Rocky (1976)
The Stage.
In the ultimate underdog sports story, Rocky Balboa is picked out of a fighter catalog to step in for an injured fighter against the world champion, Apollo Creed.
The Review.
One of the perks of signing up for the Force Five Patreon is that at some point, you’ll be tapped on the shoulder to assign me a film. Any film you want, as long as it’s under three hours, for any reason you want, I’ll watch it and give it my honest assessment. Well, the Patreon hadn’t actually opened until this week but a few loyal listeners found the “soft open” link on the F5 website and signed up. Friend of the show Shaun was the first to sign up, so of course he got top billing, so I sent him a note telling him “No rush, the Patreon really isn’t even open yet…” and without hesitation, in all caps, he sent back…”ROCKY.”
See, I’ve known Shaun for twenty years now, and for twenty years, he’s tried to get me to watch Rocky. I’ve never seen it, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any Rocky film all the way through, and part of the reason I’ve resisted is because it’s been such a part of the cultural zeitgeist that even if you haven’t seen them, you feel like you have. I felt like I knew the beats. I had seen the montage. I had heard, “YO ADRIAN!” Spoiler alert for a film that won Best Picture in 1976, but I knew Rocky lost but went the distance. I know he wins in the sequel, fights Hulk Hogan as Thunderlips in part three, and fights Dolph Lundgren as the Russian in four and five. At some point it became kind of a running joke between us that I’d never watch it, but now, Shaun found a loophole…a contractual obligation of sorts that I, in good conscience, would not get out of. So I went to Amoeba Records and spent five bucks on a used Blu-ray.
Sylvester Stallone (who also wrote the film), of course, plays Rocky Balboa, a thirty-something leg-breaker for the local mob who boxes on the side as a hobby. We open on a boxing match and I was kind of surprised with how little skill Rocky appeared to have in the ring. He stood there getting pummeled like Boxcar Homer until he gets headbutted and rages out for the win, collecting his paltry sum of around forty bucks. He lives in a shit hole apartment, one that’s probably never had a woman in it and definitely hasn’t had cleaning supplies in it. I have to give the set decorator props for their depiction of his home, because it was equal parts intriguing and sickening. Random knives and machetes are stuck in various walls that double as coat and hat racks, the couch is littered with empty beer bottles, a lamp sits on an overturned Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket and there’s just piles of trash everywhere. At first glance, I couldn’t help but think, “This is the house of a mentally ill person.”
As we see Rocky go about his day, I actually thought that the character of Rocky might actually be mentally challenged. In every interaction he has with people and turtles in the first thirty minutes, it feels like he’s just a little bit behind, as if he’s taken too many hits to the head. I was even more convinced when he becomes interested in his friend’s sister, Adrian, played by Talia Shire, or as I know her, Connie Corleone. She works at the local pet store stocking turtle food and cleaning cat cages, and also appears to be mentally challenged. As the film goes on, it’s apparent that she was just extremely shy, but an early scene in the store in which Rocky walks in and just starts blabbing on about losing his locker at the local gym and then telling a pack of caged birds that his finger is a worm while she just stands there with a blank stare saying nothing really had me fooled. Other supporting characters include the bitter old gym owner, Mickey, Rocky’s asshole friend Paulie, and of course, Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed.
Rocky is the ultimate underdog story. In celebration of the bicentennial, the heavyweight champ is set to fight in a high profile, nationally televised match. Unfortunately, the opponent breaks his hand, and no other contenders are available, so Creed comes up with an idea - pick a random, white Philadelphia fighter for the match in the hopes that it will drum up publicity as the ultimate American dream. A rags to riches story for the public so that Creed doesn’t have to waste months of training for the fight. Rocky’s name is picked from a catalog - Apollo Creed vs. The Italian Stallion. Kind of sounds like a monster movie, Creed says. There’s no real villain in the story. Rocky’s main antagonist is really himself, his self-doubt, his belief that he’s not good enough. In one of the films more touching moments, he says this out loud the night before the fight, expressing that he knows he’s not good enough to beat Creed, but just wants to go the distance to prove he’s not a bum, which is apparently the worst thing you could be in late 70’s Philadelphia.
