Rocky Retrospective: Rocky.

Where do I even begin to talk about Rocky? Its wide release was December 3rd, 1976, 20 days before I was born. Written by the then little known Sylvester Stallone, originally the studio wanted a bigger star for the title role, but Stallone wrote it for himself. The story of Stallone holding out against big money offers to have someone else play the lead has been exaggerated a bit, but it was still a big chance to cast an unknown. At the time no one could have ever guessed this low budget movie with a no name actor would become a true global phenomenon. Rocky went on to win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (John Avildsen) and Best Editing. Talia Shire, Burt Young, and Burgess Meredith also received nominations.

Basically Rocky is a street version of Cinderella. Boxing champion Apollo Creed is set to have a bout on January 1st, 1976, which was Bicentennial Day, the 200th anniversary of America. The fight is to be in Philadelphia, where the American Constitution was signed. Creed’s opponent pulls out because of an injury, and seemingly no other contenders are available. Creed comes up with the idea of, in the spirit of America and the Bi-centennial, giving a local underdog a shot at the title. He picks Rocky Balboa out of a book because Balboa gave himself the nickname the Italian Stallion. Creed liked the name, musing that America was discovered by the Italian Columbus. You could also read into this that to succeed in America you need a gimmick, but it also fit into the idea of the country. 1976 was not only the bi-centennial, but also the year a peanut farmer from Georgia became the President of the United States. It fit this idea of the spirit of America.

Rocky is one of the few movies where the inciting incident doesn’t happen until an hour into the film (The only other one I can think of is 2010’s Book of Eli). Its first hour is spent on character development and world building. The first image we see in this film is Jesus Christ. Stallone has said maybe it’s a little heavy handed, but it’s suggesting Rocky is the next one to be saved, to go on this journey. The opening scene is our main character fighting in a small time boxing club called Resurrection Athletic Club (with Jesus painted on the wall). He wins the fight, but in a way it doesn’t matter. He’s still beat up, get’s about $40, after which he asks “When can I fight again?” After this he walks home over which we see the opening credits.

While Rocky is known for being a positive and inspirational film, the world of Rocky is very dark and bleak, arguably taking place in the same world of 1970s urban decay as more pessimistic films of the era like Death Wish or 1976‘s Taxi Driver. The difference is Rocky himself is not a dark character, he’s a genuinely good person, almost like a Captain America or even a Superman, but he’s birthed in a dark environment. In his apartment we see brass knuckles and a machete. While Rocky is rated PG, it is evident that the character obviously has R rated violence in his life.

Looking at Stallone’s later work and then looking at Rocky, it almost seems like a totally different actor. When filming this movie, for all intents and purposes, Stallone’s life was on the line, and it shows. We see this young hungry actor taking his shot and it paid off. For a brief moment he was taken seriously as an actor, some even called him the next Marlon Brando. Stallone was nominated for best original screenplay and best actor. He wouldn’t be nominated for acting again until Creed, making him only one of 6 people to be nominated for the same role twice. Also noteworthy is in 1976 the only people ever nominated for both acting and writing in the same film were Charlie Chaplin and Orson Wells.

Back to the movie, next we see the constant rejection and disrespect Rocky faces throughout his day. For example, it is evident no one he knows saw his fight last night. He goes to a pet store trying to impress Adrian, the pet store clerk, but is rejected. We should say a word about this character. Actress Talia Shire, who was also in the Godfather series, is a very attractive woman. It was a really gutsy move for her to play the role of an ugly duckling. It’s a very unglamorous part, and she makes it work. If Rocky were made today Adrian would be all hot, they’d give her glasses for the sexy nerd look, but they wouldn’t dare make it unglamorous. In this movie the character works, we see both Rocky and Adrian blossom from having love in their lives. Perhaps one of the weaknesses of the later sequels is her character doesn’t have much going on. It’s actually one of the things the spinoff Creed out does Rocky in, the love interest in Creed is a more interesting character. Still, Talia Shire provided some of the only real acting as the series entered later installments.

