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What’s the best way to start a movie? If it’s a horror movie, maybe you instill a sense of foreboding dread in the audience. If it’s an action movie, maybe you hit the ground literally running. The truth is there’s no one way to begin a movie, but there are many films that have done it perfectly with their opening shot. Whether it’s setting the mood, communicating something about a character or setting, or establishing a plot point, opening shots can be incredibly impactful.
Looking back on movies from the 20th century, there are hundreds of opening shots that anyone could pick as the most perfect, even though some of them might be misremembered. There are plenty of iconic films whose opening shots are far from their most iconic. Many remember the vast landscapes of Lawrence of Arabia, but forget it begins with a simple shot of Lawrence cleaning his motorcycle. That shot, though effective, isn’t among the most perfect opening shots of the 20th century.
10
‘Back to the Future’ (1985)
There’s something to be said for efficiency in visual storytelling. Robert Zemeckis is, or was, one of the best directors at communicating character, atmosphere and plot points through a single, and his filmography is filled with long opening shots often packed with information. There’s the opening shot of Contact, which begins on Earth and travels backwards through space using radio broadcasts, and the famous floating feather in Forrest Gump, but his best opening shot is the one that quietly tracks through the lab space of Doc Brown in the classic Back to the Future.
The shot, which moves across a series of ticking clocks in the garage that Brown operates out of, not only cleverly foreshadows the film’s climax, in a clock that also homages Harold Lloyd in Safety Last! but also gives us a bit of backstory for Brown in the form of newspapers. There’s also the setup provided for the stolen plutonium, which will be a key plotpoint for the film’s inciting incident. There’s so much communicated in one simple shot, giving the audience more information than they even know they need to know and prepping them for a perfect adventure.
9
‘Rear Window’ (1954)
When it comes to shots that convey information, it’s hard to beat the one that roams all over the Greenwich Village neighborhood and apartment of its protagonist in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller masterpiece Rear Window. That impressive shot isn’t actually the opening shot of the movie, though. The real opening shot lifts the literal curtain on the film as it reveals the neighborhood from inside the apartment of photojournalist L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart). It’s an inversion of the kind of opening shot that Hitchcock often employed, where the camera would come from the outside looking in. It’s a voyeurism present in the opening shots of films like Psycho and Rope, where the director invites us into the lives of the characters, and Rear Window turns it around.
The opening shot of this thriller, which takes place almost entirely within the apartment, shows how Jeffries sees the world outside. It gives us his vantage point where he, and by extension the audience, will voyeuristically observe his neighbors. It allows us to immediately associate with the character before we’ve even met him, and introduces us to the setting we’ll be spending the rest of the film in, all of it built on one big, impressive soundstage.
8
‘The Lion King’ (1994)
Few opening shots are as audible as the gorgeous one that opens the Disney animated classic The Lion King. Watching the sun rise on an African plane immediately conjures the opening lyrics from “Circle of Life.” It’s the most iconic opening shot of any Disney animated film ever, and there’s some stiff competition. From the multiplane zoom across the Australian Outback in The Rescuers Down Under to the fairytale beginning of Beauty and the Beast, there’s a lot of magic in their openings, but none quite as majestic as that first shot in The Lion King.
Beyond the visual and aural beauty of the shot, there’s its symbolic representation of a new birth, a key part in the Circle of Life which is reflected in the cyclical plot of the film as well. The sun rises on a new day to bring light to a dark land just as Simba will later bring when he defeats his evil uncle Scar. It’s an incredible beginning both visually and thematically for the film, and carries far more weight to it than the hollow recreation in the “live-action” remake.
7
‘Fargo’ (1996)
Much like the beginning of The Lion King, the opening shot of Fargo is big on vibes and atmosphere. Immediately preceded by a text introduction which (falsely) claims that the events of the film are based on a true story, the opening shot then fades in with a completely white screen. It’s a perfect representation of the desolate winter conditions of the Midwest which are integral to the chilly neo-noir story that is about to unfold. Even when the endless white is broken by the appearance of a lonely station wagon, the shot maintains its ominous tone.
What makes this shot so successful is the combination of Roger Deakins’ gorgeous cinematography and Cart Burwell’s foreboding score. Both men are longtime collaborators of Joel and Ethan Coen, and their contributions are part of what makes Fargo the quintessential Coen Brothers film. There are few single shots that more simply or effectively communicate the tone of a film. It’s a chilling beginning to a cold-blooded film.
6
‘A Clockwork Orange’ (1971)
If ever there was a filmmaker whose films announce to you exactly what kind of wild ride you’re in for from the very first shot, it’s Stanley Kubrick. Whether it’s the voyeuristic beginning to Eyes Wide Shut, the planetary alignment of 2001: A Space Odyssey or the distant duel of Barry Lyndon, the director knows how to immediately immerse you into the world of each film. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the unsettling opening shot of A Clockwork Orange.
