Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

There's something that must be said about a good opening scene. It has to grab you by the throat and demand that you stay put in your seat and watch. Some of the best opening scenes start in media res, right smack in the middle of the action and it immediately captures your attention. You become involved whether you want to or not. And the great thing about Sullivan's Travels opening scene is that it has a fight scene on a moving train. And for the firs three minutes or so you don't know what's going on but you're curious as to what's going on.

But the end credits roll and you hear Joel McCrea start taking about films. This sets off what is a purely dialogue-driven scene. The speed in which the dialogue is delivered sets the pace right away in the sense that this is gonna be a fast-moving film. It is funny dialogue, parodying the filmmaking business, which clearly shows the tone of the film. The best line that keeps getting repeated is that the film be "with a little sex in it." But there's talk of Communists and a running joke on Pittsburgh I had no idea dated back at least to the 1940s.

There's no introduction of a female lead at this point, but clearly this film isn't about love, although love does factor in later on. Or rather the love is different. This is, if anything, a love affair Sullivan has with films. He's so dead-set on making a drama about poverty, but doesn't know the first thing about trouble, which the producers make clear to him. This gives him the bone-headed idea to go live as a tramp to find out in order to make that meaningful film he wants to make. So while there is no romantic interest at this point in the form of a female lead, you could argue that Sullivan's romantic interest here is film, or maybe the perfect film he so imagines. The producers push the musical or comedy but he wants none of it, so of course we get the hint that this might just be what is the perfect film for him.

This quick opening scene does just the trick in grabbing your attention. It's clear that Sullivan's Travels is another film that's redefining the comedy genre but still grasping on to screwball roots. The tone and pace is set straight away and we're introduced to the main character and conflict straight off as well. There's nothing ambiguous going on here. On the contrary, we can be sure we're gonna have a great laugh for the next 90 minutes.