Another rejection is faced at the local boxing gym, where he’s been kicked out of his own locker so another up and coming fighter can have it. This is our introduction to Mickey, the gruff old manager and gym owner, played by the late great Burgess Meredith. Sometimes you can tell a lot about a character by their first line. “Shut up!” is the first thing Mickey says in the movie. He has no respect for Balboa, and plays the part of a pseudo father who constantly disapproves of his son. He dismisses Rocky’s win against Spider Ricco and suggests he retire.

On the 25th anniversary DVD Stallone explained how Mickey represented someone that never lived up to their potential. In the year I turned 25, I left the first job I had coming out of college, which was a teaching position in the midwest. One phrase people often say to young people is “You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.” You never really grasp what this means until your older. As soon as I left that job my life took a turn for the worse, and then understanding what Mickey represented unfortunately clicked with me. Being too young to understand I had my whole life ahead of me, I was afraid of turning into Mickey, this bitter old man whose dreams never came true.

Eventually Rocky whoo’s Adrian over, and it’s no coincidence that the very next day he’s offered a shot with Apollo. Robert Mckee in Story writes about how if this were the opening scene, the audience would not have understood Rocky’s reaction. Rocky knows he’s a “ham and egger.” So when he’s offered the fight at the 60 minute mark he actually says no. The promoter figures this will get him fired, and has to con Rocky by appealing to his patriotism. This was a nuance I didn’t understand as a kid.

This leads to my favorite scene. Mickey comes to Rocky’s apartment and asks to be his manager. He tries to con him like a salesmen, smiling as he walks in the door, telling Rocky his dump is a nice place. He then goes on to tell stories of his brutal boxing days which are so captivating. Rocky knows he’s being worked over but doesn’t have it in him to just kick Mickey out. Eventually he does leave, and it is only then that Rocky just goes off on this really powerful monologue. Stallone explained there had to be some point where Rocky just let it all out. People think he‘s a “happy go lucky dumbell but he has a lot of rage in there, a lot of hurt, a lot of angst.” He calls out Mick for finally paying him some attention. My favorite line is “Talking about your prime. What about my prime Mick! Least you had a prime! I didn’t have no prime I didn’t have nothing.” Maybe this doesn’t make sense, but in some twisted way I felt like I could relate to it when I was younger. In our culture they sell the idea that your teenage years and your twenties is supposed to be the best time of your life. As I’d mentioned, at 25 things were getting rough for me, and my teenage years weren’t that great. So somehow I could relate to this “what about my prime, what about my good times” etc. Either way, it’s a great scene, great dialogue and two great performances. It may be Stallone’s shining moment as an actor.

Soon we get to the famous training montage where he runs up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. I’d been there as a kid, but a few years back I went back and hung out for an hour. It really is a genuine phenomenon. All day people of all ages and all walks of life run up those steps and raise their arms in the air.

     

Rocky is nearly a perfect movie. It’s small budget gives it a certain charm, the ice rink scene with Rocky and Adrian that couldn’t afford extras, Rocky’s baggy robe, the poster with the wrong color shorts. This lack of budget does catch up with it at the end, as they didn’t have enough money for lots of extras for the big fight. The result is outside the ring the arena is really dark to hide the fact that it’s half empty. Early on they try to cover this with stock footage of a crowd but it looks really out of place.

Boxing purists probably cringe at most of these movies due to Rocky’s lack of actual boxing skill. The announcer says ‭“‬In fact it‭ ‬just looks like Rocky is‭ ‬blocking the blows with his face.‭” By Rocky III it was a bit excessive, as he definitely should have picked up some skills by then. With t‬his first movie it makes more sense, as that’s the whole point, that this guy has no skill but has this incredible determination to take everything the champ can dish out. Watch this scene.

Pure determination. I love at 1:45 where Apollo looks down and you hear the announcer saying “Apollo can’t believe it!” When Rocky gets back to his feet and says “Come on” while motioning with his hands, that’s the whole movie right there, this is life.