As a dystopic satire of societal reform featuring a violent youth as its protagonist, Kubrick’s adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ novel is an endurance test for audiences. It doesn’t hold back, and it still manages to shock and appall decades later. That intensity is obvious in the opening shot, which starts on the searing eyes of Malcolm McDowell, doing a perfect “Kubrick stare,” as the sociopathic Alex DeLarge. The shot slowly zooms out, enveloping us in DeLarge’s world as his words fill our ears. It’s discomforting and utterly perfect.
5
‘Alien’ (1979)
One iconic opening shot of Kubrick’s not mentioned above is the dread-inducing aerial shot that begins The Shining. Horror films often begin with a sense of impending doom. While The Shining does this incredibly effectively, it’s not the only film to do so. There’s the burst of a flashbulb and a glimpse of something decayed in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the roaming force in the woods in The Evil Dead, and the dark reaches of outer space in Alien. It’s the latter that best exemplifies the kind of existential dread that permeates its setting.
Set in the claustrophobic corridors of a spaceship millions of miles from Earth, where a commercial crew is systematically torn apart by an invasive extra-terrestrial, Alien is the ultimate experience in sci-fi horror, and its opening shot prepares you for the unrelenting terror it’s going to unleash. A slow, methodical tracking shot across the vast expanse of space featuring Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting score underneath it as the title of the film reveals itself, it’s dark, moody and the perfect beginning to a perfect sci-fi film.
4
‘Star Wars’ (1977)
On the opposite end of the galaxy from the foreboding beginning of Alien is the exhilarating opening shot of the original Star Wars. Even though only those who saw the film during its original release in theaters got to truly experience the overwhelming awe of this sci-fi masterpiece, the perfection of the opening shot hasn’t been diminished by a single parsec. From the opening crawl to the appearance of the first starship in Star Wars history, this is the epic shot that started a phenomenon.
After the iconic opening text and title crawl, the film immediately immerses us in its world as the Tantive IV flies overhead, immediately followed by a staggering Star Destroyer. It’s unlike anything that audiences in 1977 had ever seen before, since the most expansive views of outer space prior to George Lucas’ film came from 2001: A Space Odyssey, which had a far more deliberate and realistic approach to its starships. Star Wars is pure escapism from its very first frame.
3
‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979)
Whether you consider Apocalypse Now the greatest film ever made about the Vietnam War is a pure matter of preference, but there’s no denying that the opening shot of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece is the most perfect summation of the war on film. It encapsulates the chaos and destruction of the war as well as its ultimate futility. As it crossfades with the visage of Martin Sheen, lying alone in his hotel room, it also captures the broken mental state of its protagonist, mirroring the psychological trauma felt by so many who fought in the real war.
Beginning with the repeated thrums of helicopter blades over the image of a jungle that is quickly engulfed in napalm as “The End” by The Doors plays, the shot is of a scale that is near impossible to replicate for a number of purely practical reasons. If the idiom “war is hell” were to be turned into a single image, it would be the first shot from Apocalypse Now. The film is a totemic masterpiece that engulfs the audience.
2
‘Raging Bull’ (1980)
From a massive war of opposing armies to one man’s war with himself, Martin Scorsese’s operatic boxing biopic Raging Bull is as gritty as sports films get. It chronicles the rise and fall of Jake LaMotta, as played by Robert De Niro in an Oscar-winning performance, and the film emphasizes how the boxer’s greatest opponent was always himself. That point is made emphatically in the stunning, mesmerizing shot that begins the film.
Set to the symphonic Intermezzo from the opera Cavalleria rusticana and featuring De Niro shadowboxing in slow motion a smoke-filled ring as a silhouetted crowd watches and flashbulbs pop, the opening shot is the entire movie in metaphor. It beautifully expresses the loneliness and violence of the man at the center of its story. The movements are made balletic by the slower frame rate, but there’s no doubting the simmering rage underlying each practiced punch. Raging Bull is brutalizing and beautiful in equal measure, and its opening shot is the perfect representation of that dichotomy.
1
‘Touch of Evil’ (1958)
It’s hard to do justice to the brilliant long shot that begins Orson Welles’ classic noir Touch of Evil with a single image. It’s a masterpiece in motion that’s be paid homage to a dozen times over, but has never been bettered in its simple perfection. While the original sequence was marred by changes made against the wishes of Welles, as was the entire film which was recut without the director’s input, the film’s restoration in the late 90s brought his brilliance back into full clarity.
Beginning with a literal ticking time bomb that is then put in the trunk of a car, the shot tracks through the streets of a Mexican border town before settling on married couple Ramon (Charlton Heston) and Susie Vargas (Janet Leigh) as they cross the border into America, as the car finally explodes. It’s a technical masterpiece of tension, and it serves as the catalyst for the entire crime story that follows. It’s the ultimate opening shot of any film ever made, and it’s executed to perfection.
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William Smith
Almontather Rassoul
