Our Favorite Montage Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Our Favorite Montages: Real Genius
Filed under: Trailers and Clips », Scenes We Love »
Of the "nerdy science kid" movies of the 1980s, I've always preferred Real Genius over Weird Science, and it has everything to do with young Val Kilmer. Not because he was godlike in his looks, but because he was hilarious in his bunny slippers. Kilmer is one of those actors you just want to shake senseless because he had it all, and chose to blow off his career in so many ways.
But this isn't a post about Kilmer, it's my favorite Real Genius montage. I abruptly remembered it thanks to being up around CU-Boulder a few days ago and realizing the fall semester had just started. I haven't been out of school that long, but it's amazing how quickly you forget the hell rush of class registration, book buying, and trying to decide which of your professors you'll be unable to stand. Every year, this montage popped into my head (which means I probably watched this movie way too many times), and I was all too aware that I was Mitch. My backpack was twice my size because I was so dedicated, I never missed a class, I spent my evenings trying to figure out who Shakespeare's Dark Lady was, and I'm pretty sure I once fell down some stairs because I was reading something. But all that hard work put me right here, posting about my unhealthy memorization of Real Genius!
Jump below for the montage. If you're in college right now, maybe you'll identify with it a little bit.
But this isn't a post about Kilmer, it's my favorite Real Genius montage. I abruptly remembered it thanks to being up around CU-Boulder a few days ago and realizing the fall semester had just started. I haven't been out of school that long, but it's amazing how quickly you forget the hell rush of class registration, book buying, and trying to decide which of your professors you'll be unable to stand. Every year, this montage popped into my head (which means I probably watched this movie way too many times), and I was all too aware that I was Mitch. My backpack was twice my size because I was so dedicated, I never missed a class, I spent my evenings trying to figure out who Shakespeare's Dark Lady was, and I'm pretty sure I once fell down some stairs because I was reading something. But all that hard work put me right here, posting about my unhealthy memorization of Real Genius!
Jump below for the montage. If you're in college right now, maybe you'll identify with it a little bit.
Our Favorite Montages: Braveheart
Filed under: Drama », Romance », War », Trailers and Clips »
Not all montages come from the heady, power ballad-filled days of the 1980s. Every once and awhile they crop up in big historical epics because you have to cut the running time of them somehow, and battle scenes are pretty damn expensive. No one can accuse Braveheart of skimping on the medieval carnage, but even Mel Gibson had to draw a line somewhere, and he chose to feature a nifty little montage of William Wallace traveling the length and breadth of Scotland after the disaster of Falkirk. He's down, but he isn't out, and he's keeping the fight alive as the Scots rally to his cause once more. It's like a 14th century Eye of the Tiger!
It's popular to hate on Braveheart these days, but this montage distills some of what I'll always love about the film: the gorgeous scenery, the kilts (I believe the mountain close-up is one of Gibson's final momentsof sexiness), the unrepentant bloodshed, and the way he captured the chilly roughness of the period. I'll always forgive the film its historical errors because it works so well as pure legend (and was drawn from poetry -- read Blind Harry's Wallace if you want Braveheart times ten), and nothing says that better than a bunch of villagers sharing Wallace's kill count. I especially love how its punctuated with that grim, bloody march at the end. No wonder Edward is fretting about ways to get rid of him.
Jump below for the scene...
It's popular to hate on Braveheart these days, but this montage distills some of what I'll always love about the film: the gorgeous scenery, the kilts (I believe the mountain close-up is one of Gibson's final momentsof sexiness), the unrepentant bloodshed, and the way he captured the chilly roughness of the period. I'll always forgive the film its historical errors because it works so well as pure legend (and was drawn from poetry -- read Blind Harry's Wallace if you want Braveheart times ten), and nothing says that better than a bunch of villagers sharing Wallace's kill count. I especially love how its punctuated with that grim, bloody march at the end. No wonder Edward is fretting about ways to get rid of him.
Jump below for the scene...
Our Favorite Montages: Scarface
Filed under: Drama », Fandom », Trailers and Clips »
There are plenty of different kinds of montages in the language of film, and they can fill you in on everything from the emotional state of your characters to a wacky makeover. So while a good montage sequence will explain everything you need to know in the most economical way possible, one of my favorite kinds is the "Rise to Power" montage -- which brings me to Scarface. I love Brian De Palma's crime opus for so many reasons, but I think when it comes to the art of the montage, I have a soft spot for cheese -- and it doesn't get much more pungent than Giorgio Moroder, the patron saint of 80's movie music.
By the time the power chords of Moroder and Paul Engemann's Push it To The Limit kicks in, we've already been watching Tony Montana work his way up the criminal ladder and this segment occurs after he has killed Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) and taken over as the head cocaine trafficker in Miami. This montage has it all: bags of money, weddings -- hell, there's even a tiger.
Sure, this montage is a little over the top, and you can see Tony's downfall coming from a mile away. In just over two minutes there are enough ominous glances that you just know things are not going to end well for our cocaine dynasty. So even though this sequence has every crime cliché front and center, remember, it isn't a cliché it you were the one to do it first.
After the jump: the rise of Tony Montana, and another Moroder movie classic...
Our Favorite Montages: Rocky IV
Filed under: Classics », Sports », Fandom », Film Clips », Trailers and Clips »
Naturally, when asked to pick a favorite montage I had to be painfully obvious and choose Rocky IV. If I could program Star Trek Holodeck adventures for myself, one of them would totally be set in Hollywood's version of the Cold War, where it was better to be dead than red, and nuclear war was just five minutes away unless Stallone or Schwarzenegger stepped in. This is the culture that spawned characters like Marvel's Black Widow, and I too want to be an agent provocateur for one side or the other. Preferably Russian. They always had the cool black outfits.
That's why I dig the Rocky IV montage. It's steeped in images of what America firmly believed the Soviet Union to be -- a country of superior technology and gigantic athletes that could totally crush us. This is the stuff of my Reagan era childhood, when my teachers told us we would inevitably fall to the hammer and sickle because the Soviets were just so relentlessly ruthless and badass. No one captures this better than Ivan Drago. To gaze on him is to look into Reagan's fear of the Evil Empire. Drago's the poster child for why we needed a lot of nukes in the 1980s. Even better, this montage also captures what we believed pre-Revolutionary Russia to be, which is clearly something out of Doctor Zhivago. Like Leo Tolstoy, Sylvester Stallone obviously believed that Russia lost its way when it strayed from its peasant soul, and he embraces its hearty lifestyle of serfdom in order to achieve true victory.
Watch the video after the jump
That's why I dig the Rocky IV montage. It's steeped in images of what America firmly believed the Soviet Union to be -- a country of superior technology and gigantic athletes that could totally crush us. This is the stuff of my Reagan era childhood, when my teachers told us we would inevitably fall to the hammer and sickle because the Soviets were just so relentlessly ruthless and badass. No one captures this better than Ivan Drago. To gaze on him is to look into Reagan's fear of the Evil Empire. Drago's the poster child for why we needed a lot of nukes in the 1980s. Even better, this montage also captures what we believed pre-Revolutionary Russia to be, which is clearly something out of Doctor Zhivago. Like Leo Tolstoy, Sylvester Stallone obviously believed that Russia lost its way when it strayed from its peasant soul, and he embraces its hearty lifestyle of serfdom in order to achieve true victory.
Watch the video after the jump
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