It wasn’t until ten years ago I realized the fight isn’t the most important scene of the movie. The 30th anniversary Rocky DVD has audio commentary by Stallone (the 25th had a extended video commentary with him). On it he describes the scene just after the famous training montage. Rocky goes to the Spectrum, and sees this arena that is so much grander than the dingy clubs he’s used to fighting in. He goes home and tells Adrian that he knows he can’t really win. Early on it’s established that no one ever lasted 15 rounds against Creed, which is what they call going the distance. Rocky says “it really don’t matter if I lose this fight. It really don’t matter if this guy opens my head either, cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, see and that bell rings and I’m still standing. I’m gonna know for the first time in my life see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.”

On the commentary track Stallone says this scene is “one of the benchmarks of my life.” They had one take to do it, and “if lines had been fumbled or we had camera problems, it would have been been all over.” Stallone explains “without this scene, I don’t think the movie would have accomplished nearly what it set out to, even half of what it set out to accomplish, which is to show that a man given an opportunity, or a woman given an opportunity to express themselves fully even though they know that they’re going to be defeated, but in that defeat there can be glory, personal glory. And that’s what I think so many people in the world hunger for, is the opportunity to rise or fail on their own abilities, just given the chance.”

If I may talk about myself for a moment, I was born in a small coal mining town in Pennsylvania. My mother finished high school but my father didn’t. My mother pretty much raised me by herself and fortunately I was the first in my family to go to college. As I mentioned my first job was teaching in the midwest, and after I left I had a rough time for a few years. As I mentioned in my Rocky Balboa piece, I ended up teaching in Korea. I suppose over there I got to have my “prime” and my good times. After doing that, I decided to go back to that very first teaching job I had when I was 22. It wasn’t easy, but I’m glad I did it, and I ended up getting some success and some recognition out of it, like when I got Teacher of the Year in 2015

This past year was difficult for a lot of reasons. While I’m still at that first job I had, in the spring I was thinking of doing one more year, but I wasn’t sure if I had it in me. There were a lot of different things getting to me and I’d considered leaving. In all honesty I thought about that scene, and realized this was my going the distance moment. This is that one more round, finishing what I started, seeing this through to the end.

Pop culture is entertainment to pass the time, we enjoy it, maybe remember it, and go on with our day. Truly great art genuinely affects our lives, and it’s probably too late for any other movie to affect me so personally. The only other one that was probably even close was Rocky Balboa. It’s just so ingrained in my life, to the point it’s something I try to live out. I write as a hobby, and when I sell my books as shows or when I read poems on a stage etc, I see it as taking my shot. No one owes us any fame or fortune, but we have the right to try. So as both Rocky and I turn 40, I like to think I did alright with my life. I didn’t turn out to be just another bum from the neighborhood, and I’m going my distance.

Happy Birthday Rocky

“Hey yo.”

Rocky Retrospective: Rocky II

Robert Mckee wrote one of the better known books on screenplay writing. In his book, simply called Story, he said a strong ending can make the audience forget the weaker parts of a movie. Such is the case in Rocky II, it ends on such a emotional high note, it makes us forget about the slow ploddingness of the rest of the movie.

Rocky II is one of the rare sequels that picks up immediately after the events of the previous film. It begins the tradition of the opening recap of the last film’s fight. It then takes us to the immediate aftermath, with the opening credits running over scenes of Rocky’s ambulance rushing him to the hospital. For anyone that doesn’t know, Creed won the match of the first movie by a split decision. The rest of the movie is about Creed, embarrassed that a no name fighter went the distance with the champ, wanting a rematch, and Rocky wanting to live the rest of his life quietly with Adrian.

Once he gets out of the hospital, Rocky proposes to Adrian at the zoo (which is weirdly ironic since in the last movie someone insulted them both by suggesting Rocky take her to the zoo because “retards like the zoo.”) They marry and buy a new home. Rocky’s lack of sophistication is played up here, as he recklessly spends money on new clothes, a nice car, etc. It’s the only time of the series where Rocky is kind of un-likable, and at times comes across like an early Homer Simpson. Naively, he attempts to get an office job, but his lack of education and criminal record bar this. He briefly attempts to do commercials but, embarrassingly, he has trouble reading the cue cards.

