Rocky

Rocky
by John G. Avildsen

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Movie Reviews of Rocky

Movie Review: ROCKY: Time Enhances its Virtues
Summary: 5 Stars

Sylvester Stallone wrote the original script of a down and out club fighter who has the once in a life opportunity to fight for the heavyweight title. You would think that a nobody like Stallone would have jumped at the chance for Hollywood to even read his script, let alone decide to film it. But he insisted that he play the lead, and to nobody's surprise but his, the Powers That Be caved in. It is this real-life triumph over the entrenched screen hierarchy that permeates his film and forms a subtext that allows both Sylvester Stallone and Rocky Balboa to triumph on both levels.

The plot is uncomplicated: a Philadelphia nobody gets a chance to fight champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), a Cassius Clay clone. Stallone as Balboa trains hard, undergoes personal crises, and battles Creed in a thrilling but losing effort. For a movie about boxing, there is surprisingly little of that in it. The bout with Creed that concludes the film lasts only for five minutes. The remainder covers growing emotions and expanding expectations, and it is this fascination with the evolution of a clueless and undirected pug to a reasonably polished fighter and human being that has resonated viscerally for two generations of film goers.

Balboa is a mid-thirties club fighter from Philadelphia who fights only because his father told him that his lack of brains forced him to rely on his body to make a buck. Rocky knows how to swat; unfortunately he does not know how to avoid getting swatted. Still, he is proud of never getting his nose broken. His won-lost record tilts slightly toward the positive side. He meets shy Adrian (Talia Shire), who is the sister of his close, if erratic friend Paulie (Burt Young). Paulie's relation with his sister is totally dysfunctional. He bullies her, literally throwing her out of their house so she could date Rocky. Rocky sees all this and recognizes she might be the one. In one galling Thanksgiving dinner scene, Paulie humiliates Adrian into leaving him and living with Rocky. Enter Apollo Creed, who needs a local boy to take the place of his injured opponent. Rocky agrees and trains, punishing his body to take the pounding he knows is coming. Burgess Meredith is Rocky's manager and his sole cinematic function is to be the bootstrap by which Rocky pulls himself up to be a successful fighter and human being.

Much of ROCKY is devoted to a Rocky who has learned that he cannot function as an unconnected man. He needs the love of a woman to comfort his nights and the wisdom of a manager to shape his body and fight style. Further, he learns that even a crud of a brother like Paulie can have a soft spot if only one has the patience to slog through a lifetime of Paulie's jealousies and insecurities. When Rocky gets his head screwed on right, then his manager can focus on the physical aspect of training. The various scenes of training have since been copied almost to the point of self-caricature in future sequels. But here, if one can forget those other scenes, then one can appreciate how grueling a regimen an inspired fighter can put his body through if only he has a reason to. It is not surprising, that we see little of Creed's training sessions since his inspiration comes straight from The Bottom Line.

The fight, of course, is the payoff. It is short, well-filmed, and clearly shows the divergent essences of Creed and Balboa. Creed is the polished pro, one who relies on his considerable skills and innate assurance. Balboa is the undisciplined club fighter, one who depends on his swatting power to win. The conclusion is really one between two polar opposites of living. Creed lives to fight. For him, the real payoff is an odd mixture of money plus the joy of flattening an opponent. Balboa fights to live. For him, boxing is only a means to ensure the continuity of his new life with Adrian.

What stamps ROCKY as unique from its descendants is its insistence that the hero must look inside himself more often then outside himself to continually punish a body to meet increasingly tough opponents. Merely to morph Creed into Mr. T or Dolph Lundren or Tommy Morrison is not enough to connect an audience to a club fighter that America fell in love with in 1976.

Summary of Rocky