A Bare, Honest Look at Self-Doubt, Desire and Motivation

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 2019)

An extremely impressive screenwriting debut for Sylvester Stallone, not to mention a breakthrough acting performance, in this transcendent boxing saga that's more about the path to the ring and the tumultuous effects of both participants' personal lives than the outcome of the fight itself.
Stallone is raw and nuanced as Rocky Balboa, the punchy palooka who wears his heart on the sleeve of his leather jacket and tumbles through life in a barely-contained tailspin. He's awkward but approachable, blunt but genuine. When flanked by an equally flawed supporting cast, we catch Rocky's personality from a number of different angles. Finally granted the long-sought opportunity to date a friend's sister, he's clumsy and oafish. They both are. The climactic moment of their embrace isn't a Hollywood crescendo, met with a romantic orchestral swell, it's a quiet fumble on the cold floor of his ratty, single-bedroom apartment. That's real; that's personal. As a trusted corner man's alcoholism spirals into an incoherent fury, we don't find any easy resolutions. Just added color to an already-bright fabric, portraying life in an American downtown during the mid-'70s.
The film's simple, seat-of-pants production further reinforces that theme. There's no gloss here, no smoothed edges. It's heartfelt and meaningful, bare and earnest, from the quiet moments of self-doubt to the irrelevance of the judges' scorecards at the end of the big match. Great stuff.