Weekly Theme

Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

This one's pretty strait forward. What are some of your favorite montage sequences? It seems that the montage is pretty much a staple in the film industry so, you would probably be pretty hard pressed to find a film that didn't use this technique at least once.

I watched The Royal Tenenbaums again last night and saw a great montage sequence. Does anybody remember it? It was when Royal decides to instill some reckless abandonment into his two grandsons. The montage shows them riding go-carts, throwing water balloons at a car and waiting for the "DON'T WALK" sign to cross.

Or, do you prefer the more traditional "sports training montage" like the classic in Rocky. This one's been spoofed so many times that its impossible to forget.

Maybe you just hate the whole idea in the first place. The one thing that I will say is that they seem to be the most predictable next seen in any film. It always follows a typical set up. And its many times used to conveniently show the passage of time in a condensed space.

What do you guys say? I would like to hear specifically what some of you favorite sequences in film are. There's a hell of a lot to choose from so spit it out all ready.

Re:Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

It's monday and the only thing in my head is wo xiang zuo laoshi - I would like to be a teacher.

I'm sure I've seen lots of these so called montages though. :) Perhaps as others post their favorites something will come to my feeble old mind.

zaijian!

Re:Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

Btw, I love The Royal Tenenbaums, and Wes Anderson's other films. Don't they all include montages of a sort? I can never remember any of these sorts of things with any clarity.

Re:Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

Like rjsprague, my recall of montages needed a jumpstart, so I headed over to http://www.movie-montage.com/index.php for a little help.

The Monster Squad - Amped up with the amazingly prototypical 80's song "Rock Til You Drop," the montage in this film has a group of little kids building their arsenal to fight Dracula, Wolfman, the Mummy and a slew of others to save the world.

Legally Blonde - I specifically remember this montage because when I was studying for the LSAT's I watched this movie and wanted to murder Reese and the writers for making it seem like a piece of cake and her character getting such an insane score on it. Plus her friends were exercising in spandex.

The Cutting Edge - Just another training sequence . . . with spandex.

Flashdance - More spandex and a perfect body. Good times had by all.

Pretty Woman - Not sure if spandex, but she wears a skintight skank outfit. "I like it when they finally let her shop."

Almost Famous - Has some great montages throughout. The on-the-road and epilogue montages make the film for me. Unfortunately no spandex, but you do get to see a topless Kate Hudson.

Hmmm, I think spandex needs to start making a comeback.

Re:Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

One of the montages I found more enjoyable was probably the wine-country driving sequence in Sideways.  I loved the sixties feel to the editing, and the sort of soma-groove background music. I really thought it enchanced the feel of the film and set a mood nicely without adding too much camp.

Another film with a great montage (albeit a bit campy) would be Kill Bill-with the obligatory martial-arts training montage.  Sure its expected and a bit cheesey, but I really think thats the whole point, given the 70's Kung-fu flick feel of the film at that point.  Kill Bill actually has a few other montages, but I dont think any were as memorable or as enjoyable.

Requiem for a Dream may be a bit of a stretch, but I would submit the scenes involving drug use qualify as montages.  The quick edits with only background noise where you don't actually see the drug use but its more or less implied was pretty brilliant I thought.

Re:Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

seely:

 

Requiem for a Dream may be a bit of a stretch, but I would submit the scenes involving drug use qualify as montages.  The quick edits with only background noise where you don't actually see the drug use but its more or less implied was pretty brilliant I thought.

I thought about that one too. Also, Snatch has a similar quick and rythemic montage.

Re:Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

mercurial:

The Monster Squad - Amped up with the amazingly prototypical 80's song "Rock Til You Drop," the montage in this film has a group of little kids building their arsenal to fight Dracula, Wolfman, the Mummy and a slew of others to save the world.

This made me think of the Home Alone movies.  When he's preparing the houses with all of his traps.

Re:Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

The first one that always comes to mind when I think about montages is the dating sequence from THE NAKED GUN.   I also think there was a good montage in NORTH SHORE as he learns to surf on a variety of different boards until he's finally ready.

Re:Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

OH and DUH!!! The "Baby Learning to Dance" montage in DIRTY DANCING!!!

Re:Weekly Theme for October 20: The Montage

The first that comes to mind for me is the Karate Kid. 

Also I really enjoy theScarface montage. I am sure that some parts of it are mundane due to the type of social icon that this movie is. But for me it still personifies the essence of cheering for the chamipon of the film.