Great founding stone of a series of documentary sequels

Rating: 8/10 (14 April 2008)

Well, my summary may not be my most inspiring but it is meant wholeheartedly. First, I love "Rocky" and all of his sequels in their own way. I find it a great film and itself and the sequels show the "Hollywood spirit" during the years.
Let us watch Rocky unbiased. The storyline in itself is a bit shallow: A Nobody gets a chance to fight the champ, he does it and wins his girl friend during the movie. The End. As I said shallow.
But what Stallone did with this plot is amazing. He added many twists and turns to create a whole new plot. Instead many other Underdog-Sports-Movies, the underdog here is not a brilliant new talent or fallen-once-famous star but an average, down to earth bum like many of us know their whole life. Rocky is a bit of an idiot (we learn he is dyslexic in Rocky 2), but has strong own personal morals and thoughts. He is a bit of an Outcast, too. We see him with his sole friend Paulie (who seems not to be a real close friend) and the girl he adores, Paulie's sister. Adrian is too shy to even notice that Rocky adores her, which makes her an outcast too.
The next twist Stallone adds is how this Nobody gets the title shot. It is not because the champ notices the talent or has revenge plans....It is mere coincidence of the original opponent having an injury and Creed now has to look for someone to fight on short notice. Since the fight is at the 4th of July he makes the genial decision to create a media hype by giving an unknown a title shot. And he only chooses Rocky because of his ring name "The Italian Stallion" ("Apollo Creed versus the Italian Stallion, sounds like a damn monster movie.")
Then comes the film sequence of the training and all the story in between. Stallone walks here the fine line between a sports movie and a character development movie and he balances it superbly. We get to love this nerdy couple with all their all-to-well-known, ordinary troubles. We even learn to sympathize with the drunkard Paulie. And the training sequences are so great, the song "Gonna fly now" will always be engraved mentally to such training scene montages (as it itself or similar sounding copies are used up until today).
Last in the movie is the fight. Many have commented on its unrealistic appearance. Hey, it is played by two actors, who, though being athletic and even college/pro-athletes, never were boxers. And though they trained with a boxing coach, they lacked the money to do it extensively. So they scripted the fight step by step, blow by blow. And then they rehearsed it. This is quite an accomplishment. And to me, the fight looks as well as some you see in today's actual rings.
A word about the acting. Stallone shows here (like he does now too after leaving his action stardom behind) that he is quite a talented actor. The supporting cast is great, from heavies like Meredith and Young (both doing great scenes here, Oscar-worthy) to then unknowns like Carl Weathers and Thalia Shire.
The production is great too, thinking of the limited budget.I was fascinated by the camera work, which is better than many big-budgeteers at that time. If you love well made and emotional gripping films, who may have a bit of sports thrown into it, you definitely will love "Rocky". As to my statement that the sequels are documentary of how movies in their time were like, read my comments there.