Everybody remembers the movie Rocky. I’m talking about the original 1976 Rocky movie, not the subsequent five Rocky movies. By the way, nothing says, “too much of a good thing” than the unrelenting sequels that followed in the Rocky movie franchise. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to hate on the Rocky sequels. In fact, in many ways I think Rocky III was very cool – especially when Apollo Creed gets his ass kicked by Mr. T and decides to teach Rocky to box like a “brother” – but I think the real brilliance of the first Rocky movie is something special.
Looking back, it was a miracle the movie ever got made. Sylvester Stallone took a huge gamble. He penned the movie with only $150 dollars in the bank and DECLINED to sell the script unless he could star in the movie as well. This was a bold move considering Stallone was a complete nobody, lacking any type of commercial success. Up until that time, he was a mostly unemployed actor who had NEVER sold a screenplay before in his life. His rap around Hollywood was that he was just a muscle-bound meathead actor who mumbled his way through scenes. Lawrence Olivier…he was NOT.
Irwin Winkler was the producer who fortunately loved the script enough to consider Stallone, but he thought Rocky would be a better fit for a major film star like Ryan O’Neal or Burt Reynolds. As fate would have it, ultimately Stallone’s uncompromising insistence paid off and he got his wish. The movie was financed under a tight shoestring budget, and Stallone became a Hollywood hyphenate over night. He got the lead role of Rocky from the script that he wrote, he choreographed the movie’s fight scenes and he even schemed to get his little brother a bit part in the movie as a Philadelphia street singer. Little known actors Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers and Burgess Meredith were cast in what they surely must have thought of as a largely insignificant movie at the time. In 1976, Rocky’s bicentennial theme was perfectly timed for its release. The movie opened small at the box office but slowly gained momentum. In no time at all the little-movie-that-could became a colossal hit. Oscar glory followed, and the rest they say is… pardon the cliché, Hollywood history.
Granted, Rocky is no cinematic masterpiece. If you want to look for holes, you can say that its script is simplistic and formulaic. The filmmaking and production value is shabby. It won the Oscar for Best Picture that year, but most people thought Network and All the President’s Men were more deserving…and I agree. However, Rocky has a special ingredient that’s very difficult to capture in movie making. It’s got heart. Watch it again, and you’ll see that it’s a sadly touching story about losers that all get a second chance in life. That sort of movie, if done correctly, is gold in Hollywood.
Rocky will always be the quintessential underdog movie, and it’s interesting to see how it mirrored the real life underdog story of Sylvester Stallone. He maned-up and put all his chips in at a time when sports movies were box office poison in Hollywood. Not bad for an actor who mumbles his way through scenes. Olivier, eat your heart out!
