Only the most miserly of curmudgeons will find fault with Rocky, a truly uplifting movie about pride, courage, and respect in the face of adversity. This 1976 Best Picture winner has lost very little of its punch over the past 25 years, which is surprising given the number of knockoffs that have been inspired by -- or have ripped off -- its basic formula.
If the success of Rocky can be attributed to anything, it is its sheer humility. The movie doesn't want to make an underdog picture where a token bad guy is vanquished, it just wants to make a movie about an underdog who goes the distance against the bad guy (if Carl Weathers' Apollo Creed can even be classified as a bad guy). And it certainly doesn't want to glamorize Philadelphia; the outdoors shots of the city humbly include back alleys, gang hangouts and polluted factories and the indoor shots are of rundown apartments and candidates of project housing initiatives. Finally, Rocky Balboa himself (Sylvester Stallone) is terribly simple, humble and well meaning, but never once believes he has a chance to be anything but a chain-smoking low-rep boxer (in one scene, after suggesting to a neighbourhood teen that she should clean up her act, the girl gives Rocky the finger).
The picture was said to have been filmed in less than a month, which remains a phenomenally slim schedule by any means. Directed by John G. Avildsen, it presents itself with as much simplicity as Stallone's screenplay requires. There are many scenes that begin or end with the viewer simply watching Rocky walk to somewhere or from somewhere. It's a small touch, but a nice one that metaphorically keeps us with him every step of the way.
The courtship of Rocky and the scrawny -- almost geeky -- Adrian (Talia Shire) is one of the sweetest romances ever portrayed on the big screen. One would think his limited vocabulary and her expansive intellect would cause her to be the talkative one... not so. It is Rocky who exhaustively tries in the first half of the picture to win Adrian's affections, and the result is awkward and comic all at once. When they finally get together, or when Rocky calls out her name at the film's famous conclusion, one can't help but grin.
Although the movie's first five minutes show Rocky in the boxing ring, it isn't for another hour and a half that we see him box, train, or work out in any capacity. This may sound like excessive character development, but it never plays that way. Rocky takes money for being a loan shark's brute, sucks in the tough talk thrown at him by the veteran Mickey (Burgess Meredith), and tries to tactfully defuse his drunk friend Paulie (Burt Young). These subplots all help make Rocky a flawed, but infinitely likable character, and when Rocky goes the distance by the end of the film, we feel in a small way that we have too.