Meanwhile Apollo keeps goading him into trying to fight again, but Adrian doesn’t want him to. There’s also a plot point about Rocky’s one eye being damaged/not being able to see well. (This plot point is dropped for the rest of the series. Maybe once he got rich he got some magic surgery to fix it.) Adding to the pressure is Adrian’s pregnancy. She delivers the baby but falls into a coma afterwards. At this point the series delves into soap opera melodrama, though I fully admit tearing up upon first seeing this at age 13. Maybe in 1979 the whole slipped into a coma angle wasn’t cliche yet. Either way, Adrian turns out to be fine, encourages Rocky to fight, and away we go.

There’s two training montages this time, with the familiar Rocky theme returning. We see him running through the city getting followed by school children, showing how the city of Philadelphia has truly embraced him. They all run to the top of the steps together, and I always thought it would have been funny if they did a fake outtake where Rocky accidentally belted one of the kids.

Possibly one improvement Rocky II has over its predecessor is the final fight is filmed much better. Now that they have a real budget we get to see an arena filled with people watching the match. While the first fight was more dramatic, this one is filmed more for excitement, with Bill Conti’s “Conquest” score which ended up being used a few times throughout the series. There’s also an angle of southpaw Rocky training to fight right handed, only two switch to his left at the end. However, he doesn’t end up doing the switch, which was due to an injury Stallone had while making this movie.

While visually an improvement over its predecessor, the fight is also a bit more ridiculous. If you know the littlest thing about boxing, you know that you always keep your hands up to defend yourself. Rocky has almost no defense, he seems to willingly take Apollo’s punches. Now granted most of the Rocky’s are guilty of this sin, but in II it’s the most blatant. It’s just too hard to believe that he is able to take this beating and not get knocked out. It’s arguably more ridiculous than Rocky IV, because that whole movie is over the top so it’s just kind of understood. Like the first movie, Rocky II is somewhat grounded in reality, so to go from something grounded in reality to this absurdity is a lot to take.

Rocky II runs two hours, just like its predecessor, but unlike the first one, which won an Oscar for best editing, this one feels a lot longer. The scenes of Rocky trying to live a normal life really drag at times. Rocky V is widely considered the worst of the series. However, I would suggest Rocky II might actually be worse. The thing is, the audience forgives its slowness because the very very end is highly exciting and emotional. Stallone comes up with a clever ending in that Rocky simply doesn’t knock out Apollo. Instead both fighters fall to the mat, and the situation is whoever gets up first wins the match. It’s a real nail biter done very well. It should be no surprise that Rocky wins, and afterwards give a speech ending with him addressing his wife who was watching at home on TV. Ending with the now famous “Yo Adrian, I did it!” Rocky II ends in an undeniable emotional high, which makes us remember this movie being a lot better than it really was.

I’ll leave you with the ending below.

Rocky Retrospective: Rocky IV and the Sliding Time Scale.

This is something I’m just totally screwing around with but it’s fun to talk about.

In the movie world Rocky I opens in November of 1975.

Rocky II has him winning the title a year later, Thanksgiving of 1976. Also it should be noted that Rocky and Adrian get married the same year.

Rocky III is said to take place 3 years later, which would be 1979.

The secret re-match between Rocky and Apollo at the end of Rocky III takes place in the same year, as evident by Apollo acknowledging that he thought of this 3 years ago.

Rocky IV opens immediately after that rematch, when Rocky comes home late for Paulies’ birthday party. Later that evening, Rocky gives Adrian an early wedding anniversary surprise. However, before Adrian gets a ride on the “Italian Stallion,” he lets out a major continuity error which could threaten the fabric of reality itself.

He says it’s been almost 9 years since they were married. (Adrian acknowledges that he’s a week early, so pretty much 9 years.)

Now this night in movie time has to be 3 years, not 9 years later.

However, in the movie world they got married in 76, which in our world is the same year the first movie came out. Rocky IV came out in 1985, which in our world is 9 years later. So in the real world it had been 9 years since the movie world of 1976. Realities have somehow crisscrossed on this matter. (FIY They get married in Rocky II, which was in 1979, but takes place in 76.)

