My tribute to Rocky

As "Rocky Balboa" has come out across the world and will enter Aussie cinemas in February, I have rediscovered this classic series of movies and currently, I am in the process of reviewing its previous incarnations. Yes I am watching Rocky I to IV (still deciding about V)

Now to most people, your jaws have dropped as you try to comprehend why I like this movie.

Well the answer is pretty simplistic:

1. I am a guy
2. Guys enjoy a bit of punching and socking it up. It is in our DNA, we like watching mindless violence once in a while.
3. There are some classic moments of drama and comedy in these movies.

The first time I started watching these movies was many summers ago when I was not yet 10. I saw I and II together and as time came on I caught up with the others. I recall seeing them at home on video rather than at the cinemas.

When news came out about another installment, I knew I had to watch them again and get primed for number 6. Sure I was skeptical and thought it would be pretty boring but generally the movies had a good story line - after you get over the part an unknown gets to fight the world champion for for the world title. But this was America the land of opportunity right!

Then again, people watch Bollywood movies and believe that two people singing songs can move between the streets of New York to the Swiss Alps in a blink of an eye, while changing into 3 different outfits. (Yet these days I can actually sit through a Bollywood movie and enjoy them - see what marriage has done to me!)

Off all the Rocky titles, my favourite is Rocky 3 and my least favourite is Rocky 5. So much so that I am having a hard time deciding whether I want to watch the last installment of this franchise.

Rocky 5 just did not go down well. It was crap and the two times I saw it I fell asleep through the viewing. Yes I saw it again because I fell asleep through the first viewing and it put me in dream land again. A movie just does not do that. The franchise ended badly and that is why number 6 had to come out.

I also think Sly Stallone did not want number 5 to stain the franchise and as such titled this one “Rocky Balboa” and not “Rocky 6”.

As I mentioned earlier, in the original Rocky, you were required to believe that the then current world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed played by Carl Weathers, wanted to fight an unknown fighter which he picked up from a book because he was named “The Italian Stallion”. Of course as Apollo calls him the “Eye-talian” Stallion which was great comedy.

But if you look over this part of the story, the rest of the movie dealt with a down on his luck street thug who is going nowhere in life. He is presented with this opportunity to make some money and when he gets his chance he takes it to the champ and nearly wins it.

I believe the fact that Rocky lost the fight was a reason why this franchise was founded. There were also so many blows to the head in one round alone, that I felt a headache coming along.

Another thing was that this movie won best picture at the Academy Awards so either says the movies coming that year was crap or the movie was great.

Rocky 2 was a bit slow for about the first 70% as Rocky dealt with getting over his injuries and whether to take Apollo in a rematch. The downside of this movie was Talia Shire who played his wife Adrian. Her constant negativity and attitude over all movies was a bit of a pain. In a way, I am glad she is not in number 6.

(Let me digress about Talia Shire - she was great in the Godfather series and I actually believe that Godfather 3 should have been renamed GodMOTHER because she was calling the shots then - but apart from these two movies serials, what else has she acted in??)

Back to II, a great seen here was when he is running through Philadelphia and we see the magnificent city. it ends with him running up some steps and jumping around like a mad man. He did a similar thing in I but in II he has a harem of kids running with him. Just seeing this and hearing the music makes me want to run. I actually want to run those steps to the theme music and record that all on video - would be a good 3 minute clip

At the end Rocky just beats Apollo to become world champion. How is does it was great. After pummelling each other for 15 rounds, they both collapsed and are struggling to get up, eventually our hero does it and he is the champ! What follows is the standard hug between the combatants when Apollo presents Rocky with the belt, to which he lifts up and shouts "Yo Adrian, we did it!!" i had a tear running down my eye, I was pumped up.

This sets it all nicely for the bst of them all – number 3!

The great thing about III was that it introduced the world to Mr T as Clubber Lang (talk about a great series of character names, Apollo Creed, Clubber Land and now Mason Dixon). How good was Mr T, his sneer, his attitude his “I pity the fool” exclamation (which was then carried over to the A Team) as he was about to take on Rocky.

Great stuff.

I liked the montage at the start of the movie to “eye of the tiger” (has to be one of the best, awe inspiring songs for movie along with “You’re the best” from the Karate Kid). That montage saved about 45 minutes of the movie as it gave you the backgorund of the last 3 years of both players lives, in 3 minutes.

Then after Rocky is beaten by Lang he finds his trainer, father figure and friend, Mickey has died and now he is at the lowest point of his life. So what happens next?

Apollo comes and says he will train him. We get into another montage where Apollo builds him up top teach him to groove and fight like him. They go to some dodgy gym, back to the roots to keep it real. At the end both these guys just hug each other when Rocky beats Apollo in a foot race. This signifies how far Rocky has become and all to the tune of “Eye of the tiger”.

What happens next is pretty evident, Rocky knocks out Clubber Lang in the 3rd round and all is well in the world.

Except the threat of communism and this is what Rocky IV goes into. We meet Ivan Drago who is about a foot taller than Rocky and just massive. Apollo firstly decides to take him on and gets killed in the fight. Now who would have thought that would happen – when do movies kill of their favourite people in the 80’s, especially if Russians are involved.

This p’s of Rocky who then decides to fight Drago for revenge, in Russia on Xmas day. How American is that!

There is the montage of Rocky training in the farms and snowfields on outer Russia as be is tracked by KGB spies. Running through the snow, carrying old farm equipment and all the hard stuff. Meanwhile, Drago is in some start of the art facility punching into computer equipment and doing hard work on sophisticated gym equipment.

Stallone really wanted to show that the American’s could do it without all the fancy stuff! But the most memorable part of this movie was at the end.

As the fight starts, the whole Russian crows is booing and hissing him. As things progresses they start to support him and at the end they are cheering for ole Rocky. Russia loves rocky, even the Mikhael Gorbachev lookalike they got is clapping.

Then the funniest line of the franchise comes out. He exclaims: “At the start, I did not like you and you did not like you. But if I cane change and you can changed, then everybody can change”

Comedy and unappreciated.

And think about this, Sly Stallone showed the world that Russians and Americans could like together, a few years later the wall comes down and Perestroika takes over the USSR.

Rocky IV was the first, unacknowledged, step to ending the Cold War.

I won't discuss Rocky V like i believe that there were no matches on Boxing Day this year.

Bring on Rocky Balboa.