One of my top 50 of all time

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2000)

Once in a long while, there comes a film that has such tremendous gestalt that it rises above any negative criticism. Rocky' is such a film. It is more than just a story about an underdog boxer who makes the best of a title shot. It is a story about perseverance, heart and courage. Most of all it is a story about transcendence. All the major characters in the film, including Apollo Creed, transcended their previous limitations. If you reflect on it, Mick, Paulie, Adrian and Rocky were all changed people by the end of the film. Apollo was changed too, but we didn't realize it until the sequel.
The film was also a transcendent event for Stallone, and served as an allegory of his life. If there ever was an underdog in Hollywood, it was Sly Stallone. His trademark droopy eyes and slurred speech were the result of a severed nerve at birth, and this disability was not conducive landing roles as a leading man. As a child, he was teased for his slur, and coupled with his name endured a childhood of Tweety bird jokes. He knew a little about fighting. He was expelled from fourteen schools by the time he was fifteen. In the film, when Rocky was knocked down and his corner told him to stay down, it was symbolic of his own life when his acting teachers at University of Miami tried to dissuade him from acting. In both cases he got up and proved them wrong.
This film found its original inspiration in a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner (a.k.a. The Bayonne Bleeder), an astronomical underdog who lasted fifteen punishing rounds and emerged with his pride and a face that looked like ground beef. Anyone who saw that fight and this film would see the obvious similarities in Ali/Creed and Wepner/Balboa. After seeing this fight, Stallone wrote the screenplay in three days.
Stallone had several big money producers interested in the script, but they refused to produce it with him in the lead. So he turned them down and produced it on a shoestring, grossing over $225 million and winning Best Picture and Director Oscars and acting and writing nominations for Stallone. Stallone should have stopped after the first Rocky' as the sequels did not and could not compare. However, I can't blame him for riding the gravy train after the price he paid for admission.
Stallone is brilliant in the role, as the inspiration came from his own life. He simultaneously elicits pathos and respect from the viewer. Though Balboa is none too bright, Stallone gives him a pure heart, unswerving desire and through sheer simplicity makes him the wisest of all the characters in the film. By the end, everyone in the theater is pulling for Rocky because to do so is to cheer for their own lost dreams. I still get a lump in my throat when he screams out, `Adrian' at the end.

This film is in my top 50 of all time. I'm partial to underdog stories and this is the heavyweight champion of that category. I rated it a perfect 10. Rocky' may not have been great filmmaking but it was great art. Would that life could always imitate art as well as it did in this film.