Simply put, the standard by which all others are measured.

Rating: 10/10 (7 April 2002)

In 1976, the United States was needed a wake-up call. With Vietnam, dissolution with Government, Civil Unrest weighing heavily on our minds, Life imitated Art. Rocky brought us the story of the American Dream, only coincidentally scripted through the canvas of the boxing ring. Unlike few movies before, and even future later, "Rocky" presented its' gravitas through virtue, triumph, work ethic, and even religiosity.

Critics of the film bark at Rocky out of frustration for its' unprecedented success: How could a nobody, Sylvester Stallone, leverage his film career, write and star in a movie that could possibly beat the heavily favored, then-industry beefed stalwart "Network" at the Oscars? 1976, the year of the Bicentennial, also just so happened to be the year of the upset. No, Rocky didn't win the fight--but if he had, the film would have failed to deliver on its' true premise. The fighting was metaphor for life. Bill Conti's musical score rings as loudly as any ever made for a motion picture, a quarter-century later. The film's dignity was in the humility of its' roots. The fighter may have lost in the the film, but the motion picture when on to take top honors, winning best picture--in arguably one of the biggest Oscar upsets in history.
Movies can often be judged by their children, and grandchildren...pictures that are inspired or born from a theme or formula from the original. If that were the sole criterion for which movies were judged, Rocky would be considered one of the greatest films ever made.