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Welcome to Movies & Film
Movie Reviews, & Film Industry Commentary
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1976 – PG – 119 min.
Director: John G. Avidsen
Primary Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Thayer David
Stars **** (of 5)
Popcorn ***** (of 5)
Film Type(s): Drama, Competition, Urban, Cinderella Story, Sports
Synopsis: Rocky Balboa (Stallone) is a down-on-his-luck boxer. Struggling to get fights in his Philadelphia neighborhood, he has to work as a strong arm for local loan sharks just to get by. He’s so far gone, even his trainer has given up on him (Meredith). But when the aggrandizing, self-promoting World Champion, Apollo Creed (Weathers), chooses him to fight in a special match, Rocky uses the opportunity to get his life together. He overcomes his shyness with her to ask out the introverted Adrian (Shire), in spite of her abusive brother Paulie’s (Young) objections. Against all odds, he makes a decision to go the distance with Creed, but can he make it? Features a cameo from Joe Frazier. Look closely at the Doo-Wop group at the beginning to see Stallone’s brother, Frank.
Review: This powerful feel-good movie about a “million to one shot” is still a classic to this day. Inspired by the Muhammad Ali Bicentennial Fight, an unknown, an out-of-work Philadelphia boxer/actor named Sylvester Stallone wrote a script about a “bum” that only wants to go the distance when he gets a chance of a lifetime to fight against the current champ, all while carrying on a reluctant romance with a shy pet-shop girl. The cheesy dialogue and simplistic storyline could have killed any other movie, but the acting, editing, and Cinderella-Story on and off screen make this a classic. This film is also a great of example of people remembering what they want to remember, forgetting or failing to realize that Rocky DIDN’T WIN. The point was that he went the distance (in both life and the final fight), that he wasn’t a ‘bum’. Something a modern audience also needs to keep in mind to show how much of an underdog story the film production was is that only Meredith and Shire were known to the original audiences, primarily as the Penguin in the 1960’s “Batman” TV show and as Connie Corleone in the Godfather movies, respectively. Every training sequence is a heart thumper with Rocky’s preparations for his fight with the Ali-like self-promoting Apollo Creed. Bill Conti’s potent score is ever present with the now famous Rocky Theme starting early on as just a lone, slowly played piano piece that transforms later into a rousing Anthem that gives the audience a window into the character’s feelings of triumph and exhilaration at the top of the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. One of the few films to get four Oscar Nominations for Acting (Stallone, Shire, Young, and Meredith), it won for Best Picture, Director, and Editing. It beat out heavies Taxi Driver and Network for the Best Picture Oscar, which, in spite of how contemporary all three of these movies increasingly feel, still seems like the best choice. It inspired a string of imitators to this day in a variety of genres, including like themed Best Picture winner Million Dollar Baby, rap competition 8 Mile, kid friendly Babe and The Karate Kid, British comedy The Full Monty, classroom drama Stand And Deliver, to real life stories in Remember The Titans and My Left Foot. It even affected others to subtler degrees in The Shawshank Redemption, Erin Brockovich, The Color Purple, Chariots of Fire, Good Will Hunting, Shine, Hoosiers, and The Verdict.
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