Monday, July 23, 2018

Short Cuts: Films that Floored You from the First !



Redartz:  Good day to one and all! Here's a quick, but fun, topic to mull over on this Monday. What film, or films, have you seen that absolutely KNOCKED YOU OUT from the start? You know how some movies start out slow, and take awhile to build up interest and momentum. Other films grab you by the shirt from the opening scene and never let you go. That's the kind we're looking for today. 

As for your humble host, one such film was "Raiders of the Lost Ark". I can still recall the experience of seeing it for the first time, with a college friend at the mall theater. That opening sequence with the pitfalls, traps, boulders, snakes and arrows had me shellshocked from the start. You can bet I was glued to the seat for the next two hours, and spent the rest of the evening raving about how incredible it was. That initial few minutes still stands as one of the best film beginnings ever. Lucas and Spielberg hit lightning with a hammer...

Now how about you? Any stellar starts, inspiring intros or overpowering openings? Pass the popcorn and let's share... 

 

10 comments:

The Groovy Agent said...

Star Wars. When the first notes of the music blasted, the crawl started, then that massive ship started slowly flying (what seemed like) right over my head? I knew I was in a new world! Blew me away like nothing before or since.

Humanbelly said...

SPIRITED AWAY is the very first thing that sprung to mind, even though that opening scene is sooooo deceptively and deliberately measured and quiet and mundane. It completely sets up the feeling that SOMETHING big is going to happen. . . you just don't know exactly what or when. And then the film delivers on that promise about tenfold--

RAIDERS was of course the very next one-- and that was before I'd scrolled down to see it as your own embedded-image example-! That's the only movie where my pal and I tried to find a way to stay in the theater to catch the next showing (although we were unsuccessful---).

The opening sequence of HALLOWEEN was sooooo effective on the big screen at the time--- but it honestly hasn't aged well, and it totally doesn't translate well to television-sized viewing.

Opening number in Disney's BEAUTY & THE BEAST? My wife was bouncing up & down in her theater seat as it concluded-- ha!

Oh geeze-- and I'm gonna be greedy and toss the opening montage sequence from UP into the conversation. I- no kidding- can't even talk about it out loud because it so deeply chokes me up, just thinking about it. Whenever the theme pops up on one of my Pandora stations I have to leave the room. . .

HB

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Rocky and Rambo appealed to this teenager and his buddies in a big way. Sly was “a man’s man” ready to meet the challenges head on with a ton of action!

Anonymous said...

Superman- As a kid, I was swept up by the music, the epic feel, the sci-fi (how did the Phantom Zone work?), and the world building from the get-go. I don't remember being bored, even with all the "mushy stuff." As a kid, the ending... well, it still didn't make a lick of sense, but who cares 'cuz Superman saved the day!

- Mike Loughlin

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Also (Charlie lives in the past a bit) Bataan and Meet John Doe grabbed me from the moment I saw them but it was on television since i was watching in the 70s and they were made around 1936 and 1941.

Mike Wilson said...

Yeah, the original Star Wars trilogy grabbed me right away; still hasn't let go, really ...

Edo Bosnar said...

I have to agree with Raiders. That was one that had me from the first scene.
The only other one I can think of that kind of blew my mind when I first saw it in the theater was To Live and Die in LA.

Redartz said...

Thanks for commenting, all! Full agreement here with the votes for Star Wars, especially the first one. The looming text and ship were an effectively impressive way to start the tale.

HB- yes, "Up" definitely gets you at the start, right in the heart. Pixar is good at that; "Incredibles" is another that had a pretty memorable opening.

And actually, most of the James Bond films started off in high gear...

Mike L- good call on Superman. It was epic in every sense of the word.

Killraven said...

Yes absolutely, STAR WARS, SUPERMAN, RAIDERS.

A couple that floored me in another way; JAWS-the tension and the music ,wow.
THE EXORCIST- scared the life out of me.

Martinex1 said...

I like all of the suggestions. It seems to me that older movies - or Bronze Age movies - have better opening catches than more modern films. Perhaps the current trend in preview trailers has diminished the impact because they show so much.

I think back about Raiders, Star Wars, and one of my favorites Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and it seems the opening sequences were just riveting. Was it my age or were the films better crafted? Did not having spoilers help?

One of my favorite movies is Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope.” Right from the start we see the killing and know who the killers are. I can’t not pay attention after that.

That feeling seems true of a lot of classics from “Sunset Boulevard” to “The Wild Bunch”. I like how they just get to the story quickly.

I think that is a flaw with the superhero origin movies - it takes so long to get going. We all want to see Spider-Man: we don’t need many minutes to get to the Spider bite and some action. “In medias res” is under rated!

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