10 Most Controversial Opening Movie Scenes

8. Saving Private Ryan

Even though it's considered one of the best cinematic openings of all time now, it shouldn't be understated just how close to the bone the Omaha beach scene in Saving Private Ryan cut at the time. One extended D-Day attack, it's difficult to tell where the opening even begins and ends, with a full twenty minutes passing before viewers are able to get their bearings.

That 20-minute period, though, is one of the most brutal depictions of war in the history of the medium. Using then-unprecedented techniques to make the footage closer to a documentary rather than a Hollywood blockbuster, the sequence was intense not only because of the unflinching depiction of wartime slaughter, but because of how that slaughter was presented.

Spielberg didn't sanitise anything, and although many filmmakers have aped the style since, none have quite been able to capture the pure relentless energy of Saving Private Ryan's opening journey through hell.