Stallone Should Have Won The Oscar

Rating: 10/10 (2 January 2007)

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to his most famous role.
ROCKY is a legend given form in the shape of the biggest most satisfying, inspiring! Or simply THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE!
"Rocky" is quite simply one of the best movies ever made. A good movie for me is one that does not end with the credits, and "Rocky" certainly stays with you long after the final credits have rolled.
Plot In A Paragraph: Rocky Balboa, (Sylvester Stallone) a small-time boxer gets a chance to fight the heavy-weight champion of the world Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), in a contest in which he aims to go the distance.
If there is anything to complain about (and this really is nitpicking) it's all the empty seats during the fight, but that really is nitpicking of the highest order!! The story is filled with the standard elements, but the movie is anything but standard. It's a love story, but set in the run up to a boxing match. It's a movie that leads to a boxing match, but the outcome of the fight is secondary to the characters reactions to what just happened. It's got friendship, second chances, people who hate for no reason and the greatest underdog story ever told.
I can't praise the cast enough of this movie enough here. Sylvester Stallone, who has contributed some tough fisted, hard as nails characters over the years, is perfectly cast as the title character, he should be, it's well known he wrote the role for himself. Burgess Meredith is always reliable, but here he is truly awesome. Talia Shire is also awesome as the shy Adrian. Burt Young and Joe Spinell deserve praise for their performances too, as does Carl Weathers for his turn as Rocky's opponent Apollo Creed. Tony Burton does well with what he has too.
Favourite scenes (outside of the training and the fight) for me are Rocky and Adrian's first date and the "I should have broke your thumbs" scene. I also like a scene were Rocky's boss gives him $500 for training expenses too.
All this and I've not even mentioned the music. Bill Conti's score is absolute perfection. If I can't go in the ocean without hearing John Williams score for "Jaws" going through my head, I can't go for a workout or jog without hearing Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" but it's not just the inspiration trainin music that is great, check out 'First Date' on the soundtrack. Superb.
I was recently privileged enough to run the Rocky steps with my two kids and Philladelphia's number one Rocky impersonator Mike Kunda. You can't have any idea what it meant to me to do that!! He also took us on a tour of the movies filming sites. It was great going round seeing all the sights from this movie.
This is basically a fairytale story in a different setting and feels very real. and at the heart of the movie is the greatest love story in the history of motion picture. thats right better than Jack and Rose in Titanic and better than Ryan O Neil and Ali McGraw in Love Story. here are two people totally devoted to each other and stay that way through six movies
The script by Stallone is exceptionally good and completely deserved the Oscar. Rocky is a treasure of a character and Stallone plays him to perfection, he really should have picked up an Oscar for that as well.
All in All "Rocky" is a highly professional piece of work, with a good sense of heart and atmosphere it makes for perfect entertainment. Sly Stallone take a bow sir.