5/27/2008 - Star Wars: No Easy Way Out

Last month, the James Rolfe (AKA the Angry Video Game Nerd) paid tribute to one of his favorite movie series, Rocky and its sequels. In addition to his great documentary about the locales featured in the movies, he gave quick reviews of the movies. I was very curious as to how he would review Rocky IV. I always thought Rocky III, IV, and V were less about the story and the Rocky "legend" and were made just as moneymakers. There was, however, something about Rocky IV that appeals to me as a child of the 80's. Looking at it now, it is quite the period piece with its heavy use of montages set to music, it's almost like a feature-length music video from the 80's. Like James says, "It's all about the montages."

Take the "Driving" montage for example. Here is Rocky, contemplating over the loss of Apollo (sorry if I spoiled the movie for you), and the prospect of going up against the beast Ivan Drago. Not only did this montage contain clips from the previous Rocky movies, but flashback video of something that just happened 15 minutes ago in the movie! Now that's a hardcore montage! It's all set to the song "No Easy Way Out" by Robert Tepper and is frequently parodied on YouTube.

Perhaps the best parody is the one with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, where Darth Vader is witnessing his son's torture at the hands of the Emperor. Who knows what is going on in his head at that moment... after all, his face is completely covered in that mask. I guess it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that he's thinking about the past... and hey, that's the perfect occasion for a flashback montage!



I like to think of this as "What if Sylvester Stallone directed Star Wars?".