Rocky: The American Dream

Rocky: The American Dream

      What do people consider to be the "American Dream"? What would this film consist of?

Going into this class and beginning to watch this movie [director John G. Avildsen's 1976 Best Picture winner Rocky] that I have never seen before. Going into this film I was thinking that Rocky was going to get pushed down and belittled in the world of boxing. Then, things towards the middle of the movie were going to turn around and he was going to overcome all the criticism and negativity. Finally, coming towards the end he was going to come forth and claim his title as champ.

      And that's exactly what John G. Avildsen did not want to do. He didn't want his audience to predict his ending. He took a completely different approach and showed the people that not every underdog story has that cliche ending.

     During this movie Rocky was looked at as a no one. He was belittled even by Mikey, the guy that ran the gym. Then, Mikey took it up another notch and demonstrated that no one's spot is secure by removing Rocky's belongings from his locker and giving his locker to another boxer. This then lead Rocky to run more, sweat more, bleed more and overall work harder. Thus potentially leading him down the path to victory. During his journey to get better he had many struggles that pushed him close to the edge. He had a few confrontations with Paulie about loyalty and his relationship with Adrian and things got out of hand a few times. These were the setbacks that Mikey was talking about earlier in the movie in the scene of Rocky and him having their talk in the gym.

     Later in the film with Rocky's hard work and determination he started to see things potentially turn around for him. His relationship grew stronger with Adrian by his side and supporting him and him growing somewhat of a fan base when the day drew closer to his big fight against Apollo Creed. Their fight was something that was greatly anticipated and many people while watching this movie could guess that Rocky would win. Yet, that’s not what happened at all, yes the fight was interesting, but what made this sense so crucial to the movie? Rocky trained extremely hard and overcame many heaps of conflict to be prepared to fight Apollo, but what was the outcome?

Apollo Creed and Rocky had a very eventful fight and went to the very last round in the fight and just about when everyone watching the movie thought that Rocky was going to come out victorious… Apollo Creed continued to be the champion and Rocky was left without a championship title. Although everyone thought that he would take the victory and live out the reality of what “The American Dream” is, it turned into something unexpected and the director proved to people that this movie wouldn’t have the same cliche ending as others. I believe that Rocky was a movie that many could learn from and was a movie that could show many that not everything is what it seems.