening sequence of a movie?
Think about it for a while; don’t rush and type your answer. I don’t want several answers from one person, I’d like you all to provide just one concrete answer each, with no honourable mentions, or second or third places for other scenes. Just one sequence. Your favourite sequence. Now think!
