Comments on: Great Training Montages throughout history

Great Training Montages throughout history

psmealey — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:50:12 -0800

Great Training Montages throughout history And a few of my own choosing to inspire you all to keep to your New Year's resolution-mandated training regimens: Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Footloose, Team America: World Police, Karate Kid, the Breakfast Club, Flashdance, and arguably the best of all time, Turkish Star Wars

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:55:37 -0800

The hours approaching, just give it your best You've got to reach your prime. That's when you need to put yourself to the test, And show us a passage of time, We're gonna need a montage Oh it takes a montage Show a lot of things happing at once, Remind everyone of what's going on And with every shot you show a little improvement To show it all would take to long That's called a montage Oh we want montage

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:56:57 -0800

Oh, and everybody needs to click on Turkish Star Wars. WTF?

By: painquale

painquale — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:57:58 -0800

Stan Chin posted an AskMe question on training montage music that has drastically improved my gym mixes.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:05:28 -0800

A few questions about Turkish Star Wars. First, why does Turkish Skywalker have to be physically strong? Do you need big strong man muscles to use the Turkish Force? Too bad that after all that physical training, Turkish Skywalker still has no ass. And why is Turkish Skywalker's roofie-huffing, ex-Bananarama girlfriend rubbing salad on his hands? Is she tending to his man-wounds or tossing in some secret dressing? Either way, yum. Also, best video ever.

By: thehmsbeagle

thehmsbeagle — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:08:16 -0800

Turkish Star Wars just rocketed to the top of my BEST THINGS EVER list.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:10:01 -0800

This one from Scarface is particularly egregious. In fact, I think this is the montage that the South Park guys used as their template for "We Need A Montage!"

By: everichon

everichon — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:20:31 -0800

If you haven't seen Turkish Star Wars in its mind-wrecking entirety, you ought to. Words are utterly inadequate to describe it. It is the grand canyon of bad movies. Just...gaping there. I, I need to sit down.

By: ninjew

ninjew — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:25:21 -0800

My friend and I watched Turkish Star Wars the other night. On purpose. Reading the subtitles provides the best form of entertainment, although it makes the film less intelligible. If that were possible. "A coating which was formed by compressed human brain molecules was protecting the earth." "I just.." "but.." "wait, what?!" Those were the best responses either of us could come up with.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:29:03 -0800

Oh my God, Turkish Star Wars 2. I swear in that trailer there's a fat guy with a toupee, a tuxedo, and a light saber. It's like Star Wars mashed up with Battlestar Galactica and the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who, but with 80's rock video chicks. Wow, just, I mean, wow.

By: everichon

everichon — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:29:24 -0800

Also, I would like for some filmmaker to make an exciting montage of the process of becoming a CPA. Cos, you know: it takes a montage.

By: wsg

wsg — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:31:12 -0800

Pastabagel, the salad girl is not from Bananarama. That's obviously the chick from Abba.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:33:30 -0800

Turkish Star Wars - Final Scene is the funniest thing I have ever seen.

By: everichon

everichon — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:37:19 -0800

IRFH, perhaps you don't know that the Turkish deserts are liberally endowed with naturally-occurring trampolines. And muppet monsters.

By: suki

suki — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:41:00 -0800

Actually pastabagel and wsg, I think the "salad girl" is Jeanine Pettibone. And, for real, that Turkish Star Wars montage was so good it made me want to strap rocks to my calves, scratch up some dirt, and look pensive.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:43:01 -0800

Yes, everichon, I've heard of these liberally endowed Turkish delights, but always found them hard to swallow.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:45:29 -0800

When I think movie montages I think of Albert Brooks' Real Life: "Let's show the French what a montage really is."

By: The White Hat

The White Hat — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:52:29 -0800

Let us not forget Italian Spiderman. (Not technically a montage, but oh so good.)

By: EatTheWeak

EatTheWeak — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:00:22 -0800

More praise for Turkish Star Wars - that was an utter delight. What a great training regime! "Luke, go up on that ridge and fuck your wrists up doing pulled chops on rocks. Then tie so rocks to your ankles and fuck your back up jogging. Then jump on the trampoline for awhile." But I think I laughed the hardest when the little kid started doing punches with better form than Luke, and he comes over to .. incorrect him, I guess? "stop, stop! you're doing it right!"

