Best Opening Shot Ever: Bonfire of the Vanities

Directed by Brian DePalma, this is one of the most complex and amazing tracking shots ever filmed.

• Category

  Film & Animation

[hungmunchkin]

Hmmm, technically this is exceptionally good, but what is the point in a meticulously executed tracking shot if the acting and action is so poor and over played? In this one shot the audience can already guess that this movie is going to reduce a brilliant book into a trashy film ... and it does.

[Red Panda]

Best tracking shots can be found in I Am Cuba.

[La Leaf]

Slightly hammy in my opinion. The dialogue was overdubbed as well. Technically but hollow!

[vroota42]

This shot sums up what's often wrong with Brian de Palma. He puts a lot of emphasis on stylized shots at the expense of both the plot and the narrative.

[lawrenze1305]

This is great but the one in snake eyes is longer and kind of better

[woozclayton]

good lord...get a life already. Let the movie be. Wolfe wannabe...

[anewman1]

This is some dumb shit!

[sherlock congram]

Ooops, my bad. Opening GARGOYLE shot is Schwab's, tracking shot is De Palma.

[sherlock congram]

Opening shot not done by De Palma. Shot is by Eric Schwab, second unit director for the film. Read The Devil's Candy for more.

[RogertheGS]

In the book, Peter Fallow is a British journalist based on Christopher HItchens. In the film, he is an American journalist-novelist based on Tom Wolfe. We see this in this clip, from the title of his book "The Real McCoy" (compare to Wolfe's "The Right Stuff") and the description of the mayonnaise jar scene in his novel (which comes from the first chapter of Wolfe's own "Bonfire of the Vanities.") So the nationality switch, like it or not, has its own logic.

[misled1982]

And to think all that ig gone...those were the garages at the former WTC...son unreal!

[randominc]

Director were excited about their steadicams in those days.