The Power of Montages

            Oliver Stone said, “Film is distinctive because of its nature, of its being able to cut through time with editing.”  On page 19 of the introduction to Rush’s New Media, Rush discusses editing and how the perfection of the cinematic montage allowed for filmmakers to direct the viewer to a certain emotional state.  After reading this passage, I began to contemplate the power of the cinematic montage, and how montages allow film to accomplish what other forms of media cannot. 

Many formalist filmmakers, such as Sergei Eisenstein, saw editing and film montages as a form of abstract art, a way to communicate certain themes without being restricted by the rules of traditional art or even reality.  When making Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein combined his editing, which ignored the normal flow of time, with the mathematical principal known as the golden ratio.  By placing each of his most important scenes on Fibonacci numbers (a sequence of numbers in which each number equals the sum of the two preceding numbers), Eisenstein attempted to evoke powerful emotional reactions by combining his editing with what his audiences were experiencing in real-time, whose perceptions were bound by the laws of time and space.   Although Eisenstein saw this experiment as a failure because he believed the golden ratio did not aid the emotional impact of his film, films such as Battleship Potemkin pioneered the use of montages in formalist and classical cinema.  

This excerpt also made me realize that, as viewers, we are so used to seeing montages in film that we do not care that they breaks the rules of time or space.  Now, directors are able to suspend the viewer’s disbelief much more easily than when Eisenstein was making Battleship Potemkin, yet still maintain as much control over the audience as in the past.  I have attached what I believe to be an excellent example of the use of montage in classical cinema.  This clip is from the film Rushmore, directed by Wes Anderson.  Many agree that Anderson is a master when it comes to using montages in his films, and in this clip he introduces the main character in Rushmore, Max Fischer.  In 1 minute and 13 seconds, Anderson not only familiarizes us with the character, but he also convinces us to like him by exhibiting his unbridled optimism.  He also uses editing to slow down time, jump from location to location, as well as pass through time in a non-linear fashion all without bothering his audience, none of which would be possible without Eisenstein and other pioneering filmmakers.