brilliant opening

how one begins a film sets, obviously, the tone of the flick that follows. we have a long, rich, deep history of cinema to find examples of brilliant openings -- please make your own lists -- but for me one of the best is the montage francis ford coppola devises for his flawed masterpiece apocalypse now [1979]. the song, 'the end' by the doors, is just right and rightly dark as the soundtrack opens to a static shot of the vietnamese jungle. interpolated with the music is the chop of a helicopter blade. then the runner for a chopper enters the frame from the left and exits to the right in slo-mo. this is repeated once or twice until the treeline in the static shot explodes in fire. the camera pans to the right and dissolves to the sweaty face of martin sheen lying prone and smoking a cigarette. then the frames collage sheen with the napalm attack in the bush while at least two helicopters fly in and out of the frame in slo-mo. the chop of the helicopter blades on the soundtrack segues to the whirr of the fan in sheen's sro. the collage then rests on the sound of the chopper's blades with the movement of the room's ceiling fan. this is, for me, one of the cleverest segues in contemporary cinema. coppola's palette is olive green and deep orange from the napalm attack and is utterly frightening and beautiful. coppola with a few strokes instantly creates this land of mesmerizing horror.