The first, the best, the sweetest and most honest

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2003)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Those of you who have been desensitized by Rocky's sequels may well have forgotten just how good the original is. (Spoiler later but I'll warn you).
The original Rocky is, surprisingly, NOT about boxing. It is about a man who has dreams, has aspirations, but just can't make everything work. He lives in a squalid apartment, he barely makes enough to support himself, and people everywhere shun him, disregard his hopes and accomplishments, and call him a bum. His locker at the gym is unceremoniously given to someone viewed to have more talent, and a young neighborhood girl tells him to shove it after he tries his best to give her honest and heartfelt advice about staying away from the bad crowd.
It's not about boxing. Rocky Balboa is an everyman, a simple man who does his best to earn a living and takes cash from any source willing to give it to him. He wants a better life, he wants to be somebody, but the chance just isn't there.
The film, written by Stallone after being inspired by a similar story of a boxer, is sweet and low key. Its Philadelphia setting is very natural and doesn't have the glamour of typical Hollywood, and all performers do a fine job portraying characters that, in their own ways, are living lives of unfulfilled dreams and quiet desperation. Rocky has his eyes on the girl at the local pet store who's so shy that she's called retarded. Her brother, Rocky's only friend, is a boozehound. His boss is a cheap loan shark. And at the gym, the source of his only real interest, the owner seems to hate him.
Rocky's real chance comes when the well-known and flamboyant boxing champ sends him an offer to fight. What's sad about this is that while Rocky has genuine hope to utilize this chance and actually gain some self-respect and approval, in reality the champ just chose Rocky because he looked like a good candidate to boost his own image. This is all too apparent in one of the film's most symbolic scenes, when Rocky visits the empty auditorium where the fight will take place. The promoter is there, and Rocky points out that the giant poster hanging from the rafters features incorrect colors on Rocky's portrait. The promoter looks at it, shrugs, and explains that it doesn't matter, "you'll give us a good show".
This scene is quietly elegant, and encapsulates the feel of the movie as a whole. Whereas the other films in the series are more about Rocky's famous career, this one just lets us look at this poor guy who's just trying to BE somebody. And it's fitting that, by the end, (SPOILER ALERT: The film concludes with Rocky putting up one hell of a fight...And losing. But it doesn't matter. Rocky achieved what mattered most to him. He became somebody, he proved himself to the world, the champ, and even himself, and won the love of someone who really meant something to him. (END OF SPOILER)
The reason this film succeeds is because it isn't done with a heavy hand. It looks at Rocky sensitively, and we're along with him and can't help rooting for the poor guy. He's a good person, he deserves to make it. And as another reviewer pointed out, the soft directing is aided by the famous musical score, which envelopes us into all the emotions that these people are experiencing. It's a very complete package, and although easily dismissable as a "rags - to riches" story, it's much more than that. It's all about someone trying to preserve their self esteem, trying to do what's right, and trying to simply win acceptance. Although I do still love the following four films, the original is where it's at. It's a sweet, honest drama about a man overcoming his obstacles, and it's great.