Rutbreaker: The Title Sequence of "Working Girl"

 As usual with my random searches and delvings into the endless pit of who knows; I do not how how I landed on this particular thing. But I am glad that I did. I had a passing knowledge of the 1988 movie Working Girl, Melanie Griffith played a secretary in New York and the title song "Let the River Run" won an Oscar and it was composed by Carly Simon.

I will add to that list that it has one of the best opening title sequences for a movie that I have ever seen in my life. Without further adieu, here it is; the opening of Working Girl:

My God. It's wonderful. And I will tell you why it's wonderful:

1. The song "Let the River Run" won the Oscar and a single was released with Carly Simon singing the main vocal. The song doesn't work that way. It works better with a chorus of voices, especially since I believe it was meant to be a kind of jungle spiritual, with New York as the jungle. The version in the opening is perfect and exact.

2. Look at the actual camerawork. It's one continuous shot around the Statue of Liberty and to the Staten Island Ferry to come up alongside it.  I'm sure that with a steady-cam, which probably existed by the last 80s, you could do this from a chopper or small plane. Nowadays, people might not bother and just use CGI for it. It is a brilliant piece of camerawork, and should be remembered alongside other great like sequences in film history (the restaurant entrance scene in Goodfellas comes to mind).

3. Looking in comments underneath the title sequence, it seems to hearken back to a more meaningful time not only for the city but for the country. Unfortunately, you can see a big difference when the camera comes up on the ferry and you see the Twin Towers, in their commercial glory. The 80s in New York were documented in other movies such as Wall Street and they illustrated the dark points of the city. This sequence seems to show it as a magnificent palace, where the impossible can and will happen. So it worked on many different levels, not just being a pretty image, but also at the psychological level.

This title sequence does everything that you need a title sequence to do and it does it in a simple elegant matter. Very impressive and definitely worth remembering

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