The Film That Made You Proud to Be an American

Rating: Null/10 (29 July 2000)

"Rocky" is such a pure and wonderful story that it succeeds like almost no other film ever produced. A two-bit boxer from Philadelphia (Sylvester Stallone in an Oscar-nominated role) gets a chance at the heavyweight title and just wants to go the distance with the champion (Carl Weathers) to prove to everyone and himself that is not the loser that he appears to be. Rocky is motivated by only one thing: a local shy girl named Adrian (Talia Shire, also Oscar-nominated) who he has fixations on. Her brother, Pauly (Burt Young, Oscar-nominated), is one of the few real friends that Rocky has. For Rocky to do his best he is going to need a trainer. Enter Mickey, (Burgess Meredith, in yet another Oscar-nominated role), who is a man who sees a bit of himself in the young fighter and realizes that this is his last chance at achieving the dreams of his youth. Overall "Rocky" is one of those films which is near impossible to say anything negative about. It is far from a perfect film, but its parts together make it an unbelievable motion picture. "Rocky" is more of an event than a movie and in the end all will be cheering for the underdog. 5 stars out of 5.