I was lazing about yesterday flipping channels when Rocky came on. It has been awhile since I watched the film and I forgot just how good it was. The gritty tale of a club boxer, just getting by and the life he lives when offered a big break is heart rendering. Each time I watch the movie I feel a sense of sadness. In the end Rocky isn’t so much a boxing movie, a sports movie, but a film about life, love, and man’s struggle to survive and find that indomitable spirit that drives us from within to compete — not just within the confines of a boxing ring, but in the arena of life. Stallone captured this perfectly in the first movie, mostly in the second, but forgot it completely in the many subsequent sequels. You can only capture lightning in a bottle so many times.
Some of us never do.
According to IMDB, the scene of Rocky telling Adrian his fears the night before the fight was almost not filmed because of budgetary concerns. That scene is the crux of the movie and perhaps one of the best, if not often recognized, scenes in cinema.
No matter how much we hide behind a tough guy persona, we just want to go the distance. Is not Rocky truly the Everyman?
2 comments:
Rocky was made in the 1970s when we were in the last big inflationary period. You had to be strong then in order to survive. Over the years, as Stallone made more and more money, his 'edge' diminished. He and all of us, became like everyone else. We lost that edge.
Happily, I'm to say that now that we are back in 70s inflationary and gasoline-challenged times, you will see that grit and grind return. I hope. This time around everyone doesn't win a prize. Only the strong will survive. Some people are going to find out, probably for the very first time, what the difference is between a need and a want.
You should watch some other gems from the 70s. Saturday Night Fever. Don't laugh at this one. Compare it to today's modern movie: The King Of Staten Island. Compare how both young adults handled their lives. Back in the 70s, they wanted improvement and were willing to work hard for it. Today, they want another puff on the vapor.
I dig SNF. I own a DVD copy. Also all of the Rocky movies.
I remember the seventies clearly. I came of age in the decade of bell bottoms and jimmah Carter.
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