THE INDISPENSIBLES – #3: ROCKY
Forget the sight of Stallone huffing and puffing his bloated frame through the last Rambo movie and try and dispense with memories of Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot (a movie title by-word in ‘dishing out’ a review-contained insult!). Keeping Part Two and Part 6, forget too the admittedly guilty pleasures that were the Rocky sequels that saw the ‘Italian Stallion’ take down Hulk Hogan and Mr T within the same ninety odd minute running time, or a Russian steroid enhanced killing machine by first running up a mountain in the snow and shouting his name from the top, or street-fighting with a brain injury. You get my point right?
Instead, take yourself back to 1976. Allow yourself to see the original film through untainted eyes. In doing so you’ll experience not only one of the greatest sports movies of all time, but the best feel-good-movie America has ever made since Frank Capra stopped making movies!
“Ain’t gonna be no rematch!”
“Don’t want one!”
Lying bastards!
One of the most oft-forgotten things about Rocky, once you get past the rags-to-riches story of its star (more on that in a minute!) is that it was filmed in a record twenty-eight days with a budget of approximately $1 million, going on to gross well over $100 million at the box office. Something else to keep in mind is that, in the chronology of the seventies, this low-budget film was positioned between two early “blockbusters” – Jaws in 1975 and Star Wars in 1977. It could’ve quite easily got squashed. In any other circumstance, if any of the much-heralded “compromises” had been made in order to get it to the screen, it would have done. But it more than held its own. Which, given the theme of the movie itself is quite fitting don’t you think? This movie is special!
When you factor in that its screenwriter and star, Sylvester Stallone, was an unbankable unknown at the time – an underdog actor/writer in the film industry (with 32 previously-rejected scripts) – Rocky becomes acknowledgeable as a strangely autobiographical parable should you substitute ‘boxing’ for ‘writing/acting’.
Stallone claimed that he was inspired to base his character upon New Jersey club boxer Chuck Wepner who was known as the “Bayonne Bleeder”. Wepner challenged Muhammad Ali in a heavy-weight title bout in March 1975 in Cleveland, Ohio, in what people within the boxing-circle (me being one!) consider to be THE greatest underdog boxing event in history! Wepner went 15 rounds despite everyone predicting he would be a “washout” within the first sixty seconds of the second round. He proved them wrong by not only knocking Ali down, but also in going the distance – well actually lasting 19 seconds before the final bell! [As a sidenote, in 2003, Wepner filed a questionable lawsuit against Stallone and the producers of the Rocky franchise, claiming that he was entitled to $15 million compensation, for the unauthorised 'rights of publicity' in relation to the use of his name for selling and promoting the film.]
Anyway, back to our history lesson… Having watched the Wepner versus Ali fight, Stallone went home and, with his then-wife and baby child having left to stay with relatives due to the couple having no money and no heat/electric in the apartment, locked himself within the tiny one bedroomed place they called home. He alleges that he painted the windows black to block out the daylight, fixed a torch to a stand that pointed towards his typewriter and spent his last $3 on caffeine tablets to keep him awake. He then sat at the same desk and, in one sitting, wrote the script for Rocky over a three-day period, turning out a script that was so Capra-esque that, rumour has it, it prompted Frank Capra himself to say to the press at the Academy Awards that year, “Man, there was a film I wish I’d made!”
In a self-fulfilling manner, when Stallone started shopping the script around to the studios he found that every single one of them was immensely interested in buying the screenplay – but not with him in the lead! MGM begged the hulking actor to step aside and let Robert Redford, Ryan O’Neal, Burt Reynolds or James Caan take the lead. Both O’Neal and Reynolds were actually approached and offered the part before MGM had actually purchased the property. So they obviously walked away from negotiations with each actor looking slightly foolish when Stallone persisted in demanding to be the film’s star in a make-or-break deal – you want the film, it comes with the lead role cast! As a result, MGM caved in!
