David B Morris
2 min readDec 4, 2022

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There are two that come to mind.

The Dark Knight. It's one of the most memorable openings of any action movie - not comic book - because of how it builds. How each bank robber kills off one of the other members. How the man in one mask, who has said nothing to this point, says "I kill the bus driver." His nonchalant killing of the bus driver immediately afterwards. And finally his walking up to one of the beligerillent criminals saying: "I believe whatever doesn't kill me makes me....stranger." And on the last word he takes off the mask. Even knowing this would be the debut of the Joker, Nolan managed to drag the suspense all the way to the end, and show in how the robbery took place exactly the kind of person the Joker was. It was the lead in to one of the best films I've ever seen.

Casino Royale: The only James Bond I ever liked was Daniel Craig. (The reason why is the subject of another article.) The opening in black-and-white when we realize that this will not be the typical Bond. It is his first killing he's ever done, and like him 'we feel every moment of it'. But it's that last scene when Bond whirled around and kills the man he thought dead that clinches. For forty years or more, we'd all 'known' that Bond was killing a man when the shot rang out and the blood flowed but we were basically in denial. Casino Royale made it very clear we couldn't deny who Bond was and that we were witness to it.

Inglorious Basterds: I have a love-hate relationship with Tarentino, but anyone who saw the first chapter of Basters can not deny what a master craftsman he is. That scene is, in my opinion, the greatest he's ever written witht he possible exception of our introduction to Jules and Vincent. Hans Landa is a Nazi unlike we ever met before. We think we are the only ones who the know the threat that's ahead of us. Then Landa begins talking about his title. He more or less monologues for about five minutes about what he considers a Jew to be and what the Nazis do. By the time, he lights his pipe we know he knew what he was going to find before he walked in the door. In the space of fifteen minutes, he has broken this man. The actually killing of the Dreyfus almost seems likes a relief compared to what we have witnessed. I have issues with the rest of the film. That opening sequence is a masterpiece.

As for your choices, no quarrels. And I'm willing to acknowledge that maybe the reason you didn't choose them is because you had a different Nolan, Tarentino and Bond film on your list. (I'd actually be willing to go even further when it comes to Skyfall...but that's for another article.

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David B Morris
David B Morris

Written by David B Morris

After years of laboring for love in my blog on TV, I have decided to expand my horizons by blogging about my great love to a new and hopefully wider field.

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