Rocky

When Rocky III came out I went to see the first three Rocky movies in one marathon session. By all accounts the new Rocky is OK. Here, Slate decodes the best part of the Rocky films, the montages.

In the first two Rocky films, the training montage functioned as a plotless, mid-movie pick-me-up. By Rocky III, it's a cinematic Swiss Army knife—a plot accelerator, a moral scorecard, and an infomercial for the Sylvester Stallone full-body workout.