FLY, ROCKY FLY!
ON THE ROAD TO VICTORY!
FIGHT, ROCKY FIGHT!
SCORE A K.O. 1, 2, 3!
HIT 'EM LOW!
HIT 'EM HIGH!
AND WATCH OUR ROCKY FLY!
FLY, ROCKY FLY!
ON THE ROAD TO VICTORY!
E-A-G-L-E-S!
EAGLES!!!
What were we talking about? Oh yeah, we watched Rocky.
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: He runs up some stairs and loses The Big Fight!
Tyler: I’m gonna admit something that’s been a movie secret of mine for a long time now: I’ve never seen Rocky. I think everyone assumes that because I’m from Philadelphia (ish), am a sports fan, and like movies that I’ve seen them all, but honestly I know what I know about it from other people’s references and context clues. Let’s change that, shall we?
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): A small-time Philadelphia boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
Even if you’ve somehow never heard the theme from Rocky in your life, the music bringing us into the movie would get you hyped as heck, even once you realize you’re watching a small-time fight at the dingy Resurrection Athletic Club. Rocky Balboa is boxing with some dude named Spider, and Rocky wins! They net $40.55 and $17.201 for their trouble, respectively. Despite the less-than-stellar circumstances, Rocky’s excited about the win, telling everyone from the doo-wop singing guys on the corner, to his friend Paulie, to Paulie’s sister Adrian at the pet store! Adrian seems unable to speak in Rocky’s presence, but he blithely chatters on about what he feeds his turtles and tells her jokes.
Ellen: This is a note for like 3 people, but when Rocky passes the guys singing on the corner, all I could think was: is this what inspired Paris Geller in season 6 of Gilmore Girls to tell visitors the scary men on her corner are a doo-wop group?? I found at least one person on Reddit who agrees, so…
Tyler: In this day and age, “one person on Reddit” is basically a quorum, so I think you’re onto something.
The next day, Rocky returns to work as a collector for the shady Mafia man Mr. Gazzo, but he gets a metaphorical slap on the wrist for not literally breaking a man’s thumb when he couldn’t pay. Rocky clearly knows everyone in the neighborhood and is an earnestly good dude, though a bit gruff. Even when wishing Adrian would talk to him, he doesn’t get irritated about how she looks at him like he’s leftovers: he just asks her brother for help! We don’t see him get heated until he goes to Mighty Mick’s Boxing, the gym he frequents, and discovers that his locker has been given away to some guy named Dipper. Mickey explains that Dipper is a contender, and Rocky’s just a tomato. The only thing special about him is that his nose has never been busted.
Tyler: At one point Rocky asks Gazzo how to spell “Del Rio” so even though his nose is fine, he’s clearly taken more than a few shots to the head. Between his presumed … lack of book smarts and his overall vibe, though, he nevertheless comes across as so gosh darn earnest. He just has such a weird energy: it's chatty but repetitive, slightly awkward with barely any game, and funny in the oddest way. It straddles the line between “this is a complex character” and “what is up with this guy?”
Ellen: The movie wants us to know Rocky is a Good Guy™, but also has to communicate that he’s a rough and tumble fighter, and it doesn’t quite know how to accomplish that. The result is this deeply earnest, chatty Cathy who also leaves trash around his crusty apartment and punches real good.
Meanwhile, heavyweight boxing world champion Apollo Creed has a problem. In honor of the United States Bicentennial, he wants to fight in a title bout in Philadelphia. With five weeks to go, however, his opponent fractures his hand! Creed and his team cast about for a suitable replacement2, eventually deciding that the only way to get someone to agree to this fight with almost no prep time is to look for A Complete Unknown. They’ll give a local guy a chance to make good! Flipping through the options in what appears to be Binders Full Of
WomenBoxers, the nickname “The Italian Stallion” sticks out, and Rocky Balboa is chosen.Tyler: I like that Rocky is pulled from relative obscurity solely for marketing reasons. He didn’t fight his way into this position and earn it, and it wasn’t even some “golden ticket” blind luck, it was basically because he was Italian and had a built-in nickname. It really helps emphasize how focused Apollo is on the showmanship angle of the fight as opposed to, ya know, finding a worthy opponent.
Ellen: Yeah, it bucks some movie tropes about Rocky working his way up or just being extraordinary in some way. It’s truly random.
Rocky doesn’t know that yet, however, so his biggest concern is being chosen by Adrian! On Thanksgiving, Paulie sets Rocky and Adrian up on a date. On the way inside, Rocky feels the need to confirm three times that Adrian knows he’s coming, which seems weird until he sees Adrian and realizes she did not know! In fact, she was in the middle of cooking the Thanksgiving turkey, which Paulie yoinks a leg from and tosses out the window!!3 Miraculously, Rocky and Adrian still go out, and he takes her ice skating, which is to say he shuffles alongside as she skates, talking a mile-a-minute about southpaws and other boxing terms. Back at his busted, beer bottle-strewn apartment, Adrian is extremely nervous, but the constant babble relaxes her some, and eventually they kiss!
