Say what you will about his impenetrable voice, his occasionally sketchy choice in projects (Judge Dredd, Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot), and his bizarre twitter feed, but the movies have missed Sylvester Stallone. The archetype that he engendered (ridiculously muscled, but almost childish in his directness) lives on in the likes of Dwayne Johnson, but Stallone’s almost complete lack of affect made the act almost completely disarming. It goes without saying that Rocky is the best example of this. Perhaps cynically designed in the way that E.T. has been accused of being, Rocky does nearly everything in its power to make you see its protagonist as a likable loser deserving of a second chance, and, moreover, to want him to get it. With another actor at the helm, this whole thing might have fallen apart, but Stallone’s plain lack of most traditional Hollywood acting qualities give his character a realism and an edge that seem almost anti-Hollywood.
Rocky Balboa (Stallone) has seen better days. They might not have been great, but they were undoubtedly better than acting as a street tough for loan shark Anthony Gazzo (Joe Spinell). Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), on the other hand, is doing okay. He’s the heavyweight champion of the world, but his opponent in a much-promoted heavyweight championship match gets injured, making him unable to compete. With money and prestige riding on the line, Creed comes up with a risky proposition: give some lowlife nobody a shot at the title, thus giving more lowlife nobodies a reason to watch. Balboa, being a lowlife nobody, fits the bill perfectly, and soon finds himself with the one opportunity that he may ever get to prove himself to the world as well as lift out of the dredges that he’s been doomed to. To prepare, he returns to old trainer, Mickey (Burgess Meredith), a crusty old-timer who always thought that Rocky had more potential than he was displaying. To add a yet more human touch, Rocky also has a friend Paulie (Burt Young), who lets him train on the floor of the meat processing plant, and girlfriend Adrian (Talia Shire), whose name he is given to shouting out at appropriate times.
Full disclosure: absolutely everything about Rocky makes film critics afraid. Its success depends solely on its ability to register its narrative beats on an emotional level, and convince an audience that, in the larger scheme of things, they might be able to defeat the metaphorical Apollo Creeds in their own lives. The emotional register is difficult to explain, harder to identify, and nigh impossible to draw out of an entire population in the way that Rocky has. If a film critic has a role in society (something that remains to be seen), it is to enrich the discussion surrounding a film, and raise the level of discourse to the issues surrounding it. Rocky has no such need. It is only a film to be felt, which is in no way meant to diminish it. It’s deceptively easy for a film to have ideas (they usually get a free pass as ‘flawed masterpieces’); it’s the far rarer film that can rouse empathy and pity in the same breath, and carry it throughout an entire film. It could be argued (probably successfully) that this is merely the result of Hollywood’s typically cynical fancy footwork, but as any real student of art should know, there can be a world of difference between intention and effect that doesn’t necessarily negate either. So even if we only like Rocky and want him to win because we’re programmed to, it’s kind of beside the point.
Besides, that wouldn’t be fair to a few surprising risks that Rocky actually does take. Let’s face it: people who talk as incoherently as Stallone are rarely given a chance in mainstream films, and tend to be left to neorealist sorts of work. Working class Philadelphia is evoked with neither reserve nor pity, making it one of few truly successful films to do so. Additionally, something needs to be said for the fact that (spoiler alert) they let him lose. It’s entirely possible that the bittersweet nature of that ending could have backfired on the producers, producing little more than an interesting footnote in history, rather than the most lauded sports film of all time. It’s also something of a challenging ending, asking its audience to define victory on their own terms, and accept that it may have to come in a slightly less satisfying form than they had come to expect.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
None.
"Rocky" is on sale May 10, 2011 and is rated PG. Sports. Directed by John G Avildsen. Written by Sylvester Stallone. Starring Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith.
