The best movie opening scene...

I think the James Bond series deserves mention for opening a movie with a flourish.

 

I threw this on another thread, but I've always like the opening to Baseketball:

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I have a new favorite opening. Saving Private Ryan.
With the big-titted granddaughters.

 

Friggin' love that Jacobi opening. Great movie from start to finish. I'll also second the opening of "Star Wars". For those of you that grew up with ILM special effects, it's hard to explain how overwhelming that was to a 17 year old sitting in the first row of the West Van Odeon.

And sentimental fool that I am, I have to add the opening scene of "The Sound of Music". That long, long helicopter tracking shot as the music builds and finds Maria in the middle of a mountain meadow as she breaks into song always gets me.

 

Yeah, true. I just found it amusing that my choices were "Citizen Kane" and "Night of the Living Dead."

And to be completely honest, this is my favorite, and I can damn near quote it from memory:

 

Those are some pretty nice granddaughters.

 

My favorite beginning: Bow-chicka wow waaaaaw.

 

Gangs of New York deserves a mention. And I'll also give a nod to Miller's Crossing.

 

Can't believe I forgot -- easily the most stupid, over-the-top, implausible, gorey, and yet somehow totally awesomely awesometastic opening scene to what becomes, truly, a streak of shit on film: Ghost Ship.

 

"Touch of Evil" - the mother of all tracking shots through Tijuana. A classic. Charlton Heston with a dirty sanchez, and Orson Welles as, well, a fat sleazy bastard.

 

I'm now flogging myself for forgetting Miller's Crossing. To make up for it, I think I'll watch it now.

 

Ugh...that was nasty...and what followed was unwatchable for different reasons.