Character
Leister Burnham, the main character of "American Beauty".
Leister Burnham is 42 years old, has a wife called Carolyn and an only daughter called Jane. He also has a gay neighbour called Jim. His wife appears to be the one in control of their life, and she wasn't how she is now when he married her. He feels sedated in his current life, and he has less than a year to live, but he doesn't know that in the introduction. He's clearly unhappy with his life from what is shown in the introduction and would like to be able to change it, but we don't yet know the reason, as he has a decent sized house, a wife and a kid. While in the car with his wife and daughter he sits slouched in the back, suggesting that he doesn't have much participation in either of their lives, and doesn't paticularly care about work, where we presume he's going from his suit and briefcase. The introduction to "American Beauty" gives us an interest into his life, particularly that he will die in a year, and this creates an atmosphere that makes the viewer want to continue to watch.
Jerry Maguire, main character of "Jerry Maguire"
A sports agent, who appears at first to be totally contented with his life, appears to enjoy his job, and also from the figure "14 million x 5" very well-off. Right at the beginning, he insinuates that America is the main centre of the world, focusing only on it from the satellite image, and this gives us a message of arrogance and perhaps selfishness. However, towards the end of the introduction, he starts to appear marginally unhappy, and fed up that a sports star can only autograph a certain brand of cards, suggesting that he is likely to change how he lives soon. He is very determined, and hard-working judging from the fact that he get 217 calls on average per day from 72 clients, and that he "will not sleep" until his job to make a sportsman is done. The introduction gives us an overview of many different sportspeople, and we wonder what could be connecting these people when Jerry Maguire is introduced, giving us someone to focus on, and already an idea of what they are like and do.
Comparison
Overall, Jerry Maguire seems like a happier person, happier with his life, than Leister Burnham. He has enthusiasm for his job, which Leister didn't have so much, and an amount of liveliness that Burnham doesn't have. However, we don't know anything about Jerry's home life, and his enthusiasm while working may be a facade.
Ken, "Early Doors"
Ken is the landlord of "the Grapes" pub, and the first thing of him we see is him happily filling up a very expensive brandy bottle with low cost brandy. This suggests that he is used to scamming people, and doesn't mind it at all. He seems very cheery despite the down sides of being a landlord, such as cleaning the toilets; he actually is singing "They can never take away my dignity" while doing this job, telling us that he is a constantly happy and jovial man, as your stereotypical bartender would be. He's very friendly to a local who comes in the door at half past the hour, actually singing to him, suggesting that this is what he does every day to get to know the locals so well.
Comparison
As the only British introduction out of the three, it does have a different tone to the others, not trying to catch your attention with a character unhappy with his lot, and I personally don't think that this type of introduction works as well as one where it gives you more to find out.
Opening Sequences
London to Brighton
Hard-hitting and intriguing opening scenes to grab the attention of the audience and interest them into why these people have to catch the train so desperately. There's obviously been some sort of problem to do with the mother and daughter, judging by the mother's black eye, and perhaps this could be due to an abusive boyfriend, or a clash with a landlord. It's these sorts of questions that interest the audience, and make them want to find out what happens and why, so they continue watching the film. The contract of the abused bathroom and the normal shop or restaurant makes the introduction quite rich and varied, so the viewer doesn't get bored of the same scene over and over again.
The Graduate
This opening is very simple, and perhaps a little boring. There is a constant type movement from the man standing on the conveyor, to the bag moving along the conveyor. The colours are very plain, and so, we presume, is the man. This plain appearance suggests that he is not going to cause any trouble, and is generally fairly normal. In the voices in the background, there is a constant stream of instructions, and these are similar to the things he has heard throughout his life; instructions, perhaps a foreshadow of what's going to happen when he gets home, and maybe insinuating that this is going to change in the course of the film.
Napoleon Dynamite
In the opening of Napoleon Dynamite, we see the starting credits, but portrayed in an interesting way, where usually there would just be text at the bottom of a screen, which most of the audience would ignore. This introduction is very simple but very effective, getting the attention of the audience, and perhaps giving them an idea of what the main character will be like; what foods he will eat, what sorts of things he likes, and what he looks like and how old he is, judging just from the cards he pulls out of his wallet.
As a remake of an introduction, I would like to do an introduction perhaps based on Amelie.
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