The Kingdom opening titles
The opening title sequence for The Kingdom is spectacular, presenting a heroic amount of backstory.
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This site is run by screenwriter John August. Most of the time, he answers reader-submitted questions about the craft, but occasionally he goes on tangents that run far afield of writing and filmmaking. You'll also find info on past, present and future projects.
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October 2nd, 2007 at 9:42 am
Wow, that was pretty impressive.
From what I’ve seen it looks like The Kingdom could be really good. Looking forward to seeing it!
John, have you had a chance to see it yet? If so, what did you think?
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:25 am
I saw it. It had a lot of problems, but it was entertaining, which was it’s main purpose. It’s not Syriana. One problem, I think, is that it lets on that it is something more than an thriller set in an exotic locale. The opening credits certainly don’t help this. And quite frankly, they aren’t needed. The movie could have been much better, but, as I said, I was entertained.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:30 am
I liked this open a lot, but I’ve gotta say, the benchmark for backstory-totin’ credit sequences has to be JFK. The combination of Martin Sheen’s gravity, Pietro Scalia’s editing** and Oliver Stone’s wildly entertaining paranoia are a potent combination.
Was that Leonard Nimoy’s voice in the Kingdom clip? If so, he really should have done the whole thing. He sounds like an education film narrator with a secret.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:30 am
** I admit, I looked up the Pietro Scalia thing.
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
The Kingdom’s trailer is absolutely amazing, it manges to condense a century of history between the East and West in 3 mins 49 approx and is essential in understanding the story that is to follow. I’ve not seen the film but the trailer has whetted my appetite. This looks like this is going to be a hit!
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Wow. Those are some really good credits.
October 2nd, 2007 at 4:19 pm
According to John August,
[�Credits� generally refers to the scrolling list at the end of the movie which lists all of the people who worked on the movie. “Main Titles� (or “Opening Titles�) are the people and/or production companies who have their names prominently displayed at the start of the movie, along with the title of the film.]
de la http://johnaugust.com/index.php?s=opening+credits&submit=Search
PS) I’m a fan of the site! Thanks for your interesting & in depth articles!
October 2nd, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Gotta love that Elfman music. Just bought the CD off Amazon.
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Phillip (#7):
Good call! I just swapped that out.
It’s also a tough call whether “a heroic” or “an heroic” sounds better. (They both sound ridiculous if you repeat them a few times.)
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:43 pm
I am eternally happy that you went with “a heroic” in the end - “an heroic” is a very americanised spelling and always gets on my nerves (being an Aussie-English speller!)
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:38 am
@John:
Hehe didn’t think you’d actually do it!
And, though I am from America, I definitely agree with “a heroic.” This is because my rule for a versus an is thus: when before a word beginning in a vowel, use “an” otherwise use “a.”
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:58 am
The Kingdom is a fantastic film. I’d say it’s almost on par with the Bourne series.
October 4th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Wow. I must say that I just finished reading “The Looming Tower” about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and Al-Qaeda and I must say that 4 minute opening sequence pretty much sums up a big portion of that book. That sequence used excellent visuals/splicing (if that is the correct technical term) to condense successfully a complicated history. It’s too bad to hear the rest of the film is not as good, but I’m sure I’ll still watch it on Netflix.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
While there are many voices in the opening titles sequence, the distinctive voice is that of Will Lyman (not Leonard Nimoy as one person hilariously deduces). The clips using his narrations are taken from PBS’s awardwinning Frontline series. Will has also done some other things and for those who avoid serious TV news but scoop up everything Hollywood has to offer, you would probably recognize him as the voiceover in “Little Children.”
If only those involved in the Kingdom had actually watched those Frontline episodes, a better movie might have resulted. But you can’t fault a studio for helping to at least raise a little consciousness about life in Saudi Arabia which is the real source of our 9/11 troubles and not its recently invaded neighbor to the north.