About an hour in, I couldn’t see what was so special about Rocky. I was surprised at how little boxing was in the film and I really didn’t like any of the characters. But at some point, and to be honest, I don’t even know when it happened, the sweet simpleton from the neighborhood kind of won me over. When the now famous training montage hit and Rocky raises his hands above his heads on the steps of the art museum, I was kind of in. I was rooting for Rocky.
The climactic fight plays out as two separate lessons - it’s both an underdog story about a man taking his one in a million shot and giving it his goddamned best, and a cautionary tale about not underestimating your opponent. The entrances of the two men were perfect examples of juxtaposition. Rocky, donned in his simple robe with his friend’s meat company logo on the back, is all business. He’s taking in a crowd size he’s never seen before, nervous about not embarrassing himself. To go out and be knocked out in the third round, as Creed is claiming he’ll do, would be detrimental for his pride. On the other hand, Apollo Creed comes down the ramp in a makeshift boat, donned first in George Washington gear and then in an Uncle Sam getup in the ring. It was a very funny moment, but told us all we needed to know about Apollo Creed. He had underestimated his opponent. He wasn’t there for a fight, he was there for a show. He spent more time leading up to the fight on theatrics, on image, on pageantry. As his ringman says to him after the first round, “He doesn’t know it’s a show, he thinks it’s a fight.” Carl Weathers was so great here that it’s no surprise that he would end up being an acting coach for Tobias Funke.
Although I was invested in Rocky’s in-ring journey, I wasn’t so much attached to his love story. I found it pretty creepy how he coaxed Adrian into his nasty apartment after their first date and then cornered her when she tried to leave, telling her that he was going to kiss her but she didn’t have to kiss him back if she didn’t want to. Their relationship never really felt like there was any chemistry, but maybe that was what drew them together. He was dumb and she was shy, as Rocky puts it. I did get a chuckle when he went on live TV and said hi to her, saying, “Yo Adrian, it’s me, Rocky!” as if she wouldn’t know who he was.
And I can’t go without mentioning the amazing music in this film. Bill Conti’s score was fantastic, from the iconic Rocky theme song to Going the Distance, which played during the final fight, it just really set the tone in an incredible way. I don’t think I had ever heard Going the Distance, but I instantly recognized it as the sample used in Puff Daddy’s song Victory.
The End.
Rocky was made for just over 1.1 million dollars and ended up becoming the highest grossing film of 1976. At the Oscars it was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Picture, beating out films like All The Presidents Men, Network, and Taxi Driver. It’s easy to see why audiences were drawn to Rocky…it’s the ultimate underdog, American dream story and it’s got an air of authenticity. The city it’s set in feels authentic. The characters, right down to Joe Spinnel as the mob boss, feel authentic. But even moreso, the character of Rocky felt authentic, and that’s probably because of the road Sylvester Stallone had to travel to play the part.
He wrote the film but wouldn’t sell the screenplay unless he was able to play Rocky, which the studio didn’t want to do. They wanted someone established in the role, tossing names like Robert Redford, Ryan O’Neal, Burt Reynolds, or Nick Nolte out there, but Stallone refused to budge. The film’s planned budget was chopped in half when he was finally hired to play the role, but he just knew he had something, and he was right. Stallone was Rocky, and as he stood on the stage in 1977 receiving his Oscar, he showed Hollywood that he wasn’t just another bum from the neighborhood.
Sadly, the Blu-ray copy I snagged had absolutely no special features, an odd choice by MGM, considering the 2006 DVD release had three commentaries and tons of special features spread out over two discs, including a three part making-of documentary. The picture quality was a little dull - the colors rarely popped, darks would often obscure detail, and overall it just felt a little hazy. The disc features both a 5.1 mix and the original mono track. I watched with the 5.1 mix and felt like the sound was a little muffled in parts. There were a few moments where I had to skip back to really listen to what people were being said, but to be fair, that could have just been Stallone’s dialect. Rocky one through four are due on 4K in February of 2023, so if you’re a fan, the new remasters will no doubt blow the current disc out of the water at least in terms of picture and sound. I hope they include the old special features though.