Now we all know the plot by now right? Rocky Balboa (Stallone) is a thirty year old, past his prime boxer on the rough streets of Philadelphia, working, by day, as a “hard hitter” for the local loan shark and in his spare time, he works out at Mickey’s Gym owned by its elderly, cantankerous namesake (Burgess Meredith) who resents Rocky because he knows he could have been good, he could have even been a professional but he’s wasted his opportunity in favour of drinking and screwing around. Rocky hides a secret though; he is awkwardly in love with a painfully shy girl called Adrian (Talia Shire) who works in the corner pet shop and most of his thoughts are preoccupied with her. When Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), the world heavyweight champion, finds his latest ‘deserved’ opponent has dropped out of an impending title match, he decides to schedule a New Year’s Eve bout with a total unknown — to prove that America is still a land of opportunity. and Rocky gets picked.
What makes the movie extraordinary from here on in is that it doesn’t try to surprise us with an original plot, with twists and complications; it wants to involve us on simple, take-at-face-value level. It takes the notion of heroism and realising your potential, about taking your best shot and avoids being corny by actually really working on those levels. If you are truly honest with yourself Rocky only feels cliched to those bored of montages, big final fights, post-punch up declarations etc. all recycled to the point of exhaustion since this film. Unlike with the rip-offs and a few of the sequels, we truly care about this character as if he exists: When Rocky delivers his speech about wanting to “go the distance”, we truly want this character to achieve the greatness he yearns for because we feel he has earned it.
The credit has to be passed around though. A lot of it goes to Stallone for what he has written but we must also look to the director John G. Avildsen, who presents the character of Rocky as if within the confines of a documentary, expanding both Rocky the film and Rocky the character into an actual “motion picture” as it traverses towards its adrenaline-pumping conclusion. Which, taking into account how tight the budget on this project actually was, looks just visually marvellous within this climax.
Then there is the cast itself, asides from just Stallone: Talia Shire, as Adrian, creates a moment (when she hesitates before kissing Rocky for the first time) so poignant that it has become one of the most touching moments in cinema history in my opinion. And Burt Young as Paulie, her brother, is one of the most under-rated character actors of the seventies if you ask me and here he presents further evidence as to why he should be spoken of in the same sentences as the likes of JT Walsh, Hal Holbrook, Paul Giamatti and the like.
Rocky was awarded three Academy Awards out of ten nominations: Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Picture, and it beat out formidable competition for the top prize from All the President’s Men, Bound For Glory, Network, and Taxi Driver – which we can all admit are equally excellent films. Research shows it’s other seven nominations included: Best Actor (Sylvester Stallone lost to Peter Finch in Network), Best Actress (Talia Shire lost to Faye Dunaway in Network), Best Supporting Actor two times over (for Burgess Meredith and Burt Young – both lost to Jason Robards in All the President’s Men), Best Original Screenplay (Stallone lost to Paddy Chayefsky for Network), Best Song, and Best Sound. With his duel nominations for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay, Stallone joined only two others who have been nominated for a ‘pair’ of honours in the same year within Academy history: Charlie Chaplin for The Great Dictator in 1940, and Orson Welles for Citizen Kane in 1941.
Say that back to yourself… Charlie Chapin, Orson Welles and Sylvester Stallone! Now, for the naysayers, you’ve got to acknowledge that Rocky must be something truly special indeed when it allows the star of Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot to keep such company!
Related Posts:
- Movie Review: ROCKY BALBOA
- THE INDISPENSIBLES – #0: THE SET-UP
- THE INDISPENSIBLES – #13: TOOTSIE
- THE INDISPENSIBLES – #5: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
- THE INDISPENSIBLES – #14: DIE HARD
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One Response to “THE INDISPENSIBLES – #3: ROCKY”
One of the FEW films that makes you care just as much about the romance as you do about the action-oriented stuff. The scene with Rocky and Adrian in the pet shop is probably my favorite scene in the whole film. He’s so clearly in love with her, and his awkward way of trying to get close to her by telling jokes combined with her shyness makes it one of the sweetest scenes I’ve ever seen, and I’m not one to go for sappy shit. But a well-done romance that doesn’t condescend to me is always welcome.
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