Review: Rocky

After his opponent backs out five weeks before the fight due to injury, showboating World Heavyweight Champion boxer Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) comes up with a way to keep the date, but with a different opponent. Apollo’s new idea is to give a title shot to a local Philadelphia scrub (preferably as white as Apollo is black), thinking it’ll be an easy gig, and good PR for himself. He chooses lowly fighter Rocky Balboa (Sly Stallone), a southpaw with the nickname ‘The Italian Stallion’. No one thinks Rocky even has the slightest chance of winning, certainly not the cocky Creed, but not even crusty old trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith). Rocky, though, just wants to go the distance, to prove himself. Meanwhile, Rocky starts up a sweet, tentative romance with shy pet store employee Adrian (Talia Shire), whose lousy brother Paulie (Burt Young) is a friend of Rocky’s. Joe Spinell plays a local loan shark/gangster, whom Rocky occasionally breaks fingers for to scrape together a few bucks in between fights. Tony Burton plays Apollo’s trainer Duke, whilst Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman cameos as a drunk, Bill Baldwin is the fight announcer, Thayer David turns up as the fight promoter, Joe Frazier turns up briefly as himself, and Sly’s younger brother Frank plays the member of a gang of street singers from Rocky’s neighbourhood.

 

Scripted by star Sly Stallone himself, this 1976 underdog sports movie really was Stallone taking control of his own career. And in one movie, he made it. I’ve said over the years that “Rocky III” was my favourite of the series, and it’s certainly the one I’ve watched more than any other. However, seeing this one again in 2016, this is unquestionably the best of the films, and clearly one of the greatest movies of any genre ever made. I say that as someone who detests the sport of boxing, but quite enjoys fighting movies. Directed by John G. Avildsen (who would later make “The Karate Kid”, another classic), surely even non-sports movie fans will enjoy this modern-day “Marty”.

 

It’s such a wonderfully old-fashioned movie that it even has characters using ‘coconut’ and ‘yo-yo’ as an insult. How adorable. The film has a great sense of Philly scenery and flavour, and Stallone clearly knows the character of Rocky Balboa as both screenwriter and actor on an intimate level. An early scene where we learn just how  little the struggling small-time boxers earn reminds me of the exploitation going on in “Requiem for a Heavyweight” and “The Harder They Fall”. Furthermore, an early scene with Rocky and his array of pets gets you on this rough-looking but sweet schlub’s side immediately. Talk about the ultimate underdog, Rocky’s what would be called in Australia a ‘little battler’. As an actor, he kinda ended up taking on a lot of Rocky’s way of speaking, so it’s easy to overlook that he’s actually giving a performance here, and probably his best-ever. This isn’t Stallone doing Stallone, it’s Rocky Balboa, a fully-realised character before Stallone doing Stallone became kind of a thing.

 

Talia Shire really only had two memorable characters in her acting career, Connie Corleone in the “Godfather Trilogy” and Adrian in the “Rocky” movies. This is a great bit of character acting from her, the rather mousy and seemingly self-conscious Adrian reminds me a little of the character Betsy Blair played in “Marty”. She’s a sweet, shy girl who falls for a big dumb loveable lug, and is the perfect complement to Stallone’s bull-in-a-china-shop Rocky. The supporting cast is top-notch, with Burgess Meredith, Burt Young, and Carl Weathers standing out in particular. Meredith’s trainer Mickey would become a little more cuddly in later films, but here Mickey is a gruff old bastard who doesn’t treat Rocky with very much respect early on. Stealing scenes from his opening second, he might’ve walked off with the whole film if he were actually in it more. It’s great character work in an iconic role. Burt Young played loutish bums you couldn’t quite hate better than anyone I can think of, and Uncle Paulie is the ultimate loutish bum you can’t quite hate. Young is truly to be commended for playing such a pathetic, miserable loser without sentimentalising him too much. Carl Weathers, meanwhile, is so damn perfect as Apollo Creed that he never quite shook the role from himself. Of all the former football players turned actors (particularly those who began as blaxploitation actors), Weathers is the most charismatic, so it’s strange that he didn’t get a lead role until 1988’s “Action Jackson”. And it wasn’t very good, sealing his fate somewhat as a lead. If he comes off here as a poor man’s Muhammad Ali, that’s because Apollo Creed really is a poor man’s Muhammad Ali. His entrance for the big fight is just bloody marvellous. His character also has a scene that pretty much represents what the film is actually about, and also shows evidence of Creed’s biggest character flaw. Listen to the scene where Creed unveils his big idea. ***** SPOILER ALERT ***** This movie’s story isn’t about Rocky winning. This is about him showing Apollo that he can hang with him, that Apollo has underestimated him and that he can go the distance. It’s brilliant, and it also foreshadows Apollo’s fate in “Rocky IV”, because Creed, for all of his natural talent, is a shameless showman obsessed with image, legacy, and filled with hubris. Here it results in him scraping by with a win, in subsequent films his fate isn’t as lucky. ***** END SPOILER ***** The film’s music score by Bill Conti (who also did the solid score for the later “The Karate Kid”) is clearly one of its most recognisable traits, and is also the score Conti will forever be most recognised for (deservedly so).

 

A classic ‘guy’ movie, but in my view, this should be a classic in anyone’s eyes. One of the greatest films of all-time, with terrific performances, memorable and sympathetic characters, and an underdog story you have zero problems getting invested in. This one fires on all cylinders, and fully deserved its Best Picture win at the Oscars (Yes, it’s even better than “Network” and “All the President’s Men”).

 

Rating: A+