Rocky (1976) / Z-View

Rocky (1976)

Director: John G. Avildsen

Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone

Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Tony Burton, Joe Spinell, Thayer David, Frank Stallone and Stan Shaw.

The Pitch: “Hey, the screenwriter wouldn’t sell without starring in it, but for a million bucks we should be able to make a small profit.”

Tagline:  “His whole life was a million to one shot.”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Rocky Balboa [Stallone] is a collector for a neighborhood loan shark [Spinell] and a small-time boxer.  Rocky has a thing for Adrian [Shire], the sister of his best friend Paulie [Young] but she’s so shy, he’s getting nowhere fast.

When the Heavyweight Champion of the World, Apollo Creed [Weathers] learns that his scheduled opponent won’t be able to fight him in Philadelphia and no other top contenders are ready to take the fight on short notice, Creed comes up with a gimmick.  He’ll give a local fighter a shot at the title.  Because Creed likes Balboa’s Italian Stallion moniker, he decides to give Rocky the title shot.

Rocky reluctantly takes the fight — no one has ever gone the distance with Creed — and feels even if loses but is standing at the end, then he’ll have proved he isn’t just another bum from the neighborhood.

On the surface Rocky is a boxing movie but at the heart is a love story, a tale of relationships and a man’s desire to prove his worth.

Rocky premiered at the perfect time for me.  I was 17 years old and had followed Stallone’s career since Lords of Flatbush.  To see Sly getting his shot (after turning down a huge payday for the screenplay and not starring in the film), and to see the film be the perfect combination of cast, director, editing and score resonated with me.  Rocky became my all-time favorite movie on the first viewing and has remained so.

Often when reviewing or rating Stallone films I have to qualify my rating because of Stallone being my favorite actor.  I don’t have to do that with Rocky.  Rocky is that great of a movie winning the Academy Award for  Best Picture of the Year as well as many other awards and nominations.

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