December 3, 2004 |\u00a0<\/strong>Even after inspiring countless rip-offs and put-ons, not to mention a string of sequels that illustrated the law of diminishing returns, Rocky <\/em>remains in a class by itself as a true-blue, two-fisted American original.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Never mind that its underdog-against-the-odds plot seemed second-hand even when the movie first appeared in 1976. And pay no attention to the grandiose spectacle that Sylvester Stallone made of himself in several subsequent pictures. Rocky <\/em>represents an almost miraculous confluence of actor and role, emotion and manipulation, entertainment and zeitgeist. In a post-Watergate era of cynicism and disillusionment, Stallone and director John G. Avildsen (Save the Tiger<\/em>) found a way to uplift and exhilarate audiences by offering a feel-good fantasy in the credible guise of a street-smart, kitchen-sink drama. And yet, even though Rocky <\/em>is very much a product of its time, it remains timeless in its appeal.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Indeed, this must-see movie has been accepted as a classic for so long that most folks have forgotten its humble origins. In many respects, this small-budget labor of love \u2014 which wound up winning an Oscar as Best Picture \u2014 was as much of an \u201cindie\u201d production as anything picked up by Miramax or Fox Searchlight at a typical Sundance Film Festival. At the time he wrote the screenplay, Stallone was eking out a career as a character actor in TV guest spots (Kojak<\/em>, Police Story<\/em>) and movie bit parts (Capone<\/em>, The Lords of Flatbush<\/em>). And while he evidenced promise, few people took notice. He wrote Rocky <\/em>almost as an act of desperation, intending the drama as a showcase for himself. And he refused all offers from anyone who wanted to retrofit the script as a vehicle for someone else.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t viewed Rocky <\/em>since its initial theatrical run \u2014 or if you\u2019re familiar with it only through its reputation \u2014 you may be shocked by how grubby and gritty much of it seems. After an unfortunately pretentious display of the title, accompanied by the cascading trumpets of Bill Conti\u2019s now-familiar score, the movie immediately rights itself by leaping into the unromanticized brutality of a small-stakes prizefight. Rocky Balboa is introduced as a self-described \u201cham-and-egger,\u201d an unremarkable club fighter who earns chump change in neighborhood matches throughout Philadelphia. When we first see him, Rocky manages to recover from a vicious head-butt, and knocks out his younger opponent. But the rowdy audience remains unimpressed. \u201cYou\u2019re a bum!\u201d a blowsy woman shrieks. \u201cYou heard that? You\u2019re a bum!\u201d Rocky, it should be noted, doesn\u2019t bother to argue the point with her.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Out of the ring, Rocky struggles to maintain his proud swagger and his tattered dignity, even while he works as a collection agent for a slimy loan shark. Unfortunately, he doesn\u2019t have it in him to be as violent with delinquent debtors as his boss demands. (A nice touch: Rocky has to don reading glasses before scribbling the name of the next guy he\u2019s supposed to lean on.) And despite his best efforts to rehearse snappy patter in front of his bedroom mirror, he can\u2019t quite break the ice with Adrian (Talia Shire), the painfully shy young woman who works at the neighborhood pet store. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Worst of all, Rocky can\u2019t even keep his locker at a dingy gym, because he\u2019s been branded as an undesirable \u2014 a \u201ccheap leg-breaker\u201d \u2014 by Mickey (Burgess Meredith), the grizzled trainer who runs the joint.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Rocky <\/em>devotes the better part of an hour to credibly establishing its title character as sorely needing \u2014 and, yes, entirely deserving \u2014 a shot at redemption. It takes a fair amount of contrivance, but fortune eventually smiles on our hero: Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), the flamboyant heavyweight champ, chooses to fight Rocky as a well-hyped publicity stunt when a more worthy contender is sidelined. The twist of fate is frankly fantastic \u2014 almost as incredible as Stallone\u2019s off-screen struggle to get Rocky <\/em>made in the first place \u2014 but you have no trouble accepting it. Why? Because, by that point in the movie, you want <\/em>to. Just as you want Rocky to accept the gruff but achingly vulnerable Mickey as his trainer, and to wear that oversized and advertisement-emblazoned robe in the ring as a favor to his buddy Paulie (Burt Young).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n But even a fairy tale must be true to its own logic. One of the great things about Rocky <\/em>is its refusal to pander to its audience by having Rocky score a knockout and grab the heavyweight title. (Compared to most other sports-themed dramas that have followed in its wake, this one comes across as almost cruelly realistic.) Winning, Rocky <\/em>dares to say, really isn\u2019t <\/em>everything. Torn by self-doubt, and yet driven by a desire to prove he\u2019s not \u201canother bum from the neighborhood,\u201d Rocky Balboa figures he will do enough if he simply \u201cgoes the distance\u201d and remains standing when the final bell sounds. That, the movie implies, is the best any man can hope for.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Sylvester Stallone looks back:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/strong>It really was an indie film,\u201d Sylvester Stallone said in 2003 of the movie that launched him as a cinematic multi-hyphenate. \u201cExcept indie films really weren\u2019t so prevalent back then. So when (United Artists) agreed to do [Rocky<\/em>], they approached it more like it was, maybe, second-bill fare for drive-ins. I was told that: \u2018This is not \u201cA\u201d material, per se.\u2019 It was done with unknowns, under a budget of $1 million. And we had 28 fays to make it. I never, ever thought it was going to be shown in a first-run theater\u2026 The funny thing is, I\u2019ve been told by reigning studio executives that Rocky<\/em> would today be considered high-concept. And I think, \u2018OK. The guy is wearing Converse sneakers, and he lives in a cold-water flat. And this guy is high concept.\u2019 Sure.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Stallone long ago reconciled himself to the certainty that, just as Sean Connery is<\/em> James Bond, he\u2019ll forever be known best as John Rambo, the invincible Vietnam vet, and Rocky Balboa, the bloodied-but-unbowed underdog. And that\u2019s not such a bad thing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re first reaction is, \u2018Aw, gosh, they\u2019re trying to pigeonhole me,\u2019\u201d he admits. \u201c But then again, it\u2019s not bad being a pigeon who\u2019s going to be around for a while.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou can sit there and play cerebral pinball with yourself — \u2018God, I\u2019m blessed!\u2019 \u2018God, I\u2019m cursed!\u2019 \u2013 but let\u2019s face it: Basically, you\u2019re blessed<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSomething like Rocky eventually gets out of your hands and becomes bigger than you personally could ever be. I\u2019m always taken aback by how long that character has endured. I remember, when I was watching TV coverage of the Iraq War, I saw some Iraqi in some town hold up a flag with Rocky on it. And I thought, \u2018You gotta be kidding me! Where did he have this flag for the past 20 years? Under his bed?\u2019 I mean, what was he thinking? \u2018Oh, yeah, the day they come here to free us, I\u2019m gonna pull out my Rocky flag!\u2019?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 3, 2004 |\u00a0Even after inspiring countless rip-offs and put-ons, not to mention a string of sequels that illustrated the law of diminishing returns, Rocky remains in a class by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-3961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-uncategorized","tag-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.movingpictureshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.movingpictureshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.movingpictureshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.movingpictureshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.movingpictureshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.movingpictureshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.movingpictureshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.movingpictureshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.movingpictureshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}