The Rocky Road to Success
July 3rd 2007 20:45
I’ll also admit, that unfortunately – the intervening years between # I and Stallone’s latest incarnation – Rocky Balboa (which is actually not a bad piece of cinematography) – were to say the least – increasingly punch drunk in direction, production, scripting and believability.
When the movie was released, United Artists' publicity department released a story that an unknown actor called Sylvester Stallone approached them with a script for a boxing picture but had insisted that they could only have the script if he were allowed to star in it himself.
When they refused, so the story went, he threatened to take his script elsewhere so they offered him $20,000 which he gratefully accepted and the movie was made.
The head of publicity at the time at UA, has since admitted that the story was a complete fabrication but that it "promoted the whole underdog concept".
Conceptually (as folklore would have it) Stallone wrote the script in three days after attending a boxing match between the hugely underated Chuck Wepner and the legendary Muhammad Ali.
Released in 1976 – the movie had a budget of $1m and tells the rags-to-riches story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but good-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in Philadelphia.
Balboa is also a club fighter who gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship when the scheduled contender breaks his hand.
Featuring Talia Shire as Adrian, Burt Young as Adrian's brother Paulie, Burgess Meredith as Mickey Goldmill, Rocky's trainer and Carl Weathers as the champion, Apollo Creed – the film was an instant success and eventually posted almost $120m at the box office.
Shot in just 28 days - the movie is probably best known for the line "Yo, Adrian." which was voted as the #80 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100) while in 2007, the American Film Institute ranked it as the #57 Greatest Movie of All Time.
For the trivia buffs - Rocky is not the character's actual name. His real name is Robert Balboa - this was seen in a rough script from the second film. He took the nickname from real-life boxer Rocky Marciano.
Another curiousity was the fight scene which was filmed in reverse order starting with the fifteenth round, with Stallone and Carl Weathers in heavy make-up. As filming continued, the make-up was slowly removed until they were at round one. Because of this technique, the movie also won an Oscar for Best Film Editing.
Yet despite the dodgy dialogue, the lack of big name (actually any) stars, big Hollywood budgets or big egos – we parted with our hard-earned, we cheered, we rode with the punches, we believed. . . .
It was a movie for every one of us who had ever been bullied, tormented, downtrodden or dealt one of life’s unfortunate hands.
We believed there was a bit of all of us in the movie.
Role the credits . . . .
Music courtesy www.wedell.com
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