Upon further monitoring of the Rocky Reality, it is stated in Rocky IV by Rocky and Adrian that Apollo has been retired for around 5 years. Again, in movie continuity, it should only be 3. This statement is made when Ivan Drago comes to America.

But again Rocky IV came out in 1985, Rocky II, where Apollo loses the belt, was released in 1979, which is 6 years prior. However in Rocky II they fought on Thanksgiving, near the end of the year, so it still could be 5 years technically.

However, this one COULD possibly be reconciled, by assuming that Ivan Drago came to America to fight two years after the night of Paulies’ birthday party.

Other errors to discuss:

When Apollo comes over Rocky’s house they watch their fight from Rocky II and have maybe a five minute conversation. If you watch and listen closely, (and have too much knowledge of Rocky II like I have) you’ll notice the beginning of the conversation they’re watching the very beginning of the fight, but at the end of the conversation, you can hear the announcers calling the closing moments. So a whole 15 round fight was viewed during a five minute conversation. Maybe they were watching the fight on laser disc, and Apollo in his excitement hit the skip chapter button on the remote, which sent the disc to the end of the fight. (The real reason of course, was the whole fight obviously wasn’t filmed for the movie.)

Also the age of Rocky’s son fluctuates a lot depending on what time scale your looking at. He ages rapidly between IV and V.

In Rocky III, both fights with Clubber Lang are filmed completely from bell to bell, or to the end of the fight. Rocky I, II, and IV, have rounds 1,2, and 15, filmed in their entirety, with the in between rounds shown in a MONTAGE!!!!!!!! When I was a kid I noticed if you ever watched, none of those fully filmed rounds are actually 3 minutes. I think most were like a minute and a half.

These errors could threaten the fabric of reality itself!

Of course I’m just joking around. Back to my 9 years thing the real reason is that movies are usually presumed to take place the year they came out, unless it explicitly says otherwise or it’s assumed to be a either a period piece or a sci-fi film set in the future. It’s just something fun to talk about.

Hey yo.

 

 

Rocky Retrospective: Rocky IV

Rocky IV was released in 1985, at the height of Reagan’s America. In this sequel the Rocky series reaches the peak bombastic-ness as our hero takes on the Soviet super slugging machine Ivan Drago.

Rocky IV is basically the same movie as Rocky III but juiced up on 80‘s steroids. Early in the film the villain wins in the second round (and we see the full fight). Rocky’s mentor dies, Rocky goes off to a far away/new place to train, and finally has the big epic fight at the end.

Ivan Drago, the Soviet fighter, is easily the best villain of the series. Apollo Creed of the first two movies wasn’t a villain per say, he was an entertainer wanting to put on a show. Clubber Lang of Rocky III was more of a villain with his bad attitude, but Drago is portrayed as an inhuman monster. Even his last name suggests he’s some mythical Dragon. Another way he is distinct is he is very stoic. Creed is basically Muhammad Ali, and Clubber Lang was certainly a trash talker. Drago rarely speaks, so the few lines he has are still memorable, such as “If he dies, he dies,” and “I must break you.”

Drago is so fearsome that even Rocky’s wife Adrian doubts her husband for the first time in the series, out right saying “You can’t win!” and initially refuses to go to Russia with Rocky.

Another great distinction Rocky IV has is the absence of music by Bill Conti and the Rocky theme. Vince DiCola scores this amazing sound track adding to the otherworldly feel. Drago’s introduction in the final fight presents him as something mythological. Then there’s the montages. As the Angry Video Game Nerd pointed out, “dam, this movie’s like 20% montages.” We get not one, but two training montages, the fight montage, and of course that reflective one with Robert Tepper’s “No Easy Way Out” (Where’s Rocky driving in that montage anyway?). I’ve always loved that line “Talking about what it might have been. I’m thinking about what it used to be.” Heavy stuff. Vince Dicola also scored the Transformer’s movie sound track a year later, and that film’s score for Unicron, the evil robot planet, is somewhat similar to Drago’s theme.

