Growing up, it felt like ‘Rocky 3’ and ‘Rocky 4’ were pretty much on constant rotation in my house, My dad was a huge fan of the series (we dont talk about Rocky 5 onwards…) But while 3 and 4 played endlessly, the first 2 films didnt get *quite* the same traction in our household as the latter two…Well, I hadnt watched ‘Rocky’ from start to finish since 2016, and the missus had NEVER seen ANY of the ‘Rocky’ movies, so it seemed like as good a time as ever to revisit them. And I honestly wasnt dissapointed in my life choices.
‘Rocky’ follows the sudden and unexpected rise of ‘Rocky Balboa’ a down on his luck ‘muscle’ for a loan shark who makes ends meet by boxing no league challengers with crazy names like ‘Spider Rico’ and ‘Boxcar Mike’. When the heavyweight world champion (and biggest America fan) Apollo Creed loses his headline fighter for a grand new years day heavyweight match, and there IS no suitable replacement from the leagues. Apollo hatches a crazy idea. A match that gives a non league fighter a chance at the top. lining up with the American ideology of it being ‘the land of the free’ and the place where anyone can do anything. After scouring the local listings, their finger lands on ‘The Italian Stallion’ (aka Rocky), and after an initial rejection. Rocky accepts setting the scene for an epic fight between a cocky and ‘in his prime’ heavyweight, to challenge a plucky, down on his luck ‘half bum’.
While this is the A-plot (technically) the REAL plot follows Rocky as he lives his day to day life in the slums of Philadelphia and the blossoming relationship he begins to have with a local Pet shop employee ‘Adrien’ who is ALSO related to Rockys best friend ‘Paulie’. and the ups and downs of living in a rundown American town at a time of hardship.
Right off the bat, one of the main things I HADNT noticed about this film on the last watch was just how blatently Autism and ADHD coded the whole film is. Both Rocky and Adrien are clear representations of different sides of the spectrum and their awkward, but ultimately sweet and genuine romance is probably the biggest indicator of that. Indeed, pretty much everyone in this film (to me at least) comes across as some flavour of autistic or ADHD coded. Whether its Rocky as a somewhat awkward, good hearted and at times almost childish lead, Adrien as a border non verbal, incredibly shy and physically awkward love lead, Apollo as a ‘million thoughts a minute’ ‘fake it till you make it’ over confident firecracker (ADHD blatently) or Paulie as a substance addicted ‘needs everything to be exactly as he needs it’ autistic who has meltdowns. Even Micky has some traits of it with bluntness and inappropriate social cues.
Realising this now, it makes a lot of sense WHY my dad (and me, and my partner) all REALLY loved this film growing up, its basically a love in for Neurodiverse people.
What I love most about ‘Rocky’, and the thing a lot of parodies of this franchise miss is that the boxing element, while a core element of the plot, is actually not really the point of this film. Its a drama about lost people trying to find their place in the world and most importantly, trying to find people who understand them and take them for their genuine self, not who people THINK they should be. Which I think is a wonderful variation on what could have been a fairly uncomplicated and uninteresting narrative.
Im going to be completely honest here, my criticisms for this movie are pretty minimal.
The script is probably the biggest gripe that I have, we have a clean cut 3 act structure here thats pretty nicely distributed, dialogue is arguably some of the most naturalistic and unserious dialogue I’ve heard in a VERY long time, but married up to that unseriousness is some ‘straight to the heart’ level genuiness on the part of Stallone, such as his 3rd act admission that he’s worried about losing, and worried about winning. and uncertain of what his future should or could be. these small moments where incredibly emotional concepts break through the discussions about turtle food and small talk on an ice skating rink hit the audience like a dagger and are probably the thing that makes me love this film so much.
The characters are all largely well rounded with complex and multi layered backstories that leave the audience feeling like they know this world intimately and the struggles all these characters have had up to this point.
My only criticism of this film is that the 2nd act is maybe just a *tiny* bit too long and slightly overpadded as a result. and that the ending is a little bit abrupt, and seems to almost undercut the intencity of the message of the film. I know that ‘Rocky 2’ goes some way to picking these missing threads up. But as a standalone film, i’d have left the theater with that ending feeling just a little bit dissatisfied honestly. These are however small gripes in the face of what is ultimately a rare thing in cinema these days, a personal and honest feeling script that actually has the budget and talent behind it to realise it in such a way that DOESNT feel like its cheap or trying to be something its not.
Direction and cine are pretty flawless, a STRIKING picture with clear creative vision that brings the slums of philly to life in border ‘smell-o-vision’ quality. I love the look of this film, I appreciate the rough around the edges, handheld nature of the cinematography, I feel like it pitch perfectly captures the spirit and period that was mid 70s philly. with a tremendous colour palette and scene structuring to boot. No notes on my end. I’d say its pretty flawless in what it wants to do, and does so pretty effortlessly.
That being said, another minor gripe I do have sits in the edit, which is that I dont feel like this movie is the most polished cut in the world. some sequences do feel a little ‘thrown together’ for lack of a better descriptive, and its a shame really because theres sunch brilliant footage captured, I feel like maybe just one more pass through would have really gotten it to the perfect sweet spot, maybe just a smidge more B-roll or some sequence reordering…I cant quite put my finger on it, but it just feels a little bit messy to me at times.
Performance wise, Sly is…interesting. Im going to level with you, I dont think he’s a particularly fantastic actor, and here I wouldnt even go as far as to say he’s good, especially when he’s surrounded by such unblemishable talent as Burgess Meredith, Burt Young and Talia Shire (who for the record ARE absolutely incredible in this film and bring a lifeblood to this production that I sincerely believe NO other cast could have)
But what Sly lacks in physical presence and acting ability (I always thought he’d make an excellent ‘Frankensteins monster’) He more than makes up for with genuiness and sincerity. I might not believe his perforamance here at all, but I can DAMN well believe he’s lived this life or an approximation of it. and that heart and believability trumps any kind of actual acting ability he may (or may not) have been able to bring to the table.
Throw in a superb soundtrack that perfectly suits the tone and pitch of this film and is edited near flawlessly into the picture. and I honestly have very little else to say about this that hasnt been said by people much better and much closer to this than me.
‘Rocky’ has earned its ‘Classic’ status for a good reason, its an underdog picture that, much like its lead character, came from nothing and went on to take on the big leagues, challenging audiences and ultimately (and rightfully) earning the recognition it rightfully deserved. I had a blast with Rocky, its a lot more amusing than I remembered it being all those years ago, and if you havent seen it in a while, or havent seen it at all, I definitely recommend checking, not just this one, but the entire series (up to part 4) out!
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