Rocky. Dir. John G. Alvidsen.
Feat. Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa), Burgess Meredith (Mickey), Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed), Talia Shire (Adrian), Burt Young (Paulie)
MGM, 1976.
The Film Rocky, first debuted in November of 1975 took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was based around upon the "American Dream" which is the “underdog” overcoming the odds of defeat. The following year, 1976, marked the bicentennial era (200th anniversary since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which took place in Philadelphia.) The Movie included two main characters: Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed. Rocky was a quiet, low life guy from Philadelphia. Apollo was one of the most storied boxers of the world, in fact, he was the heavyweight champion. Apollo had a fight scheduled, but his opponent sustained an injury, which left him scrambling to find someone to fight. Apollo had a vision to gain the sport of boxing credibility, so he decided to fight Rocky (the “underdog”) and give him a shot at the “American Dream. The fight was set to take place on New Year's Day 1976.
People often viewed Rocky as a “bum” or “loser.” Throughout the beginning of the movie Rocky is portrayed this way, working for a loan shark. Although collecting for a loan shark, Rocky maintains a kindheart, down to earth state. This may seem contradictory to some, because he is working for a loan shark, and is supposed to be tough, at the same time is down to earth, but that is just the kind of guy he was. For example, one day Rocky was set to collect money, from a guy at the shipyard, or break his thumbs, but instead he preached to the gentlemen about gathering his stuff together, get back on track, and live the good life. Rocky also gave Little Marie an earful one night about self respect, and staying on the right track. This may be due to the fact that even though Rocky is a “bum” to many he maintains his self respect level, which is imperative to himself.
It is conceivable that if you are called a “bum” or “loser” you will not have a healthy self esteem level. That is how Rocky felt at the beginning of the film, but changed drastically towards the end. But why? Two reasons: Adrian and the fight of the century. Adrian became Rocky’s girlfriend and started living with him a month or two after they started dating; bare in mind, before he lived with Adrian, Rocky lived alone with his pet goldfish: Moby Dick. Before the whole big fight, Rocky deferred his fights to a church hall making $40 (equivalent to $176 in today’s money). In the fight against Apollo Rocky made way over $1million in today’s money. Why am I giving these examples? Because they are what changed Rocky. In the beginning of the film, before Rocky met Adrian, he dressed like a bum (ripped jeans and a “wife beater”). After he met Adrian he always wore his leather jacket, sometimes a top hat, and looked halfway decent. Similarly, before the big fight, again, Rocky didn’t care how he looked. For example, he didn’t care about the color of his shorts or how he appeared compared to his opponent. Right before the big fight, there were big posters of Apollo and Rocky hanging from the jumbotron– at the Philadelphia Spectrum– and Rocky didn’t like his poster. The poster had him in red shorts with a white stripe, the exact opposite of what he was wearing during the fight. Now you can hopefully see, that in a way Rocky went from being a “minimalist” at the beginning of the movie to “high maintanence at the end.
Overall, this was an outstanding movie and lived up to its classification as an “all american classic.” The idea of how a low class man was given the shot at one of the most glorified titles in sports and the american dream was spectacular. I would recommend this to anyone, but more specifically, someone who loves sports or has a hard time establishing self confidence. Rocky started at the bottom and went to the top; fighting in a church hall with dozens of people watching him, to an arena with thousands watching him, plus the millions watching on TV. He also went from having a near .500 record, to lasting 15 rounds with the world champion. If you take into account the positive things in life, or even the negatives and turn them into positives, you will be successful. You can absolutely compare Rocky’s appearance throughout the movie to Hip-hop artists Drake’s song “Started From the Bottom now we’re here.”
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