Assessing the effectiveness of opening scenes of films

Four Weddings and a Funeral

This is an effective opening scene because it is fast-paced and funny. This gets the audience interested for the rest of the film. Most of the comedy comes from the juxtaposition of the organised characters with the disorganised characters on the morning of a wedding. The characters curse a lot, which is very British and establishes this as a British film, as they are in a hurry to get to the wedding. This scene also tells us Hugh Grant is the main protagonist, despite it not being his wedding, as it focuses primarily on him and his story.

City of God

This opening scene works because it jumps straight into the action. It establishes the setting as a grim town in an exotic country with a high crime rate and very dangerous living conditions. It seems to set up Shaggy as the main protagonist, so we initially root for him, which makes his sudden death more poignant.

Goodfellas

This scene introduces the world of gangsters, but not at the start of the story. It is midway through the story, and sets up how the first part of the film will show how Henry Hill has gone from being a normal kid to reaching this point in his life. We can tell the characters of Tommy DeVito and Jimmy Conway are violent and volatile, and from the look on Henry's face we figure he has moral issues with this, but doesn't speak up out of fear and respect, which are all themes that get explored throughout the rest of the film. Opening the film at the beginning of the story would be boring, but opening here makes it very apparent that this is a gangster film.