Feb 26 • General discussion
Great movie openings -- what are your faves and why?
I'm going to do a much more in depth thread on this and build course work around it because it's so so important.
Especially when nobody knows who you are and you're trying to be taken seriously.
Why?
Because it shows you care. It shows the reader they're in the hands of a true artist who isn't just writing down a series of events they're hoping to pass off as a screenplay.
hooked me up with some software that will hopefully allow me to rip some of my fave openings, so I can pontificate on them here for your edification. While I learn to use it, I was just thinking about the opening of one of my desert island movies and wanted to get this discussion started about all time greats that hit home with you.
I'm posting just one below. Because it still absolutely delights me 40 years after it came out. I started to describe it, but dug up the script instead do you could see exactly how Joel and Ethan put it on the page. It's all there. Tight. Funny. Love set in motion, despite the odds. On page 1.
Your homework. Don't just mention an opening you love, find the script. Show us how the magic happened. And we'll go from there!
Raising Arizona
Screenplay by
Ethan and Joel Coen
OVER BLACK:
VOICE OVER
My name is H. I. McDunnough...
A WALL
With horizontal hatch lines.
VOICE OVER
...People call me Hi.
A disheveled young man in a gaily colored Hawaiian shirt is
launched into frame by someone offscreen.
He holds a printed paddle that reads "NO. 1468-6 NOV. 29 79."
The hatch marks on the wall behind him are apparently height markers.
VOICE OVER
...The first time I met Ed was in
the county lock-up in Tempe,
Arizona...
FLASH
As his picture is taken.
CLOSEUP
On the paddle: "NOV. 29 79."
VOICE OVER
...a day I'll never forget.
A bellowing male voice from offscreen:
SHERIFF
Don't forget the profile, Ed!
ANGLE ON THE STILL CAMERA
It is mounted on a tripod. A pretty young woman in a severe
police uniform peers out from behind it.
WOMAN
Turn to the right.
HI
What kind of name is Ed for a pretty
thing like you?
ED
Short for Edwinna. Turn to the right!
HI obliges, but still looks at Ed out of the corner of his
eye.
HI
You're a flower, you are. Just a
little desert flower.
FLASH
On his eye-skewed profile.
HI
Lemme know how those come out.
8
35 comments
Great movie openings -- what are your faves and why?
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