Rocky Balboa: America's Ancestor

Rocky Balboa: America's Ancestor

Director: John G. Avildsen

Writer: Sylvester Stallone

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Joe Spinell.

    Wow what a perfect bicentennial film this was! Not only for it's time and setting, but for the film as a whole: the character development, the non-diegetic sound(notably that classic theme song we all love to chant along with), and the climax. All of you youngsters walking into this film expecting an action filled, fast paced boxing film, your expectations will likely not be met; this film has more substance to it that one might believe. Upon critical view, you come to realize how truly great this film is, and how inspiring it can be to each and every one of us no matter what we pursue.

    The beginning establishes Rocky as a struggling boxer, apprentice to a loan shark named Gazzo(Joe Spinell), and an underdog who is seen by many as a "bum;" the film also establishes him as an animal lover and an admirer of Adrian(Talia Shire) who works at the shop where Rocky bought most of his pets -- including the exotic turtles which he purchased on Adrian's first day on the job. Two scenes in the first half of the film I found to be interesting are when he looks into the mirror and sees a picture of him as a young boy and when he walks a neighborhood teenage girl home while giving her life advice. The afformentioned includes Rocky looking deeply into a young(or old) picture of him with a face of regret and/or lost innocence; the latter happens when he sees a teenage girl hanging around the neighborhood rats while cursing and acting like a misfit and walks her home to give her life advice about reputation and the crowd("coconuts") she hangs around. What I am trying to get at is how these two scenes interconnect: because of Rocky's with regret and reputation around town and as a boxer, he does not want the young girl to make the same mistakes he might have and end up in the situation he did; this also connects with his afformentioned admiration for Adrian and animals, showing that he is a selfless and caring person who wants to help others from experience.

    Rocky and Adrian later begin a relationship through a mutual lack of confidence that is carried out in two opposite ways: Rocky tries to hide his lack of confidence through the way he talks to Adrian and Adrian is shown to be lacking confidence through the way she dresses and her shy nature. Once the two become partners, they each become more of themselves -- shown through costume change, change of tone in the film, and a change in their state of mind. One stunning example of this is when Adrian stands up to her brother Paulie(Burt Young), who was shown earlier to be somewhat abusive to his sister and is possibly the reason for her previous shy nature: Adrian defends herself when Paulie asks her and Rocky to leave the house, saying that he has made her feel like a loser and she is not.

    Meanwhile, the antagonist Apollo Creed(Carl Weathers) is scheduled to box for the bicentennial fight and his opponent is injured; he must choose an opponent quick, and he just happens to choose our protagonist. Creed claims that he should not only give a local underdog the chance at the title, but that because of Balboa's stage name "The Italian Stallion," that he would fit as his opponent because the one who discovered America was Italian("why not fight with one of it's ancestors?"). Creed's personality as we see throughout the film is much different that our protagonists: he is self centered(as in the scene where Rocky is on T.V. training by punching meat in Paulie's butcher shop and Creed's trainer is impressed, while Creed is more concerned about his barber showing up), he is cocky, and cracks jokes at others("if he can't fight, I bet he can cook."). Shortly before the fight, Rocky is trained by the king of one liners himself: Mickey(Burgess Meredith). In these next few weeks, Rocky is going to "eat lightnin'" and "crap thunder" to prepare for the fight of his life(so far).

    Rocky successfully prepares for the fight and is seen in his significant change in shape. When the fight happens, he ends up losing to Apollo. I bring this up because people often have complained about this ending: "all that build up for this?!" Furthermore, they often disregard the fact that he was the first one to knock Creed down in a fight and lasted all 15 rounds! There was also a scene before the fight where Rocky and Adrian are talking about the fight; to me, this is the most heartfelt scene in the entire film. Rocky is feeling afraid to fight Creed because he is out of his league and is going for the world title. Adrian tries to tell Rocky that he was not "nobody" and Rocky responds: "I was nobody. But that don't matter either, you know? 'Cause I was thinkin', it really don't matter if I lose this fight. It really don't matter if this guy opens my head, either. 'Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood." That is the entire point, that because Rocky took it that far and defied people's expectations, that he became more of himself and succeeded in his dreams to become a boxer; therefore, enforcing the message of the American Dream -- that with the right mindset, confidence, and guidance, you can accomplish your dreams and reach your full potential (even if you "can't sing or dance").