Italian Stallion Takes On Creed

Rocky. Dir. John G. Avidsen
            Feat. Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa), Burgress Meredith (Mickey), Carl Weathers (Apollo    
              Creed), Talia Shire (Adrian), and Burt Young (Paulie) 
            MGM, 1976

          The film Rocky projects the idea of not letting negativity get the best of you. Throughout the film the main character Rocky Balboa is constantly getting comments that try to bring him down or make him second guess himself. It wasn't just people in the movie telling him that he's a "bum" or that he can't do it, he also had his moments where he would doubt himself and start to believe that he wasn't going to be able to win. The film starts off with Rocky being an unknown fighter, he makes money from winning these small fights he's able to pick up and from doing "jobs" like picking up money. Since he wasn't making much from those little fights he found other ways to keep his wallet from going empty. Rocky wasn't a bad hearted person nor was he into violence unless of course he was in the ring. He had a mutual attitude with everyone expect with one person-- he goes into a local pet store to flirt with one of the workers who happened to be the sister of his best friend. After sometime of flirting and getting to know Adrian they become a couple. At this point in the film a champion boxer, Apollo Creed, comes in search of someone to fight. Creed wants someone who is like an unknown fighter. Rocky "The Italian Stallion" is picked out of a number of fighters to be in the ring with Apollo Creed. He starts to take his training seriously to prepare him self for this big fight. The night before his big day is when he goes to Adrian telling her how he won't win, but he isn't focused on winning as much as being able to last in the fight. Before a big moment everyone always has that thought of doubt in their mind and it from all the nervousness  excitement, and a bunch of other emotions mixing together. During the beginning of the fight Creed has had some good hits on Rocky, but throughout some of the middle Rocky starts to get his punches in. It wasn't until the last parts of the fight when Rocky began to heat up and get creed down and continue to get his good hits. At the end of the fight Rocky was proud that he made it through all fifteen rounds with Creed and prove that he wasn't what everyone labeled him as.

           Rocky Balboa was someone who was challenged by a champion; a professional fighter. He changed his lifestyle around to help with his preparation just for this fight. He was able to learn to have some faith in himself and he had Adrian as part of his motivation. Rocky was use to fighting other people who weren't really known like himself. He accepted the fight even though he didn't want to at first because it wasn't much of a fair fight. I feel like the respect that Rocky received at the end for lasting all fifteen round was deserved because Apollo had a bunch of other fights that he has won and Rocky never really competed in a fight that big.

          I personally like action movies like this because they almost always have a backstory to them. I like seeing Rocky improve himself throughout the film. If you're the type of person that likes having a feeling of adrenaline going through you then I would recommend it, but if you're someone who doesn't care for seeing people throw their hardest punches at each other then this isn't the movie for you.