I do, however, appreciate sports that serve as competitions between two people, which in most cases translates to two athletes beating the fuck out of each other, like in boxing or martial arts. It's less the actual beating that I appreciate though, and more the personal discipline required to train oneself to being in peak condition, relying on nothing but your own skill and being 100% accountable for your actions. If you slack off during training, you're going to lose. Your success is all about how much you're willing to put in.
And that's what I like most about the Rocky franchise.
It centers around the sport of boxing, but the actual story is about a man trying to be the best version of himself, overcoming odds, facing adversity, and all that other heartwarming stuff. You could switch out the boxing for any other sport and it would still work just fine. And Rocky is also one of the very few franchises where another entry a decade or two later didn't feel unnecessary (Stallone seems to have tapped into some miraculous secret, given that he pulled off the same feat with Rambo). In fact, my first foray into the series was Rocky Balboa, the final installment, and I was so impressed with it that I watched the rest and found merit and charm in each one. The series has been quoted and parodied more than any other over the years, and it has earned its place in pop culture history.
If you'll indulge me, I'd like to get my fan-boy on and jerk off this beloved franchise in chronological order.
Rocky (1976) - Written by Sylvester Stallone and directed by John G. Avildsen, you don't need me to tell you why it's great. The underdog boxer Rocky (Stallone) gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fight the heavyweight champion of the world, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) under the tutelage of his cranky old coach/manager, Mickey (Burgess Meredith). He ultimately loses the fight, but wins the love of his life, Adrian (Talia Shire), and proves you don't need fame and fortune if you have heart. And who could forget his cranky best friend Paulie (Burt Young), Adrian's brother.
This film is just such a good drama, and it holds up remarkably well today. It's a true love story, and although there are certain parts that would definitely come off a bit rapey today (such as when Rocky is trying to convince Adrian to come up to his apartment) I can't help but get the deep feels at the end when Rocky loses the fight but keeps screaming Adrian's name in the ring, and she finally says "I love you."
Rocky II (1979) - Stallone stepped into the director's chair on this one, and it plays directly off the first, with the opening scene literally being the same final fight from the first film. Rocky has lost, but still becomes an overnight celebrity. He and Adrian are getting married and have a baby on the way, but they soon find that Rocky's qualifications for work don't extend much beyond the sport of boxing. Apollo Creed, meanwhile, is bombarded by accusations that he lost the fight with Rocky to the point that he demands a rematch. Rocky reluctantly accepts, but Adrian doesn't want him to, and the two grow distant. Rocky's training suffers, and all seems lost when Adrian slips into a coma due to complications during childbirth.
But wait! All hope is not lost! Adrian recovers and encourages Rocky to fight. Following a second spectacular training montage, Rocky goes on to narrowly win against Creed! Not only has he achieved his dream of a family, but now he's the heavyweight champion of the world! What could possibly go wrong for Rocky now?
Rocky III (1982) - Quite a lot, it turns out. Whereas Rocky II came off as a direct followup to the first film (you could literally watch them back-to-back as one feature if you felt so inclined) the third installment is more of a character study on how a person re-discovers who they are. Rocky has become complacent with his title as heavyweight champion and ends up losing to a young and brutal upstart, Clubber Lang (Mr. T). Mickey dies of a heart attack, and Rocky is lost until his old rival, Apollo Creed, steps forward to train him. Going back to his roots and with a stern motivational talk from Adrian, Rocky regains his confidence and beats the shit out of Clubber to regain his title.
Stallone returned as both writer and director, and this is when the series started to emerge as pop culture jail bait. There's a lot of absurd stuff that you can't help but love; Mr. T. as the rival, the extremely flamboyant aspects of the training montage, the unapologetic use of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger," and the final fade away to the painting of Rocky and Apollo having a friendly fight are all the makings of pop culture gold. As a side note, the film's plot syncs up perfectly with Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. Some might say that's a knock against Nolan, but I call it unbridled awesome.
Rocky IV (1985) - If the third installment was flirting with the absurd, the fourth was French kissing it with gusto. Much like the third, however, the more it dips into the outrageous, the more memorable it becomes. We're in full on eighties mode here, with all the clothes, music, and political baggage that entails (there's a freakin' robot for Christ's sake). Rocky is the retired champ, content with hanging up his gloves. Apollo Creed, meanwhile, isn't ready to get out of the game just yet. Word reaches him that Russian man-hulk Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) is on his way to America to challenge the reigning champ. Apollo convinces Rocky to let him take on the superhuman Russian instead, and in a tragic turn of events, Apollo is killed in the ring. Against the wishes of his wife and common sense, Rocky travels to Russia with Paulie to avenge his fallen friend. Following what is hands-down THE SINGLE GREATEST TRAINING MONTAGE OF ALL TIME, Adrian finally comes to her husband's side, Rocky wins over the Russian people, beats Drago, and practically ends the Cold War.
