The Greatest Opening Scene in Movie History

Why This Terrible Film's Opening Scene is Better Than That of Citizen Kane

What is your favorite opening sequence in a movie? For me and quite a lot of other film fans, it's the opening shot of Touch of Evil. Citizen Kane often tops the list of the greatest films of all time, but as far I'm concerned it's not even Orson Welles' greatest movie. That honor belongs to Touch of Evil, a thriller that actually benefits from the jarring presence of Charlton Heston playing a Mexican. Yes, you did read that correctly.

When I say that the greatest opening in movie history is just a single shot it may be misleading. In today's MTV-influenced cinema, a shot often lasts just a single second or two. By "shot" I am referring to a single uncut sequence of film. In the case of Touch of Evil the opening shot lasts a little over three minutes.

The film opens with a close-up of a timer on a bomb being set and thus begins a startling sequence that takes the viewer on a tour of a small border town. The camerawork in this shot involves a crane, tracking, the camera both moving and stationary. The bomb has been placed inside a car and the sequence begins with the bomb being placed in the car before focusing on the Heston character and his wife walking down the street. The car comes back into the scene as Heston and his wife, and the couple in the car stop at the border checkpoint. The shot finally ends at the moment that Heston and Janet Leigh kiss and the car explodes off-screen.

It is an extraordinary accomplishment. Not only does the shot involve a myriad of complicated camera movements, but there are a number of extras walking in and out of the scene, and there is dialogue to boot. Most directors shooting the scene today would do away with the dialogue and substitute it with a song. The opening of Touch of Evil is justifiably famous and is one of those movie moments that inspires directors to pay homage to it. One of those directors was Robert Altman who attempted to outdo Orson Welles with his opening shot in The Player. Altman's long shot is about twice as long as the Touch of Evil, but because Welles was there first it seems kind of pale in comparison.