The traditional Rocky music would not have worked here, as this whole movie is off the charts with it’s over the top-ness. It’s to the point of sheer lunacy, Drago’s punches are basically shown to be shot gun blasts (“Whatever he hits, he destroys!) but Rocky takes them. Stallone gets super ripped for the final fight, and yeah, Rocky’s been training in Russia for months but shows up to the fight with a golden California tan, really? It all doesn’t matter though. Rocky vs Drago is the greatest fight in the history of cinema. It’s epic, brutal, and un-relenting.

On a side note, I’d mentioned before Drago’s fate is one of the most intriguing things to me in the Rocky universe. I’m dying to know what happened to him after the fight. What did he do with himself after the Soviet Union collapsed?

No one will ever call Rocky IV a masterpiece of cinema, but that was never the point. Nothing that happens in this movie is a surprise, no one went into this doubting Rocky would win. What we have is the pinnacle of raw 80’s entertainment. Rocky IV is unquestionably the most entertaining of the series. As the Angry Video Game Nerd would say, “Real men like Rocky IV”

For a Review of the Rocky IV Director’s cut, click here. 

Rocky Retrospective: A Mild Defense of Rocky V.

Rocky V was released in 1990, the dawn of a new decade. It opens with the usual montage showing highlights of the last film’s fight, except it’s not the usual montage. Instead of exciting the audience, it’s very foreboding, focusing on the damage Rocky is taking, with occasional freeze frames that turn black and white.

Cut to the aftermath, Rocky’s hands are trembling in the shower, and it is evident something’s not right with him. Things continue to turn worse as he returns home. Apparently his accountant has ripped him off and as a result he’s lost his fortune. Fighting turns out not to be an option to regain it, as after seeing a Dr. he apparently is in the early phases of brain damage.

This whole set up is for the purpose of getting Rocky back to his old neighborhood. Paulie has kept his old house, which they all move back into, and one of the only assets Rocky still has is Mickey’s old gym, which was willed to Rocky’s son.

So with a rap remake of “Take it Back” (originally by Stallone’s brother) we see Rocky back in the streets. One night, after drinking at the neighborhood bar from the first movie, he walks into the old abandoned gym. Here we get an apocryphal flashback scene of a young Rocky training in the gym with Mickey. Given this was supposed to be the last Rocky, I wasn’t surprised to see Burgess Meredith reprise his role as Mickey. He gives a nice little speech you can watch below.

“Get up you son of a bitch! Cause Mickey loves ya.” Vintage Mickey.

Back to the main plot. Rocky ends up re-opening Mickey’s gym, and comes across a young Tommy Gunn, played by real life boxer and relative of John Wayne, Tommy Morrison. Seeing a young and hungry boxer, Rocky personally manages him and becomes a father figure to him. This puts a strain on his relationship with is son, who is now going to an inner city school in Philly and having trouble with bullies (and has magically aged since the last movie). Adrian, who is back working at the pet store from the first movie, is not pleased with Rocky either.

Meanwhile, David Washington Duke, a crooked boxing promoter, basically Don King, had been trying to lure Rocky back into the ring for one more match. Failing that, he manages to lure Tommy away and gets him a title shot. One aspect of boxing that was absent from this franchise was the crooked/dirty side of the business. Here it is vaguely hinted that Tommy’s win against champion Union Cane was fixed. Cane, also managed by Duke, had the title awarded to him after Rocky retired. Duke’s original plan was to have Cane fight Rocky for the title in Tokyo, in a bout that was to be called “Lettin it go in Tokyo.”

While champion, Tommy Gunn is not respected by the press, who still has “Balboa on the brain.” Duke convinces him that the only thing for Tommy to do is challenge Rocky. The climax of the movie is Rocky and Tommy getting into a street fight in the back of the bar Rocky frequents. The crowd cheers on Rocky, but is getting beat down a lot. Cue to the plot point of Mickey in Rocky’s mind whispering in his ear telling him to get up. Rocky gets up and wins the brawl.

