The opening scene when he's walking out of the diner through the town, with Nilsson's 'Everybody's Talkin' is, IMHO, the best movie opening/credit/musical sequence in movie history. I love the song, it just fit in with the whole mood/tone of the film so well, carefree, wistful...just perfect. Anyone else feel the same?
shareAbsolutely! You're spot on in saying that scene/music perfectly captured the carefree, hopeful mood of the opening. That song takes me right back to the warm, sunny summer of '69, when I was a happy kid of 14, life was uncomplicated and the world was beautiful.
I have re watched the opening dozens of times. Each time I catch something new.
shareHow about Apocalypse Now Redux, There Will Be Blood, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Godfather?
shareIt's great and all, but I can easily think of 10 better ones.
shareJust another great aspect of this master work which I believe is the closest thing to a perfect film ever made. The music by both Nilsson and Barry was not only brilliant musically but just right for each scene. There isn't a aspect of this film that is not outstanding. For instance, the editing is the best I've ever seen in a film.
shareI don't really have a rank of "best opening scenes". I do really like the one call "the life of a bullet" from the movie "lord of war", just check out this opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHn1zogeyO4
Agree man,!!! masterpiece
sharei don't think most people on this thread have seen many movies. Because this is not a masterpiece. It's heavy-handed and artsy. The opening scene is interesting, but "Touch of Evil", "La Dolce Vita"...these are openings that make you want to see the rest of the movie.
You complain about MC being "heavy handed" and "artsy", but then go on to bring in two even more overblown and artsy-fartsy films as an example of superior filmmaking?
La Dolce Vita has to be the longest 3 hours of nothing I've ever sat through. You can always tell the wanna-be cinema enthusiasts by their favouring of typical autere films.
~ I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech.
I was talking about opening sequences of movies.
You may find "La Dolce Vita" boring, but the opening sequence is amazing. A helicopter carrying a statue of Christ on a long rope flies over the streets of Rome. Beautiful girls in bikinins sunbathing on a roof see Jesus hovering over them in the sky. They wave to "Jesu" and flirt with the helicopter pilot & Marcello Mastroianni. The camera then pans down into the streets of Rome, and the story begins to unfold.
It's funny, cinematic, has a complicated sound structure as Fellini manages to engage the audience with the music of Nino Rota mixed in with the loud chopper sounds of the helicopter, and men & women yelling back at forth to one another over the loud noise of the helicopter. It's hilarious, technically brilliant and one of the most clever openings to a movie ever devised.
You don't like Fellinii or Orson Welles. That's your prerogative. No need to get rude & nasty. I looked at several of your other comments posted on IMDb. You seem to get a thrill out of insulting and bashing people - so I won't argue with you as you appear to enjoy being snide as opposed to having dialogue with people that have different opinions.
That's great. But we're not on the board for La Dolce Vita. We're here for "Midnight Cowboy", and you can't seem to communicate why you dislike the opening for MC without using empty, opinionated phrases like "too artsy" or "heavy handed". You write this as though fans of this movie would inherently agree with you, and I think that's rather obnoxious. If you're going to voice your dislike for it, then at least express yourself as eloquently as you believe your favorite films do.
In any case, the opening for LDV is no where near as technically accomplished or emotionally involving as Midnight Cowboy's. La Vita's opening is quirky and humourous, but also somewhat distant. It doesn't really set up a protagonist in an interesting way where you think "my God, I have to find out where he is going and what will become of him." Instead, you're more interested in the satirical meaning of a state of Christ being lifted by helicopter. Whereas MC effortlessly sets up an entire conflict and backstory of its protagonist in only the first few minutes, all to a classic song.
i don't think most people on this thread have seen many movies.
I looked at several of your other comments posted on IMDb. You seem to get a thrill out of insulting and bashing people
There are many movies with far more interesting opening scenes that are not nearly as artsy & pretentious as this movie. It might have seemed edgy & interesting when it came out, but this movie hasn't aged well. Jon Voight's acting seems better now than when it was released, but Dustin Hoffman, as always, tries far too hard to blow the mind of the audience. With the exception of "Rain Main", Dustin is always too, too much.
Two movies that come to mind with genius openings scenes are "La Dolce Vita" and "Touch of Evil".
Interesting. I haven't seen it in years, but his walking out of the diner through the time is reminiscent of what they did with "Saturday Night Fever," where John Travolta walks through town with the Bee Gee's song.
share