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:08:22 -0800

This post has the Eye of the Tiger.

By: fijiwriter

fijiwriter — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:14:46 -0800

Spending your day in middle management would make a great montage...but we need the fade-out at the end to make it all serious-like.

By: djgh

djgh — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:26:39 -0800

Montages are incredible resources for gymn soundtracks, as pointed out. They can also make you appear to be clever. A large group of people from my college were in a room watching University Challenge due to our college being on that week. Obviously, this leads to tons of people shouting out the answer to any questions they know the answer to. A music round came on (this is where they play a clip of a song - can be classical, modern etc., and you identify it). For the starter, the song began with a piano playing. Three notes in, I shouted out "Eminem! Lose Yourself!". The entire room laughed. "It's a classical piece, idiot". The piano continued for another twenty seconds or so. Then the bass kicked in. Four months of having that as the first song on my "Workout" playlist had given me the ability to identify "Lose Yourself" within three seconds. So you see, montages can make you an intellectual.

By: djgh

djgh — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:27:19 -0800

(And yes, "Eye of the Tiger" was the second song on the playlist. I'm a sucker for the cliché)

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:29:49 -0800

Training montages are almost as funny as "Strapping on high tech gear and the clicking of weapons montages." Of which, coincidentally, Stallone also has done a number of versions.

By: djb

djb — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:37:02 -0800

tkchrist - Schwarzenegger suiting up in Commando [2.1MB WMV] has always defined that genre for me. Perhaps there's a follow-up post in the making?

By: jake

jake — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:46:05 -0800

Arguably, indeed. As much as I love Turkish Star Wars, Rocky IV's is by far the best, if only because Vince DiCola's training montage music is possibly the best single piece of music in any film in history. I always find myself crying at the end of it, holding my arms above my head triumphantly.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:47:31 -0800

I for one am delighted to discover that Turkey is apparently covered in trampolines and exploding foamcore boulders.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:00:51 -0800

Ah. Excellent djb.Commando is a drinking game waiting to happen.

By: darth_tedious

darth_tedious — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:10:16 -0800

I find your lack of Faith (and Giles, and Buffy)... disturbing.

By: TVC15

TVC15 — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:27:13 -0800

Tsc, tsc. No 36th Chamber of the Shaolin? The whole movie is pretty much one awesome training montage.

By: patricio

patricio — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:33:18 -0800

That Turkish Star Wars clip is truly awesome. Is he really rubbing his hands in brussels sprouts at the end?

By: Cyrano

Cyrano — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:38:11 -0800

jake's got it. Rocky IV is the standard that all training montages are measured against.

By: camdan

camdan — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:52:22 -0800

you can't forget wet hot american summer, of course.

By: about_time

about_time — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:09:14 -0800

Great post. The original South Park "montage" song that is the basis for Team America was in is the Asspen episode. Starts about 16 minutes in.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:30:19 -0800

Highlander, obviously!

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:13:21 -0800

I had no idea that Christine McVie was in Turkish Star Wars. So I... learned something.

By: Pecinpah

Pecinpah — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:22:37 -0800

I will always, always love the denizens of Metafilter for bringing things like 'Turkish Star Wars' to my attention. Seriously, I love you. All of you. I'm trying not to cry right now.

By: ninjew

ninjew — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:26:50 -0800

Oh, I forgot the best part about Turkish Star Wars. They steal the soundtrack from the wrong George Lucas film series! That end scene, among others, features the instantly recognizable Indiana Jones theme.

By: It ain't over yet

It ain't over yet — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:44:30 -0800

Excellently awesome. How odd (or not?) that Rocky 3 and Pacino share the same music, which quotes Italian Westerns! And boy is Stallone not doing the butterfly correctly in 3. Excellent post.

By: Soliloquy

Soliloquy — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:40:03 -0800

Do spoofs qualify?

By: Mastercheddaar

Mastercheddaar — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 05:40:34 -0800

I now have lived my life to the fullest.... I have seen a part of turkish star wars.

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:22:02 -0800

Came here to make sure that Wet Hot American Summer was mentioned, and was pleased that it was so.