Rocky V is by no means a good movie. Stallone at this point hadn’t been an actor in almost 15 years. He cast his real life son, the late Sage Stallone, to play Rocky’s son. Sage never acted before, and no disrespect to the guy but it shows. Some of the scenes and lines delivered are genuinely cringe worthy. Rocky Jr. falling into the wrong crowd is evident by him wearing an ear ring and smoking cigarettes, as if he fell into the wrong crowd of an 1970s ABC after school special. Stallone himself admitted that he was negligent during the making of this entry, and has openly said it’s his least favorite. On the Rocky DVD commentary director John Avildsen, who directed I and V, described Stallone on the set of V as “the prince of Lichtenstein.”

In fact in the next film, Rocky Balboa, clips from all previous films except V are shown, it is explicitly left out. The only remote references are lines of dialogue where Rocky mentions “home team,” and makes a comment about being “brittle.”

Rocky’s brain damage is also not addressed in the next movie. Stallone has said in interviews that in V Rocky never went for a second opinion, and with advances in medical science, it’s possible Rocky just had a concussion. Even if you don’t buy that explanation, you can almost watch Rocky Balboa under the assumption that V never happened.

The thing is if you read the script for Rocky V I’d bet it is probably a good script to read. It arguably has the most actual plot of any in the series. There was no way they could outdo Rocky IV in terms of over the top ridiculousness, so they took a different approach. Given the conceit that this was going to be the last Rocky, it was a good idea to go back to the beginning, to go back to the old neighborhood with the familiar places from the first movie. The plot of Rocky being a teacher to the next generation fit this as well. While nodding to that past, at the same time it tried to bring Rocky into the 90s with a hip hop sound track, and attempted to make “go for it” a new catchphrase. That didn’t take.

In the long run, if Rocky V didn’t put certain things in place, both in real life and in the world of fiction, I don’t think the next movie would have worked as well. Getting him out of his mansion and back into the old neighborhood arguably helps us have more sympathy for him in the beginning of Rocky Balboa. More importantly, the overall disappointment with V was what drove Stallone to make Rocky Balboa, easily the best of all the sequels.

Interestingly enough, a director’s cut of Rocky V was at one point available on YouTube. It’s not much different, but has two things of note. First, Rocky reveals in a conversation with Paulie that he’s not taking any money managing Tommy. More importantly, there’s a scene where he runs into Little Marie, the young girl he walked home in the first movie. Marie, now and adult, is a street bum and presumably a prostitute, something Rocky had warned she might turn out to be. Just after this scene, he runs into Tommy on the street. During this part, which makes the theatrical cut, Tommy tries to convince Rocky to manage him. Tommy says he’s got nothing in his life but boxing, and if this doesn’t work out he doesn’t know what he’ll do. In the directors cut, as this conversation is happening, Rocky looks back and can still see Little Marie loitering in the street. He makes the connection that if he doesn’t help Tommy, he’ll turn out to be a bum like Little Marie. This is a very interesting scene. Little Marie was taken out because it was too dark, but you can understand Rocky’s motivation here. However, if this scene was left in, it makes Little Marie’s appearance in Rocky Balboa not work as much.

Also of note, it was revealed after Rock V’s release that the director and Stallone planned to have Rocky die at the end. That certainly would have put a damper on things. Consequently, I think we have to see Rocky die in a Creed sequel. I thought for sure he was going to die in Creed, but I’m going to guess he’ll die in Creed III, as Mickey died in Rocky III.

Again, Rocky V by no means is a good movie. However I would argue that the basic plot was fitting for the time, and that overall it is not actually the worst Rocky movie.

I will leave you with the closing credits of Rocky V, set to Elton John’s Measure of a Man set to black and white still images from all five movies. Note that in a few of the still shots of the first Rocky are backwards lol.

Rocky Retrospective: Rocky Balboa.

2016 is the 40th anniversary of the movie Rocky, and also happens to be the year I turn 40. There’s probably no other set of movies that are so ingrained into my life. I’d thought a lot about writing about this series, so here goes. What I’m going to do is write a piece about each movie, not just a review, but how each film was a part of my life. I would start with Creed, but I did review that when it came out, which was just last year so I don’t think I have anything new to say about it. So I’ll start with 2006‘s Rocky Balboa and move backwards from there.

