{"id":2499,"date":"2005-02-23T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2005-02-23T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2499"},"modified":"2022-10-09T16:02:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T20:02:29","slug":"openings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2499","title":{"rendered":"Great Openings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/i> last night. It is as fun, as exciting, as suspenseful as it was the first time I saw it in the theatre. (I think I saw it something like 5 times – during its original release.) In light of all my Cary Grant obsessing<\/a>, the character of Indiana Jones took on a new and humorous context. I saw him in the context of all those brilliant Cary Grant goofball-til-he-takes-off-his-glasses parts. Indiana Jones – a bad-ass with a bullwhip – cavorting across the globe – going where no man has gone before – transformed into a stuttering geek in the classroom, struggling to carry his briefcase and all his rolled-up maps under his arms, unaware WHY his classroom is full of lovesick girls. He doesn’t “get it”. He doesn’t “get” his own appeal. It’s so funny.<\/p>\n

In light of all of that – the opening of the film in the jungle sets up who Indiana is. (Or at least we THINK it does.) He wears a fedora which (inexplicably) NEVER COMES OFF. He swings over abysses like Tarzan. He is unconcerned when giant “s”s cover his back. (The snakes are another issue …) He coldly grins when he sees the skeleton of his former rival. His eyes gleam with greed when he gets his first glimpse of the golden idol. He races through the poison darts. He leaps across the abyss. He rolls under the closing door, and, of course, remembers to reach under it to grab his bull-whip, right at the last second. He runs, he jumps, he leaps, he schemes …<\/p>\n

Cut to the next scene. Now suddenly, that same man is seen as a bumbling archaeology professor, with glasses, pointing out his own scratchings on the blackboard, oblivious to the fact that NO ONE in the class (except the sad-sap one guy, who leaves the apple on the desk when leaving the room, with an air of, “Maybe THIS will work…”) is listening to him …<\/p>\n

It’s a brilliant opening, all in all. Who the hell IS Indiana Jones?<\/p>\n

We expect (and it is reasonable that we should expect this) that we KNOW him, after that genius opening. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg set it up that way. Wow, this guy is a hero, an adventurer … But then, to see him back in civilization, geeky, in glasses, surrounded by artifacts, and socially inept … brings the other side.<\/p>\n

It’s awesome.<\/p>\n

And so. In my view, that opening sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/i> is one of the best OPENINGS of a film. EVER. I can think of a couple of other genius openings (Star Wars<\/i> is on that list, in my opinion) – but Raiders<\/i> is definitely in the Top 5.<\/p>\n

What are your votes – for best openings in a film?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark last night. It is as fun, as exciting, as suspenseful as it was the first time I saw it in the theatre. (I think I saw it something like 5 times – during … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[1267],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2499"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178285,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499\/revisions\/178285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}