Best Opening Sequence ever?

[Il Buono]

Opening a movie interestingly is very important thing, sometimes it can make the movie...  Which are your favourites?

These are some of mine:

- The opening of OUTIW of course, must be the longest and perhaps the most interesting ever...
That one from GBU isn't too bad either.

- The opening of 'Apocalypse Now': A long shot of a forest/jungle, helicopter passing by, dust and napalm clouds, in the meanwhile 'The End' from the Doors coming up... and than BAM the whole thing explodes while Jim Morrison sings the first words 'This is the end...'  Sheer poetry.  What follows is also a very nice piece of filmmaking with lots of cross dissolves, you know what I mean.

-The opening from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' which is almost the summary of Indiana Jones trilogy.  

-Another one that sticks to my mind is of a film called 'Welcome to hard times' with Henry Fonda.  Not a very good film, but it has a very nice opening.

There are many I can't think of, but I'm curious to hear other peoples' choices.

[Half Soldier]

Opening a movie interestingly is very important thing, sometimes it can make the movie...  

I agree.

The Godfather and Patton are two I like.  Sexy Beast has a good opening and gets better (if you ain't seen it, do so.  It's directed by the guy who did the Guiness advert with the surfers and the white horses which aired in the UK.  Don't know about the rest of the world.)

Leone's are the best I think.  They grab you by the balls and don't let go.

[Half Soldier]

  ???Don't know why the above all came as a quote from Il Buono

[Angel Eyes]

Start of Texas Chainsaw Massacre when they pick up hitch-hiker    "my grandpa makes a mean headcheese"

and who can forget the start of An American Werewolf in London   "there's no food for you 'ere!"

[grandpa_chum]

tough to choose a best one... so i won't... but one favorite that comes to mind is the opening to the bad news bears... the musical piece from the opera carmen set to little league baseball

[Belkin]

What about the opening of TOMBSTONE? Black and white footage with a ROBERT MITCHUM voice over. It suddenly, turns into a widescreen opening with the "bad gang" riding into a wedding, where people get shot! STUNNING OPENING! Especially on the BIG SCREEN!

[Nobody]

Easily Once Upon A Time In The West. How anyone can say otherwise on a Sergio Leone website, I will never understand.

[Frank]

Wild Bunch opening in which the bank robbers move in, the Mexican kids stir up the ant nest, and the low life Railroad Guards set up their ambush.  The action freezes as each credit rolls by.   The final set up scene befoe the shoot out, the robbers seize the station and hold several towns people hostage.  William Holden tells his henchmen, menacingly, "If anybody moves -- shoot 'em!"  The screen freezes with Directed by Sam Peckinpaugh.   Atlantic Monthly called this the most powerful opening ever.

What counts as the start of 2001?   Was the entire Dawn of Man the start, or was that after the credits?

This takes nothing away from the start of OUTW, easily the best Leone opening and therefore the best of all Cinema.

[Walton]

Other than OUATITW of course...

Citizen Kane - watch how the single lit window always stays in the same part of frame even when the shots are different...

Goodfellas - from as far back as I remembered I always wanted to be a gangster...

Chinatown - surveillance pictures of illicit sex, then, 'you can't eat the venetian blinds Curly I just had them installed on wednesday'

The Pianist - Spillman desperately trying to keep playing the piano as the war intrudes into his world and shatters it forever...

[Walton]

And how could I have left out Touch of Evil and the epic single take tracking shot that begins on a home made bomb and travels several city blocks of a border town at night!

[hailclinteastwood]

once upon a time in the west "you brought two to many"  

and the godfather, a truely beautiful opening nino rotas music kicks me every time

[Sephiroth]

Goodfellas - "as far back as i can remember, i always wanted to be a gangster"

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - The Star Destroyer capturing Princess Leias vessel and Darth Vaders entrance

Kill Bill - "bang bang"

Shogun Assassin - the little kid talking

[redyred]

I can't believe no-one's mentioned Kurosawa yet. In particular the beginning of Ran - picture postcard-like shots of mounted soldiers on a hillside, only the occasional breeze or nod of a horses head showing that they're not stills. The start of Ikiru is pretty good too "This is an x-ray of our hero's stomach...".

Some other films with good openings -

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Silent era style footage with a slow, simplified version of the main theme in the background.
Django - One man and his coffin...
Nosferatu (Werner Herzog Version) - Slow pan over shrivelled corpses.
And, of course, Once Upon a Time in the West.

[Belkin]

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN! THAT MUSIC! THAT OPENING! STILL GET GOOSEBUMPS AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!  

[hailclinteastwood]

never rode shotgun in a hearse before