by Ted Sherman

Created on: September 18, 2008

The best opening movie scenes ever are, of course, a matter of taste, and in my case, long memories of long-ago movies. I've chosen several that had their starts as Broadway hits (Oklahoma and Music Man), and another that was such a great movie that it eventually became a Broadway hit (Young Frankenstein). Here are my votes for the best, and not necessarily in the same order I'd put them if you'd ask me to provide the list tomorrow.

1. Jaws (1975) opens when young Christine gets bored with the Amity Island party ashore, takes off her clothes and goes swimming. She sneers at the people she left behind, but then her look turns to horror as her head and body jerk from a sudden impact. She screams and struggles as blood boils to the surface. Then with one last look of horror, she disappears beneath the waves.

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) starts with planets orbiting while movie titles roll through, accompanied by crashing classical music. The action begins when a gang of hairy, pre-historic pre-humans try to fight another tribe at a desert water hole. Defeated, they retreat to sleep. When they awake at dawn, they discover an obviously manufactured black stone. It seems to inspire them, so they go back to resume the battle.

The implication is that they also gained intelligence to be the first to use weapons. One of the invading humanoids uses a large animal thigh bone to beat away the rival gang, and then enthusiastically tosses it into the air. The music swells as the bone segues into a bone-shaped space ship of the far future. The first of many puzzling, but exciting sequences in the strange film.

3. Oklahoma (1955) is, I freely admit, the corny, literally and actually, Technicolor screen version of the Broadway super hit of the 1940s. The opening scene is of cowboy Gordon MacRae (Curly) happily riding his horse through the Oklahoma cornfields (actually filmed in Southern Arizona cornfields). The sky is puffy with clouds, the sun is shining brightly and Curly sings, appropriately, "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning." He's on his way to court the beautiful, 19-year-old Shirley Jones (Laurie), so who could blame him for singing his heart out?

4. Saving Private Ryan (1998) doesn't literally ask the question, but it graphically proves it should pose it in the opening sequence. Question: What nation raises its 18- and 19-year-old boys to be strong and healthy, so that they can go into horrendous battles that leave many of them dead and horribly wounded? The answer is: every

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