10 Opening Credit Sequences That Were Better Than The Films That Followed

7. Lord Of War (2005)

The Opening Credit Sequence: The much-acclaimed 'Life of a Bullet' montage places us at the perspective of one such shell as it is shaped, shipped and shot out of a chamber. As we follow it through all stages of production, and Buffalo Springfield's protest song 'For What It's Worth' plays on the soundtrack, we realise that this might not be the Rambo-esque shoot 'em up its title would have us believe. Yet so engrossing is its journey, with the camera spinning as it's passed from factory to firearm, we could happily watch this sequence stretched to two hours instead. That is, until we see just where its final destination lies. Suddenly, after all the glossy aesthetics and glorified detachment, the film's message hits us squarely between the eyes. The Film: Despite boasting one of Nic Cage's better performances (as the titular arms dealer Yuri Orlov), a black comedy about the ethics of war has so much more potential than this. Orlov is an oddly affable anti-hero for whom business is literally booming, until he finds himself crossing paths with an idealistic Interpol agent (Ethan Hawke). We know that such 'profiteers' exist -and therefore Orlov is most likely a cipher- and so we don't need to be reminded how the world works through his constant narration (we're repeatedly told that ''war is a business''). Likewise, we're fully aware that even merchants of death have a beating heart and so we don't need to see him humanised in his attempt to bond with his drug-addict brother (Jared Leto). Lord of War may be smarter than most war films (although, technically, it's less a war film than a film about war- and ultimately more grounded in standard thriller territory than satire) but it's hardly the sensational bombshell it purports to be. For all he strives to achieve, writer-director Andrew Niccol simply cannot match the striking simplicity set in the first five minutes.