Whether it’s the pilot episode of a brand new show, the first line spoken in a film or a trailer for a new upcoming movie, when it comes to film and TV, first impressions count!
These first few moments for any film or TV show set the scene, the tone, the mood and, most importantly, let the audience decide whether the show or film is something that they’d want to watch.
With this in mind, Oldrids & Downtown picked out some of the best opening lines from movies and TV shows, that would make great pieces of artwork!
Anchorman
Will Ferrell, a comedic genius in the film industry, is widely known for his role in Anchorman as the legendary (get it?) Ron Burgundy.
This classic comedy follows the trials and tribulations of a group of news readers for Channel Four, and heading up the show is anchorman, Ron Burgundy, who’s struggling to make news exciting in a modern world.
“You’re watching Channel 4 News with five-time Emmy award-winning anchor, Ron Burgundy”
Will Ferrell has an amazing selection of brilliant one-liners throughout the movie.
It’s pretty clear from the films success, that portraying Ron Burgundy as a self-loving, God amongst men, newsroom anchorman definitely connects its audience to the character, no matter how barbaric he is at times!
“Oh Ron, there are literally thousands of other men that I should be with instead, but I am 72 percent sure that I love you” Well, Veronica Corningstone, we love Ron 73%!
Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Rings is a fantasy adventure film based on the classic book written by J.R.R Tolkien.
Upon writing The Hobbit (the story created before Lord of the Rings), Tolkien discovered that his fantasy novel would suit an adult audience.
The book is based around an enchanted ring, holding an evil purpose for the master of that ring and creating a much darker storyline, instead of as a children’s story that he originally planned for.
In doing so, the popularity of Tolkien’s stories sky-rocketed and this is where The Lord of the Rings was born.
At the beginning of the 21st century, film director, Peter Jackson, showcased his film adaptation of Lord of the Rings, displaying a much deeper insight into the dark world that was left behind after The Hobbit books had ended.
The opening line from Lord of the Rings sets this tone perfectly and offers the audience a glimpse into this dark and twisted world that has been created by the selfishness of man.
Stranger Things
Stranger Things is the ever-so popular hit TV show where we follow a group of 4 young teenagers as they experience very weird phenomenons in a sci-fi, horror fiction written and directed by the Duffer Brothers.
This eighties-inspired TV show has everything from walkmans to chopper bikes, bringing plenty of nostalgia to those of you who grew up during this period.
In fact, the opening scene shows our 4 friends enjoying the board game Dungeons & Dragons in a basement; if this isn’t eighties enough for you, we don’t know what is!
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1970’s classic American film that focuses on a powerful Italian-American crime family headed up by Don Vito Corleone.
The opening line of this film sets the scene for the entire film, and its sequels.
With an Italian-American 1970’s gangster who feels he has been wronged by the American justice system and is seeking justice from the world of crime, money and drugs.
Throughout this film, we’re shown not only how important family is, but how desperately these characters want to pursue the American Dream, making the opening line of this movie the perfect choice!
This crime-infested classic won numerous awards for both acting and writing.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and many characters portrayed by many famous actors; including Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall and Gianna Russo to name a few.
Game of Thrones
A great iconic first opening line is spoken by Waymar Royce, who was a brother of the Night’s Watch. In his simple sentence, we’re shown how little the characters think of each other whilst having an early prompt for what is to come to our beloved houses.
This sentence is used to describe the Wildlings, who were portrayed as savages and barbarians.
The irony of this was that the Wildlings soon became the ‘comfort blanket’ for John Snow and their savage appearance in the first few seasons slowly diminishes.
Alliances, throughout the entirety of Game of Thrones, are made and broken between the houses, representing the untrustworthiness of Waymar Royce’s opening sentence.
*spoiler alert* in the last season of Game of Thrones we saw the Mother of Dragons slaughter thousands of innocent people and John Snow trek off with the Wildlings beyond The Wall in the closing scene.
It’s a true representation of how much the TV show has twisted away from the opening scene of the first season.
What seemed bad before, is now good, and what seemed good before, is now, well… dead.
Lion King
Lion King is arguably one of the most favourite Disney movies of all time.
With its brightly coloured, authentic to Africa, animation, clear and exciting dialogue and vast amounts of our most-loved African wildlife, it’s no wonder the Lion King is such a firm favourite for many generations.
The opening line of this 1994 Disney classic is actually a song (what better way to start a film than with a song!) sung in Zulu, the native language of South Africa. Surprisingly the opening line to this song is very simple, and when translated to English, means “Here comes a lion, father oh yes, it’s a lion!”.
The opening line comes from the song Circle of Life, which was written by Sir Elton John, composed by Hans Zimmer and sung by African native Lebo M.
This legendary duo sung this song into a number 1 position and Sir Elton John even won an Oscar for his own rendition of the famous tune!
Black Swan
The Black Swan was a 2010 classic, starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder (what a line-up!).
This ballet-based movie is an Oscar-winning film directed by Darren Aronofsky.
Darren’s vision when directing the Black Swan was to showcase the beauty and grace of ballet whilst offering an insight into the not-so-glamorous side once the curtains have closed.
The Black Swan portrays a professional ballet dancer, Nina (Natalie Portman), struggling to rise up to the challenge of a lead part in Swan Lake, when facing off against a new rival, Lily (Mila Kunis).
The opening line to this movie shows how dedicated Nina is to become the White Swan. But does she have what it takes to perform as the Black Swan, too?
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