There have been many great opening scenes over the last century or so, but if you’re asking which is the greatest opening shot, I would have to go with two films released in ’79 — Woody Allen‘s Manhattan and Francis Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now.

One of the greatest opening sequences is the Union Station opening of Strangers on a Train (‘51), as the camera follows two men whose faces are unseen and whose shoes are their primary identifying trait…arriving by taxi, strolling into the station, etc.

March 29, 2023by Jeff Wells74 Comments