Opening Title Credits

Favorite Opening Titles: ‘Bullitt’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Peter Yates’ 1968 neo-noir action thriller film “Bullitt” was my introduction to one of the coolest actors and movie stars ever to inhabit this planet of ours, Steve McQueen. It also starts off with one of the most ingenious opening title sequences I have ever seen as a dozen men are waiting outside of a building for a certain individual whom we later see is waiting for them and already prepared to escape their clutches. Seeing the names of the main actors being revealed and then having them come right at us showed how creative one can get with opening titles, and they have the benefit of being scored by the man who would later create the music which Edgar Wright would call “acid jazz” for “Dirty Harry,” Lalo Schifrin.

The opening titles for “Bullitt” were designed by Cuban-American graphic and film titles designer, Pablo Ferro. His list of credits is extensive, and many of his other film titles may end up on this website at some point. What I love about his work on this particular sequence is how cool it all works and how it gives you a sense of not only characters on the move like John Ross, but also of how we are invited to look much closer at everything which goes on here. While everything might seem crystal clear on the surface, the antagonists are eventually going to get quite a rude awakening when they realize they are not as smart as they think.

Keep in mind, we do not see any of the main characters in these opening titles. What we do see is the beginning of a chase for a certain individual, and it is contained within a motion picture which has one of the greatest car chases in cinematic history. While we are left to guess how everything we see here adds up, this is perfect as the characters we are eventually introduced to such as Steve McQueen’s Frank Bullitt, Robert Vaughn’s Walter Chambers and Don Gordon’s Detective Delgetti are thrust into a situation which has more layers than they initially realize.

“Bullitt” remains one of the greatest cop movies ever this side of “The French Connection,” and I recommend you check it out if you have not yet done so. Please feel free to check out its opening titles down below.

Favorite Opening Titles: ‘The Graduate’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Some great family friends of mine went out of their way to give me a special edition VHS copy of the 1967 classic “The Graduate” as a high school graduation gift. I was thrilled to receive it, and I very much enjoyed it. In retrospect, however, I would have loved it even more if they had given it to me after I had graduated from college as, like Benjamin Braddock, I found myself feeling lost and alienated following that momentous occasion, and the film would have given me something necessary to relate to.

As the opening credits to “The Graduate” begin, we see Benjamin standing listlessly on one of those automated walkways in the airport, and he looks absolutely lost. I love how the camera is positioned as Benjamin is to the right, and there is a big piece of space ahead of him. On one hand, this allows for the opening credits to be displayed without any distractions, but it also illustrates the distance Ben feels from everything around him. This feeling is perfectly accentuated here by one of the classic songs from the 1960’s, “The Sound of Silence” sung by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

I love the opening credits because they perfectly set up Benjamin Braddock for the rest of the film. He has just graduated from college, obtained his undergraduate degree, and now the rest of his life is ahead of him and he looks like a deer caught in the headlights. “The Graduate,” from there, follows his attempts to find some meaning in his life which includes an ill-fated affair with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), and his parents treating him like a prized trophy. No wonder we see Ben hiding from the world by diving underneath the water. At least there, he can find some temporary peace from the craziness surrounding him.

Please feel free to check out the opening credits to “The Graduate” down below:

Worst Opening Titles: ‘Superman IV – The Quest for Peace’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

The opening credits to “Superman” and “Superman II” are among the best when it comes to movies. When Bryan Singer used this format for his “Superman Returns,” it felt like the return of a friend who had been gone for far too long, and the theme by John Williams is among the finest he has ever composed.

But then came “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” a sequel which was supposed to put this movie franchise back on track after the critical and commercial disappointments of both “Superman III” and “Supergirl.” Instead, we got a sequel which quickly became labeled as one of the worst motion pictures of all time. With the Salkind family abandoning the franchise and Cannon Pictures taking over, the budget got slashed in half do to their money problems, and everything came to look liken nothing but bargain basement deals or useless stuff which had been long since thrown in the trash.

As soon as the opening titles for “Superman IV” begin, we know it is going to be a rough ride even as Williams’ famous theme, conducted this time by Alexander Courage, is not enough to make our spirits soar. Even co-screenwriter Mark Rosenthal, whose audio commentary for this sequel I highly recommend, is quick to say the following in his opening remarks:

“You can tell from the very first credit that says Warner Brothers that something is terribly wrong in Metropolis.”

This is the Wal Mart, 99 Cent Store or Dollar Tree of opening credits as they look ridiculously cheap in ways the ones for the previous installments never did, and this proved to be quite the shock. Then again, perhaps they fit this sequel perfectly as the visual effects and sets look every bit as cheap as the opening titles. Watching them is heart breaking as they make clear that it is all downhill from here. No wonder this sequel was such a big bomb at the box office.

If you must, please feel free to check out the opening titles to “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” down below:

Favorite Opening Titles: ‘A Few Good Men’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

When I started thinking of writing about my favorite opening credits to movies, the first which came to mind were the ones for “A Few Good Men.” Directed by Rob Reiner, it is based on the play by Aaron Sorkin who also wrote the screenplay, and it is about the court-martial of two United States Marines who have been charged with the murder of a fellow Marine. Furthermore, it deals with the difficulties the lawyers are forced to endure in their defense, but you knew this already as the film stars Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson and Kevin Bacon among others.