Word eventually makes it to Rocky that he’s been tapped for this fight and he reluctantly heeds the call to adventure. Paulie insists that Rocky is being made the fool, and while he seems good-natured enough about the whole thing in public, he confesses to Adrian privately that being used for spectacle does bother him. A melancholy version of the music theme accompanies Mickey up to Rocky’s apartment. He details his own life and boxing career and how a manager could have made all the difference. Rocky doesn’t want to hear it, especially not from a guy who said he was a bum and booted him from the gym like two weeks ago. Mickey leaves, dejected.
Ellen: Rocky insists that he’s just a big dumb guy, but in his conversations with Adrian and Mickey, he lets us know that he’s not so naive as to just see this as a wonderful opportunity.
Tyler: Meatheads have feelings too!
Rocky, though currently without a coach and feeling like a lamb for slaughter, is at least going to do his best. At 4 AM and 28°F, Rocky gets up, puts on a sweatsuit that looks like it’s never been washed, and downs five raw eggs to go on a run. It’s brutal to start, but he keeps at it. Talking with Paulie at his meat packing job, Rocky gets so frustrated with his friend continually asking about being set up with Gazzo that he punches a side of beef and realizes it’s got a good feel to it. As time passes, he eventually takes Mickey up on his offer, and we get the training montage we’ve been waiting for! We’re punching beef, we’re doing one-armed push-ups, and we are running up those stairs, baby!
Ellen: What a shock to realize “Gonna Fly Now” has lyrics! Stupid ones. “Trying hard now… getting strong now… gonna fly now.”
Tyler: As far as I’m concerned the lyrics are “Doo-doo dooooooo doo-doo doooooooooooo. Doo-doo doooooooooo, doo-doo dooooooooooooooooooooo.”
The night before the match, Rocky visits the Spectrum and sees this big, empty stadium that will be filled with fans ready to watch him lose. He even notes that the color of his shorts on the poster is incorrect, red instead of white. Rocky leaves more nervous than ever, but he confesses to Adrian that winning isn’t his goal. No one has ever gone the distance with Apollo, and if Rocky is still standing when the bell rings, then that means something to him.
Tyler: A great example of “expectations management” by Rocky.
It’s fight night! Rocky’s robe is too big and is also advertising Paulie’s place of employment, but yeah, he’s as ready as he’ll get. Meanwhile,
Samuel L. JacksonApollo Creed comes out dressed as Uncle Sam, throwing coins into the crowd and ready for the show. The bout begins, and Rocky manages to knock Apollo down in the first round! That’s never happened before, and the champ realizes he needs to take this publicity stunt a little more seriously. The fight goes on round after round, with both competitors taking a beating. Rocky’s white shorts start to take on the red color in the poster, and Apollo smashes him right in Chekhov’s unbroken nose. They look like hell by round fifteen, and when the bell finally sounds, both are still standing!
A reporter asks Rocky what he was thinking about, and that seems to jog his memory, because he starts yelling out for Adrian. She yells back, and this poor mousy woman has to fight her way up to the ring. They embrace, and she tells Rocky she loves him! They barely seem to notice when the announcer calls out that by split decision, Apollo has won the fight.
Ellen: As I said up top, I knew he lost, but I didn’t expect it to be so… inconsequential. If we hadn’t had captions on, I might not have even noticed!
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by… J&M Tropical Fish pet store!
Oh, uh, hi. Welcome to J&M Tropical Fish pet store, Philly’s home for turtles, fish, and even one adorable dog named Butkus. Ah actually you can’t adopt him though, he’s promised to a local hunk, oops, that was unprofessional, a local up-and-coming boxer.
But yeah, I guess he’s rubbing off on me, because this ad has more words than I’ve spoken in the last 6 weeks. So, anyway, come visit us and peruse our extensive collection of food, cages, and other pet supplies.
Mention “ILTBTA” at checkout to receive one of my rare smiles. Or honestly, please don’t.
Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
Rocky’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
In news that probably will and will not surprise you, Rocky was written by star Sylvester Stallone and finished in just three days. Stallone refused to sell the movie rights to United Artists (who wanted a more established star like Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, or James Caan) unless they agreed to let him star in the lead role.
Before reaching an agreement with United Artists, Stallone sold the script to ABC, who wanted to rewrite it and turn it into a made-for-TV movie. Stallone begged his friend Henry Winkler, with whom he co-starred in The Lords of Flatbush, to help him reacquire the rights. Winkler leveraged his position as a star of the network’s Happy Days show and convinced ABC to sell the rights back.
