Rocky Week Part 1

Happy New Year online readers! To start off this year, I will be looking at two of my favorite franchises. First, I will be doing a whole week long marathon, then the remainder of the month I will be looking at the other on my usual Friday reviews. To kick off the New Year, let’s take a look at one of my favorite movies of all time, “Rocky,” released in 1976. After mentioning this movie a few times in past reviews, I think the time is right to review this series, especially since I saw "Creed" back in November. Just to think, this movie came out almost 40 years ago.

Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in this movie, and it left a landmark in his career and in the movie world. Stallone plays the titular character, Robert “Rocky” Balboa. He’s a hard-living, but failing prize fighter who gets his face bashed in for a small amount of money. On the sides, he collects debt for a loan shark Anthony Gazzo, played by Joe Spinell. When Anthony orders Rocky to break a guy’s thumb if he doesn’t hand over the money, Rocky lets the man go, showing that he is a sympathetic guy. I do love it when Rocky yells out, “I should have broken your thumbs!” Even though on the outside he has a tough-guy demeanor, inside he’s a sweet, down-to-earth, sensible man. One night he sees a little girl named Marie, played by Jodi Letizia, hanging out with the wrong crowd. Being the sensible guy that he is, he walks her home, tells her to clean up her language, quit smoking, find the right friends, etc. This is proving how much of a heart of gold Rocky has. Although Marie tells him off before she walks into her house, but this is not the last time we see her.

Rocky is in love with the pet store owner, Adrianna "Adrian" Pennino, played by one of the greatest actresses of her time, Talia Shire. Adrian is a shy girl who doesn’t really date much, but Rocky can see that inside she is beautiful, despite the fact that no one really notices her like she is just nobody important. When they start dating, the famous one being in the ice rink, Adrian gains his trust and grows more and more close to him, like we do, and we get to see how hilarious Rocky is. Like Adrian, we get to be more sympathetic to Rocky’s character.

Adrian’s brother, Paulie, is played by Burt Young, another great actor. Paulie is an alcoholic, bitter, short-tempered, and unstable, but can be a good person when he tries to be. Despite all the badness Paulie has in him, Rocky still stays friends with him, even when Paulie becomes jealous of Rocky’s success, and Rocky tells Paulie he’ll promote his meat business. Speaking of meat business, Paulie agrees to let Rocky train in his factory by punching the bags of meat in the freezer, which is one of the best segments in the movie, and even makes the news.

Rocky approaches a trainer named Mickey Goldmill, a grouchy gym owner, played by the late Burgess Meredith. We see how broken down, bitter of a man he is since his days as a boxer are over. Mickey is the classic broken down mentor of this film.

Heavyweight boxing champion, Apollo Creed, played by the great Carl Weathers, comes to Philadelphia to pick a boxing match and can’t find anybody. He picks Rocky because of his boxing name, “The Italian Stallion.” At first, Rocky is intimidated, but agrees. This is great because a boxer like Rocky gets a chance at the heavyweight title, which doesn’t happen very often to underdogs. Also, Apollo is a very cocky man who loves to show how patriotic he is (he comes down to the ring in a George Washington uniform to prove it) and also thinks he can beat every boxer he gets in the ring with. Apollo’s character was influenced by the late Joe Frazier, who boxed Muhammad Ali three times.

What you got to love about this film is that nothing in this movie has any effects in it, but is all shot in Philadelphia. Of course, the famous training scene where Rocky runs up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Arts is one of the most famous scenes in any movie. I actually visited Philadelphia two summers ago and ran up those steps and stood in the exact spot Stallone stood when the montage is over, as you can see with the picture on the right that I took on my iPhone. I’m not alone, everyday people run up those steps and copy that training montage, set to the great Bill Conti’s song Gonna Fly Now. Believe it or not, I’m actually listening to the song while I’m typing this up. That segment, and Rocky punching the bags of meat, was taken from real-life exploits of Joe Frazier, but the man received no credit for it. Frazier actually makes a small cameo in this movie.

When everything is set and the fight is in motion, you are already rooting for Rocky, the underdog, because we can all relate to him, since he is one of the most relatable characters in movie history. How often do we get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we want to prove that we are somebody? This is what hits the audience members when they see this movie, which left its mark.

Pedro Lovell briefly plays Spider Rico, the first boxer we get to see Rocky fight. Also, the great Tony Burton plays Tony "Duke" Evers, Apollo’s trainer, manager, and friend. He doesn’t play a big part in this movie until later on in the series.

John G. Avildsen directed this movie and he really did a good job at making one of the best movies ever made. You got to love the direction they took this movie, especially with one of the greatest lines ever, “Yo, Adrian.” That is the first thing people think when they hear the “Rocky” title.

If you haven’t seen this movie, why are you reading my review? Go out to the library, go on your NetFlix, rent or buy the movie. It’s one of those movies you just have to see to believe. This leaves you with a good feeling and you have to see it to know what I’m talking about.

Check in tomorrow when I get to the first sequel in this franchise for “Rocky Week.”