Rock's Rocky Road

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2019)

I remember watching this film as a teenager when I wasn't really into sports and had my face stuck on the pages of any given book I could find. I found myself back then so immersed in the world of prose, poems, plays and beautiful language, that I probably wasn't the right audience for the film, even given the fact that I was a pretty average teenage boy.
For me, the film had been about fighting, macho imagery, old-fashioned gender roles - about some sort of a way how men can express themselves and vent out the bad feelings. Not by talking, but beating it out for themselves, and not giving up if you get beaten. Granted, I did not grow up at the time when the first movie came out, and didn't get to experience the turmoils of the time, so that was also lost on me.
Almost two decades later, still hopelessly academic and romantic at the core, but also shaped by issues of employment, poverty, achievement and failure and by late discovery of the joys of gym and working out, the film looked different. It felt different. It still looks old, in sort of way I would recall my grandparents' house. The dialogue is on occasion so difficult to hear that you want to have the subtitles enabled. But it also looks timeless. You can try to understand that this, in the most American way possible, could somehow be genuine.
I never have liked Stallone as an actor very much, but I was pleasantly surprised that I really enjoyed him as Rocky. He is tender, funny, thick as a rock, but has a good heart. His constant boxing movement impacting his swagger way of walking and acting is kept up - he makes it look natural, like someone would actually behave like that. And somehow he doesn't look like a total tool doing it. It talks miles about Stallone's acting ability to make the character so believable.
And what about the dynamic with Adrian? I recall having not been very impressed with her character when I was younger. I had wanted her to have more fire, be less submissive, too unawares of the total effect the beliefs of the time would of course have on creating her has a character. Shy, controlled by a brother, lacking in confidence, 30 year old virgin with no prospects. How could she be anything else than what she really is? The pairing of the goofball and the shy kitten progresses slowly, Rocky not knowing when to give up, till Adrian emerges from her shell to take the leap of faith and see what's out there. The scene does seem a little bit off-putting with Rocky forcing her to stay, but this works with their hopeless together narrative.
And man, what about that tune? The fanfare, you know what I'm talking about.
ADRIAN! - This scene brought tears into this manchild's eyes.