However, adventure movies have been playing on screens since the advent of filmmaking, with contributions from some of cinema’s finest directors, so there’s plenty of tough competition for the genre’s top s

Schindler’s List , Steven Spielberg’s harrowing cinematic portrait of the horrors of the Holocaust, opens with a completely black frame. Then, a match is struck, dimly illuminating the fingers holding it as it lights a can

Joe Johnston's threequel is the most forgotten movie of the Jurassic Park franchise for various reasons . For one thing, it's by far the shortest and least star-studded entry and the story adds virtually nothing to the formula that fans couldn't get from the other movies even at the t

He’s made all kinds of movies: historical dramas, biopics, action movies, science-fiction, suspense. Spielberg is a master of visual storytelling, and a large part of that is opening his movies with the perfect shot to immerse us in each story’s world straight away. So, here are Steven Spielberg’s 10 Best Opening Shots, Ran

"Snakes...why did it have to be snakes?" Indiana Jones’ fear of snakes is one of his defining characteristics, and it’s put to excellent use in the narrative of Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy enters the Well of Souls and finds that it’s filled with hundreds of hissing cobras and pythons. However, as it turns out, neither Harrison Ford not Steven Spielberg are afraid of snakes, so it’s unclear where exactly this character quirk came from. It was a good thing for Ford and Spielberg, because it meant that they could focus on their work during the snake-infested sce

The Indy movies are renowned for their over-the-top sound effects, and there’s one legendary sound designer that we have to thank for that: Ben Burtt. Burtt is also responsible for all the sound effects in Star Wars and the voice of WALL-E. The sound of the snakes slithering in the Well of Souls was created by Burtt sliding his fingers into a cheese casserole. The sound of the Ark of the Covenant’s lid being removed was created by Burtt sliding the lid off the back of his toilet. The sound of the boulder rolling after Indy was actually the sound of a Honda Civic driving over gravel. And famously exaggerated punching sounds were created by Burtt beating a pile of leather jackets with a baseball

The totally black frame could be read to represent the bleak reality of living in Nazi-occupied Poland, while the match could be seen to represent the beacon of hope that emerges in the form of Oskar Schindler, when he comes to his senses, renounces the Nazi Party, and uses his resources to save 1,200 Jews from concentration camps. The majority of this three-hour epic is shot in black-and-white , but it opens in color. It only turns to black-and-white when that candle burns

Speaking of fantasy, how about an immortal swordfighter? Here's another period drama that flew under your radar. Indeed, Highlander is a period drama and we're not just talking about the medieval scenes. The early 1980s was also an iconic time. This movie opens with a professional wrestling match, after all, cementing its status as a period film from the late 20th cent

After leaping a bottomless chasm, avoiding spikes in the walls and outrunning a rolling boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark 's opening sequence, Indiana Jones loses the golden statue to his long-time rival, René Belloq. Played by Paul Freeman, Myjourneyalongtheway.Com Belloq is one of Raiders ' triptych of antagonists, but whereas the bulk of the villainy is brought by the Nazis, this fallen archeologist strikes closer to home. He and Indy have a past, and find their ideological dispute writ large as they hunt for the eponymous artifact. Freeman's cool Frenchman is a key ingredient in what makes Raiders such an enduring

John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the definitive cinematic portrait of the corrupting power of wealth, as a pair of hotshot young hustlers journey out into the desert with an aging prospector in search of a fortune in g

Steven Spielberg opened Raiders with the perfect shot to introduce the tone of the film. And then, he created a cinematic icon (with the help of Harrison Ford) as Indiana Jones strides into frame with a bullwhip hanging off his belt, wearing his signature fedora. He’d be etched in audiences’ minds for deca

When George Lucas came to Steven Spielberg with the idea for a rollicking action-adventure about a globe-trotting explorer locking horns with the Nazis over an ancient Biblical artifact, the Close Encounters director saw an opportunity to give American cinema its own version of the James Bond franchise . The result was Raiders of the Lost Ark , one of the greatest movies ever made and undeniably the best adventure movie of all ti

He is later revealed to be a Soviet spy. The American press vilifies him as his appointed lawyer, James Donovan, agrees to fairly argue his case in court. This opening shot captures the nuances of Mark Rylance’s performance as A