19 – The Other Guys (2010) – The repartee between Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell was so good in this film that they tried to make them a franchise which didn’t work. Regardless, the first hour of The Other Guys is so funny that it doesn’t matter. A great support cast including Eva Mendes and the underrated Michael Keaton help make this NYC ‘cop buddy’ spoof such a treat. The farcical opening consists of two police department ‘show pony’ detectives played by Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L Jackson tearing up the streets of NYC chasing some low rent crooks. I particularly love the input from the hot dog stand owner at the press conference. Director Adam McKay is responsible for a number of Will Ferrel comedies and some serious award winning movies such as The Big Short and Vice.
18 – North by Northwest (1959). The genius film maker Alfred Hitchcock had a couple of allies he used consistently throughout his incredible career, the graphic designer Saul Bass and the musician/composer Bernard Herrmann. Saul was instrumental for all the titles and Bernard the film score. It would be Bernard who would be dragged out of retirement by Martin Scorsese to write and perform the score for Taxi Driver in 1976 and again in 1991 to do the remake of Cape Fear which was originally made in 1961 and incorporated Bernard’s original score. In keeping with Scorsese’s adoration of Hitchcock he also had Saul do the graphics for the remake. This is the opening sequence for Hitchcocks’s North by Northwest with some nice shots of 1950’s New York. As always Hitchcock anonymously appears in all his films and is hard to miss here.
17 – Paris, Texas (1984). A mute man wandering through the desert for no reason collapses, gets picked up by his brother and driven across the US back to Los Angeles where he discovers he has a young son. He then takes his son on a journey to find his mother. It’s an unlikely plot but the first half of Paris,Texas smoulders and the last hour is gripping. It’s beautifully shot by German director Wim Wenders and it was one of the most influential independent films ever made, winning the Palme D’Or for best picture at the Canne Film Festival . The soundtrack from Ry Cooder is highly memorable and it’s an opening sequence that I will never forget. On the big screen, those first couple of guitar chords gave me goose bumps.
16 – The Shining (1980). If ever you wanted an opening to a film that signals impending doom, this is it. We only realised recently that this was filmed in West Glacier, Montana where we were fortunate to spend five days hiking in 2017. It’s a daunting and spectacular destination if you like that type of thing and thankfully devoid of homicidal axe murderers.
The Shining is another Stanley Kubrick masterpiece and I can remember vividly seeing it in December 1980 in a cinema in Albury where I was studying with the army at the time. A woman behind me screamed so loud, myself and about 10 others jettisoned off our seats simultaneously. I still love revisiting it every couple of years.
16A! – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). I thought I had this written down but clearly not. This opening sequence to one of the greatest films of all time introduces us to the Oregon Mental Hospital, the staff and many of the patients that are about to meet the rambunctious and charismatic Randle McMurphy played superbly by Jack Nicholson. Milos Forman’s adaptation of the Ken Kesey book is one the rare times a film equals a book in stature. The entire cast are brilliant especially Louise Fletcher in her Oscar winning role as the irrepressible Nurse Ratched.
15 – The Big Lebowski (1998). Joel and Ethan Cohen have never been afraid to test the boundaries of film making. My favourites of theirs range from their debut effort, Blood Simple and its film noir style, the rollicking chaos of Raising Arizona and the brooding character pieces, Fargo and No Country for Old Men. The Big Lebowski has a huge cult following due in part to Jeff Bridges’ performance as ‘The Dude’ and his eclectic group of ten pin bowling associates. The Coen Brothers always put a lot of thought into their soundtracks and this Bob Dylan song, The Man in Me is the perfect accompaniment to this dreamy, middle class America opening scene.