While best known for directing Rocky, director John Avildsen also directed the first three movies in the Karate Kid franchise.
The role of Adrian was played by actress Talia Shire, also known for her role as Connie Corleone in The Godfather trilogy and for being director Francis Ford Coppola’s sister. For those unfamiliar with the extended Coppola family tree, this also means she is the aunt of actor Nicolas Cage and director Sofia Coppola and the mother of actor Jason Schwartzman.
Susan Sarandon and Cher both auditioned to play Adrian, but Sarandon was deemed too pretty and Cher too expensive.
The film’s relatively low budget (reportedly around $1 million) also had other impacts on the finished product, including:
Several members of Stallone’s family played minor roles in the film to cut down on costs. His father rang the bell to signal the beginning and end of each round, his brother played a street crooner, and his wife served as the still photographer.
Rocky and Adrian’s date at the ice skating rink was originally supposed to occur during normal business hours, but they couldn’t afford to pay the hundreds of extras.
The poster above the ring that shows Rocky in the wrong shorts was an actual mistake by the props department. Instead of paying for a new one to be made, Stallone wrote some dialogue for the promoter to cover it up (“Doesn’t really matter, does it?”).
Similarly, Stallone wrote dialogue to point out how the robe that Rocky wears when entering the ring was much baggier than expected.
Rocky was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing. Its other nominations were for Best Actor (Stallone), Best Actress (Shire), Best Supporting Actor (Burgess Meredith (Mickey) and Burt Young (Paulie)), Best Original Song (“Gonna Fly Now”), and Best Sound.
Tyler: It was a bit jarring to read about all the budget issues this movie had then see how it got nominated for seemingly every award under the sun. While Best Actor and Best Sound seem well-deserved, I didn’t think the other actors stood out that much to warrant nominations.
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role.4 And the nomnomnominees are:
A quick squirt of water from your bottle between rounds
Turtle food for Cuff and Link
A Thanksgiving turkey in the alley
Five raw eggs for breakfast at 4 am
And the Oscar goes to … five raw eggs for breakfast! Unfortunately, the now-precious eggs were stolen in an elaborate egg heist to be sold on the egg black market, so we will accept this award on its behalf.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to gift The Academy a robe for the big fight that’s a bit too large, much like this movie’s impact relative to its quality. Got ‘em!! There were a lot of things I thought I knew about this movie - I thought Rocky was an over-the-hill champ getting a second chance, I thought he was strong and silent (lol), and I thought winning was a really big deal for him. As I alluded to in Plots & Feelings, there are ways in which the writing avoids a lot of the sports movie cliches, and I definitely appreciate that. The whole thing is pretty good, but maybe not Best Picture winner good, and it really feels like it has an outsized cultural impact. That said, I have a whole new pathway of sequels to go down to see if that’s true!
Tyler: I’d like to take The Academy ice-skating but talk their ear off the entire time. I have more complicated feelings about this movie than I thought I would! It feels almost sacrilegious to criticize Rocky, but I have to admit: after finishing it I thought to myself “Really? That won Best Picture?” On paper, I think it has a lot going for it: a multi-dimensional lead who’s the most Philly dude you’ve ever seen, a unique Cinderella story with an atypical ending, a now-legendary training montage. But in practice, it didn’t quite land for me and I annoyingly can’t put my finger on exactly why. Maybe it would hit more if I had been alive and seen it when it was first released, but it didn’t quite live up to the mythos surrounding it. My general distaste for the gritty, dirty, 1970s-style of filmmaking (see: Dog Day Afternoon and our eventual post on Taxi Driver) is also almost certainly influencing my feelings about this. Ultimately, I think this got built up in my head too much and lands in the “good not great” category. But who cares, Go Birds.
Let The Credits Roll
Thanks for reading! Some quick housekeeping as you exit the theatre:
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Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year … Oscars season! To celebrate the ceremony upon which this entire newsletter is based, our next post will be our 3rd Annual ILTBTA Oscars Preview Post! For a taste of what you’re in for, check out our 2023 and 2024 posts. If you’re behind on the Best Picture nominees and want to catch up before you read our post, AMC Theatres has got you covered with their Best Picture Showcase. Or, if you prefer an at-home environment for your movies, this article has got you covered on where you can stream them from your couch. Our post will drop next Friday.
Until then, go the distance!
You know I had to do it to ‘em: that’s about $230 and just shy of $100 in today’s payouts!
Sounds like my ex-wife!
Tyler: After this I wrote in my notes: “hmm Paulie might be an asshole”
Ellen: Similarly, I wrote, “if anyone threw my turkey out the window I'd slam my door too, at a MINIMUM”
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.