What I love about these opening credits is the military exercises, or choreography if you will, by the Marines on display. They were performed here by the Texas A&M University’s Corps of Cadets Fish Drill Team, and I was enthralled at how in sync each member of this team was with the other. Throughout, they all move and react in a uniform way to where there is no weak link in the bunch. These military officers have been trained thoroughly to act as one unit, and it shows here as not one of them misses a beat throughout their exercises. They do not even have to look at one another to make sure they are in sync as all of them move like a well-oiled machine.

The drill these Marines perform during the opening titles hang over the rest of “A Few Good Men” as the film deals with many characters who are forced to deal with the death of a recruit whose passing has now put this platoon completely out of sync. The unity is now broken, and it may be a permanent break unless those in power can fix the situation to where everything is back in balance. But what will it take to put this platoon back to a unifying standard While some suggest charging the two marines with murder, others come to see they were only acting under orders by their superiors who had a different, yet illegal, way of bringing order to chaos. The whole movie, in essence, is about bringing an unbreakable unity back to a military system which has been seriously run off course by those whose powers have long since become corrupt.

Please check out the opening titles of “A Few Good Men” down below:

Favorite Opening Titles: ‘Enter the Void’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

I will never forget the first time I watched this Gaspar Noe film. “Enter the Void” was screening at the Laemmle Sunset 5 (which has since become another AMC Dine-In Theater), and I had been very, very eager to check out his long-awaited follow-up to his powerful and devastating “Irreversible.”

Noe has always been a playful filmmaker when it comes to title credits, regardless of whether appear at the start or the end of his works. “Irreversible” started with the end credits and went backwards from there, “Climax” did not dare to reveal its title until the film’s final moment and spread its opening credits throughout, and “Vortex” started with its end credits in a solemn fashion which indicated we would be following a pair of characters to their last dying breath.

With “Enter the Void,” Noe zooms through the end credits super-fast to some hypnotic sound which acts like a flashing light. Once they are finished, he thrusts int the opening credits which look like they came out of some kind of modern disco while the song “Freak” by British electro artist LFO plays loudly over the speakers. This is Noe’s way of telling the audience they were about to go on quite the cinematically visual ride.

The opening titles of “Enter the Void” are among my favorites as they are unlike any others I have seen before and after it. Seeing the different visual styles employed for it is endlessly fascinating as it made me wonder just how many styles they came up with. When it comes to LFO’s “Freak,” it proves to be the perfect music cue to score these titles. And when these titles concluded to where we came to “enter” this motion picture, the small but attentive audience at the Sunset Laemmle, including myself, burst into applause. Opening titles are never quite this exhilarating when it comes to your average motion picture.

According to Noe, “Enter the Void” was screened at various film festivals without any titles, be it opening or closing. The title logo was designed by German experimental filmmaker Thorsten Fleisch, and the opening titles were designed by Franco-Japanese filmmaker and designer Tom Kan whose other works include “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions,” “Speed Racer” and “Cloud Atlas.

There is a great article and interview about the “Enter the Void” titles which can be found at the Art of the Title website. Click here to read it.

Check out the opening titles of “Enter the Void” down below.

Favorite Opening Titles: ‘Seven’ (1995)

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

For years now, motion picture opening credits have increasingly become a lost art form as filmmakers want to hit the ground running and leave all the credits to the very end. But while audience members are quick to exit the theater to take care of their ever-growing urine aches, it feels like increasingly shameful that filmmakers are less and less interested in giving their works a prologue which helps to illustrate the cinematic stories audiences are about to take in.

Now when it comes to my favorite opening titles, the first one which comes to mind is for “Seven,” David Fincher’s 1995 film which proved to be his true big breakthrough. Things start off with us being introduced to Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a veteran homicide detective on the verge of retirement, and his partner and eventual replacement David Mills (Brad Pitt). From there, we watch Somerset try to fall asleep in his bed to the sound of a metronome, and the sound of the metronome is constantly overwhelmed by the violent sounds coming from the streets outside of his apartment.

After this, the opening titles, which I did not expect “Seven” to have, began, and they were done to a remix of the Nine Inch Nails song “Closer” which was entitled “Precursor.” Right from the start, they serve as an introduction to the main antagonist known as John Doe who commits murders based on the seven deadly sins. The way Fincher saw it, these titles were a way of introducing the audience to this character’s perverted state of mind, and there was no forgetting this throughout the rest of the film.

I love the shakiness of the credits as they illustrate the deeply disturbed mindset of John Doe as he writes in his journals and attaches pictures of people who are either his intended victims, those he has already harmed in an inescapable way, or those young ones whom he would prefer not to witness the bloodiness of what he is doing.

These opening titles captivated me from the get-go as they were unlike any that I had ever previously seen in other motion pictures. They were designed by Kyle Cooper whose other credits include the titles to “Home Alone,” “Passenger 57,” “Carlito’s Way” and the acclaimed television series “Homicide: Life on the Street.” Cooper was assigned by Fincher to create a montage reflecting the disturbed perspective of John Doe. The images presented here hang over everything else we come to see in “Seven” as the film heads towards a climax which proves to be utterly devastating.

It should also be noted that the opening titles to “Seven” were filmed over the course of eight days and cost around $50,000 to complete.

Please feel free to check out the opening titles of “Seven” down below: