The Champ

Rating: 10/10 (13 November 2015)

Its critics often dismiss Rocky as a fairytale, but like many fairy tales, it's often dark and unpleasant before we get to happily ever after (and let us not forget, Rocky loses). What it isn't is cynical. Or at least not as relentlessly so as many of its contemporaries.
The performances here are outstanding. I can't think of another movie where the main cast so inhabit their characters, and like the movie, there's a much deeper undercurrent to these deceptively simple archetypes. Rocky is no Pollyanna. He copes with his dreary reality by meeting it with good humor, but there are a few scenes where Stallone lets us see the frustration and bitterness simmering beneath the surface.
Unlike many of its sequels, which focused on boxing first, here the focus is on people. Particularly the love story between Rocky and Adrian. Stallone and Shire have wonderful chemistry together, and ultimately we want to see these two somewhat broken people come together. Long before Tom Cruise's "You complete me." in Jerry Maguire, Rocky Balboa and Adrian "filled gaps". As he told Paulie "She's got gaps, I've got gaps. Together, we fill gaps.".
The boxing action here isn't as thrilling as its sequels (though it's inarguably more realistic), but what it lacks in flash it more than makes up for in drama. There's a scene in the 14th round where Apollo Creed (played with consummate charm by Carl Weathers) has knocked down Rocky for what he thinks (and clearly hopes) is the final time. Bloody and beaten himself, Apollo looks more relieved than elated. But then Rocky, against the pleas of his manager Mickey (the incomparable Burgess Meredith), slowly gets to his feet as Apollo looks on in disbelief. Those kinds of moments, ones focused on real human drama, are ultimately far more powerful and inspiring than slick montages set to catchy rock songs... not that I don't love those too.