Rocky

There are few franchises that are as fully ingrained in the cultural zeitgeist as Rocky. As a child of the 80s, it was impossible to escape it, especially after the cheesefest Rah! Rah! Hooray for America, fourth installment. But as a child of the 80s, I never saw the original film until much later, assuming that it was just another movie along the same lines as what I was already familiar with. Those I knew who had seen it—other kids my own age—said it was boring and not worth my time. I have since learned that I do not have the same taste in films that my contemporaries have.

People make a lot of mistakes when it comes to judging Rocky sight unseen. The first is assuming that it is a boxing movie. Boxing plays an important role in the film, but this is not a boxing movie any more than Falling Down is a movie about defense engineers. But Falling Down didn’t have numerous sequels that focused more and more on engineering as Rocky has had. That is where people new to the Rockyfranchise get caught off guard. You think you know what the movie is going to be about and get surprised when it isn’t that. 

Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is an Italian-American southpaw boxer in Philadelphia who fights primarily in small gyms for chump change. On the dayside, he works as the muscle for a loan shark, Tony Gazzo (Joe Spinell), roughing up people who fall behind on their payments to the mobster. Despite this, he is a softie, finding excuses not to hurt those he is paid to intimidate. He lives in a small apartment in a rough neighborhood and frequents a pet store where he tries to make small talk with the painfully shy clerk, Adrian Pennino (Talia Shire).  Adrian’s brother Paulie (Burt Young) is a friend of Rocky’s who is a drunk and has a poor view on life and those around him, including his sister who he considers a spinster and a loser. Recently, Rocky has had his locker at the boxing gym taken away from him by the owner, Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith), yet another in a long series of self-inflicted obstacles put in his path. But all of that is about to change. 

To mark the upcoming United States Bicentennial, heavyweight boxing world champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) has plans to hold a title bout in Philadelphia. But just five weeks before the scheduled match, his opponent has to cancel after injuring his hand, and all other potential replacements are either already booked or not in good enough shape to enter the ring on short notice. To solve this dilemma, Apollo comes up with an ingenious plan: give a local fighter a shot at the belt. He chooses Rocky, based purely on his nickname: The Italian Stallion. 

Meanwhile, Rocky convinces Paulie to set up a date between himself and Adrian. But when he arrives at their place, he finds that Paulie never told her about it. Instead, he yells at his sister, throwing her Thanksgiving dinner into the street and chasing her into her room. Rocky talks her back out, and the two spend an awkward evening together getting to know each other, that ends with them in his apartment. As their relationship slowly begins to develop, Rocky gets the news that Apollo Creed has challenged him to a fight for the heavyweight title. 

At first, he declines, thinking he is no good and wouldn’t stand a chance, but he is quickly convinced to accept the offer. Suddenly, people are behind him, rooting for him and offering him things. Gazzo gives him $500 for training, Paulie offers him a unique style of strength training, and Mickey shows up on his doorstep offering his services as manager and trainer. Rocky, fully aware of whom he is going to be facing off with in the ring, doesn’t believe he can win the match, but instead focuses on going the distance, finishing the fight still on his feet; something no other boxer has ever done against Creed.

It has become a cliché saying that Rocky’s strength lies in his heart. That became a running gag in the later films, especially 4 and 5, and that started in this film. But here it isn’t overused. Here it is developed as a legitimate character trait rather than a punchline. Rocky sees himself as a good person, even if his day job is less than savory. The one time we see him strong-arming someone who owes Gazzo money, he has been told to break the man’s thumbs if he cannot pay, and he doesn’t do it, rationalizing that if the man’s thumbs are broken, he’ll lose his job and be unable to pay Gazzo back. Later, we see him trying to protect a young girl who is hanging out with some hoodlums, trying to show her that her actions will put her in a box, labeled as a whore. Her response does the same thing, labeling him as a creep. 

He and Adrian have been in their own boxes, too, all their lives. He was told growing up that he didn’t have much of a brain and should develop his body; she was told the opposite. This advice, whether well-meaning or not, has pigeonholed these two their whole lives. Were it not for happenstance, Rocky would have never dug himself out of that box. Of course, had he not been there in the first place, he may have never seen Adrian and fallen in love with her. 

And that is the central drama that dominates the first half of this film. Aside from a brief boxing match at the start of the film, we get very little of the sport in the first half of the movie. This is mostly about building up the character of Rocky and how he breaks through Adrian’s defenses. It’s what makes this film so great and gives it its emotional core. It also leads to the most uncomfortable scene in the entire franchise. After their Thanksgiving date, Rocky invites her up to his apartment. He then proceeds to very awkwardly attempt to seduce her. This feels too early and he comes off too strong. She is a small woman and he is a big hulking man and when he moves in on her there is the very real sense of him trapping and forcing himself on her. He even blocks the door so that she cannot leave. Talia Shire sells the fear she is feeling, being as shy as she is. She does eventually give in to her emotions though and embrace him back, tentatively at first and then more forcefully but there is always that wonder about what would have happened in that apartment had she not kissed him back. How far would he have taken it? This is a scene that plays much more differently now than it did in the 1970s.

The second half of the film shifts direction and has a lot more of what we have come to expect from a Rocky film, but by developing the characters with as much patience as this film does, it allows us to carry that goodwill for Rocky through a series of montages leading up to the actual fight. The film doesn’t jettison the character moments but they take more of a backseat. 

Rocky and Adrian are the backbone of this film, but there is so much more to this film than just them. Burt Young is absolutely phenomenal in his role as Paulie. This is the brother from hell, loud and brash, an alcoholic, and a mean drunk. Yet he is not a caricature. He has fits of violence that will make you want to hate him, but then these moments are followed by his complete breakdown as we see the sad, vulnerable and scared man that he really is. His character was softened some in the sequels, but this film shows him at the bottom of the barrel, poor, lonely, and bitter. 

And speaking of bitter, Mickey is one of the quintessential Burgess Meredith characters that has since become a cliché. His angry retorts like “Women Weaken Legs” and “Eat Lightning and Crap Thunder” have entered the cultural lexicon. His energy and presence bring something to the latter half of the film that is mostly absent in the first half. This became overused in the sequels, but it is just perfect in this first film. It’s the kind of role that only Burgess could have played and is a real throwback to the more campy 60s roles he played just a decade before. 

This was a passion project for Stallone, who was a struggling actor at the time. He wrote it as a vehicle for himself and held out when offers came his way that didn’t include him as the star. The gamble paid off and launched his career. It made him a household name, and a few years later, Rambo did that same thing again. This film is strong enough that it launched a massive franchise that is still going. Rocky may have retired from the ring, but his legacy goes on in the form of the Creed trilogy with Michael B. Jordan as the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed. Those films are perfectly fine and have their devoted fans, but there is nothing quite like the original. Rocky came out nearly fifty years ago, yet it is as fresh and relevant as it ever was.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler (won)

Best Director: John G. Avildsen (won)

Best Actor: Sylvester Stallone

Best Actress: Talia Shire

Best Supporting Actor: Burgess Meredith

Best Supporting Actor: Burt Young

Best Original Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone

Best Film Editing: Robert Halsey and Scott Conrad (won)

Best Original Song: “Gonna Fly Now” Music by Bill Conti; Lyrics by Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins

Best Sound: Harry Warren Tetrick, William McCaughey, Lyle J. Burbridge, and Bud Alper

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Release Date: December 3, 1976

Running Time: 119 minutes

Rated PG

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess Meredith

Directed by: John G. Avildsen