A true underdog story

Rating: 8/10 (12 October 2013)

"In comes this big lug who weighed 220lbs, didn't talk well, and acted slightly punch drunk. He said he had an idea for a boxing script and wanted to star in it" - Rocky Producer Irwin Winkler.
To make things slightly clearer, Let me paint the picture, the year was 1976 and a 31 year old had a script which took him just three days to write, but he wasn't just content with just a measly writing credit, he was adamant in the fact that he wanted to play as the lead, he was offered mine boggling figure to sell the script outright so that producer and execs could add a more recognizable lead – because let's face it, the guy so strapped for cash, had to appear in – well let's just say, films of a adult nature , for a messily 200 bucks, just to make ends meet, then for the next few year he had the occasional lead role, in let's just say, not the most fashionable of films, but mostly his body of work consisted of bit parts. Then when he was able to retain his place as the lead of the film – well the rest was history, the guys name was Sylvester Stallone (eventual star of the Rambo films and The Expendables) and the film was called 'Rocky', which went on to nominations for Best Actor and Best Screenplay at the 49 Academy Awards, making the Stallone the third man in history to be nominated for those two award from the same film. The film itself was the very first sports film to win Best Picture and even picked up a Best Director for John G. Avildsen (The Karate Kid).
Your classical rags to riches story, as a poor young man from Philadelphia, takes the opportunity to fight the world heavy weight champion, whilst at the same time trying to win love. I felt it was an almost herculean effort for a first time writer. Although true it's a simple premise, I would admit. It takes no Newton to understand, but there is genius in its simplicity, and because of that enduring quality it renders it as a powerful and inspirational film that strikes a chord with so many of us. Rocky it a film that the whole family can enjoy over and over again, well the first Rocky anyway, did I forget to mention that there were 5 sequels that all sucked, to the existent that they became a parody of themselves. But no matter how bad they get – and they do get bad, they will never distract from the genies and uplifting Rocky, with the killer sound track "Gonna Fly Now " (my new ring tone) played over the montage(which inspired me to work out) is probably one of my favorite sequences in film, but wait we can't forget the stair running scene, so iconic it's ridiculous, I would literally swim to America just so I could run up the steps (if I still have the energy left over from the swim) But all in all in my opinion rightly so that Rocky was the winner of Best Picture award.