Rocky V came out in 1990, and at the time was billed to be “the last Rocky film.” However, it was neither a financial or critical success. Throughout the 90’s there were rumors off and on of Stallone wanting to do another, but they never got off the ground. In fact, on the DVD commentary track of Rocky Balboa, Stallone recalls a studio executive telling him another Rocky movie will get made “over my dead body.”

Eventually through a change in management the project got green lit. I remember hearing about it in the news, and even though I was a big fan, I was till like “man just let it go Sly.” While Rocky V wasn’t as good I thought it wrapped the series up well under the premise that this would be it. Plus, what could a Rocky movie set in the 21st century possibly be about?

Cut to 2006. At some point I was at home surfing the internet, and, back when YouTube was a brand new thing (which is a whole story in itself, YouTube was launched in 2005), somehow, someway I stumbled upon this video.

This was super intriguing to me (I remember wondering if he said “What is it you said today kid,” or “What is it you said to the kid?”). I was surprised how dark it was. Nothing about the plot, just this message that life is absolutely brutal, but you just gotta keep moving and take the hits.

Not to get too heavy, but around this time I was going through a real low point in my life. I’m a teacher by trade, but found myself in a different profession. For various reasons I ended up taking a job teaching in South Korea in the summer of 2006. If I remember correctly a second trailer dropped after I got to Korea, followed by a third. These last two trailers revealed more of the plot, and I watched them religiously, but with cautious enthusiasm.

The release date date was December 20th, right before my 30th birthday. In Korea often times the big blockbuster movies open prior to their American release dates, but other movies come later. It did not come to Korea right away, but eventually arrived in February of 2007.

Rocky Balboa was the only Rocky I’d actually seen in the theaters (until last year’s Creed). The theater was packed, and I turned to a Korean next to me asking if he was a Rocky fan. He said “All my life.”

It was a pleasant surprise. I remember early on thinking to myself “Wow this is actually really good.” If you haven’t seen it, the basic plot is Adrian has died, and Rocky’s been racked with grief since. Not knowing what to do with himself, he decides to be active in boxing again, but his intentions are not to do big fights. In his mind he sees himself doing small local fights just to be active. Meanwhile, the current Heavyweight boxing champ, Mason “The Line” Dixon is very unpopular, and is accused of taking easy matches. Balboa is reluctantly goaded into accepting an exhibition match with Dixon. Rocky faces public ridicule and doubt for fighting at his age, but he uses this fight to exorcise his demons and deal with the grief of losing is wife. Just as the first movie did, Rocky Balboa paralleled where Stallone was in his life at the time. Stallone faced the same ridicule for making another Rocky that the fictional character faced for having another fight, and it worked. The whole movie had the theme of doing what you needed to do despite the criticism you will catch for doing it.

On the DVD commentary Stallone says this scene below reflects the frustration he faced in trying to get this movie made.

“It’s your right to listen to your gut, it aint nobody’s right to say no when you earned the right to be where you wanna be and do what you wanna do.” I can honestly say this scene shook me when I first saw it in the theater.

Then there’s this scene.

Stallone says it is his understanding that this scene affected people most. It’s the same speech from the teaser trailer, only done more dramatic, with the added line “that’s how winning is done!” The son is really seeing what his father is made of, and there is Rocky on the screen, telling his son, telling me, telling the audience directly, this is life, this is what it takes to get through life.

Only Stallone could have directed Rocky Balboa, however, another director might have developed Mason’s character more, for  it is as much his story as it is Rocky’s. One way the script gets around how Mason wouldn’t beat Rocky right away, is that Mason’s hand gets broken in the second round. This puts him in his own Joseph Campbell like journey where he must prove himself, his own trial by fire.

Having said that, one way we judge art, apart from its technique and aesthetics, is how it affects us personally. Granted, a lot of the emotional weight of this movie rests on knowing its previous entries, but I doubt there will be many movies in the rest of my lifetime that will genuinely affect me this much. A message from my favorite movie character of how you gotta do what you gotta do lined up just about perfectly for me. Rocky Balboa is simply the best Rocky sequel, and is almost the best of the series.