This is the first film that definitely had some political messaging behind it (although the third dipped its feet into issues of race). The Cold War era tension seeps out of every inch of the film's reel, with Rocky's training juxtaposed with Drago's; the Russian is trained in a high-tech facility and given steroids, whereas Rocky goes at it all grit and heart, jogging in the frigid snow, chopping wood, and hauling rocks. I'm sure there was someone in the original audience who was shaking their head and thinking "What the fuck happened to the underdog from Philly?" but as most things that came out of the eighties, time and public opinion has been kind to this film in context.
Rocky V (1990) - Original director Avildsen returned for this one (again penned by Stallone) to ground the series back to its roots. The plane of the absurd is slapped by the almighty hand of God and falls into a tailspin in the first few minutes; the beginning is actually rather poignant. Seconds after defeating Drago, Rocky is in his change room, panicking with Adrian after having suffered severe brain damage from all the repeated hits from the super Russian. They return to America only to find that Paulie had unknowingly provided power of attorney to an unscrupulous lawyer, thereby losing all their money. Humbled and defeated, the Balboa clan return to Philadelphia where Rocky takes up training a new upstart, Tommy Gun (Tommy Morrison) while avoiding the taunts of boxing marketer George Duke (Richard Gant) all the while contending with his rebellious son (played by Stallone's real life son, Sage) who doesn't care for the relationship between Rocky and Tommy.
Tommy rises to the top and is co-opted by Duke, however, abandoning Rocky and everything he was taught about fighting with heart. Tired of living in his former mentor's shadow after winning the heavyweight title, Tommy challenges Rocky at Duke's behest, only to be savagely brutalized in an epic street brawl with the aging champ. It was less about following your dreams and more about rolling with the punches life throws at you, but I particularly liked this entry because it really brought Adrian's character full circle. She was timid and fragile at the beginning of the series, but ends up being the foundation of the Balboa family by the end, replacing Mickey as the one encouraging Rocky and telling him his greatest asset has always been his courage and his heart. It's actually quite touching to see her evolution as a character.
Also, the flashbacks of Mickey during the final street fight screaming "Get up, ya son-of-a-bitch! I didn't hear no bell!" are classic.
Rocky Balboa (2006) - The final entry in the series, over a decade after the fifth. This film achieved the impossible by not ruining the franchise in the eyes of the public. It stands on par with the original, in fact, and it helped that Stallone returned as both writer/director along with as much of the old cast/crew as he could find. It worked because the reason for making this final entry syncs up with the theme of all the other films; it's about having heart and doing what you were born to do.
Rocky is feeling the sting of old age. Adrian has passed away and his son (played by Milo Ventimiglia) has grown even more distant. Rocky spends his days recounting old boxing stories for the customers at his restaurant, visiting Adrian's grave, and chatting with an even more bitter Paulie. A computerized match-up between him and current heavyweight champ Mason "The Line" Dixon (played by real life boxer Antonio Tarver) encourages Rocky to get a license to box again, which is immediately followed by an invitation from Dixon's managers to fight the reigning champ himself in a full-blown exhibition match. Another training montage follows, Rocky reunites with his son, and he gives one more good fight before finally hanging up his gloves, content and satisfied.
All of the different elements of this film sync up just right in a very feel-good way. It's all about life changing as time goes on, yet retaining the same heart in spite of that. Early in the film, Rocky is visiting places where he and Adrian spent time together (all locations from the original) and Paulie accuses him of living in the past. Whereas Paulie would rather forget the past (admitting he was never very nice to his sister) Rocky isn't content to just move on. Being old doesn't mean being useless, which is exemplified in a scene where he decides to adopt an elderly dog as opposed to a younger one. He tells the son of Marie (Geraldine Hughes) - whom he met as a child in the first film and still affectionately calls "Little Marie" - that just because something's worn out doesn't mean its time is over yet.
This film is also instantly quotable, with such exemplary lines such as when Rocky tells his son "It ain't about how hard you hit, but about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward" or my personal favorite, when Marie asks Rocky why he's being so nice to her and her son, to which he replies "Why do you have to give something to get something?" It's truly touching, and after having absorbed the rest of the series, it stands as a fitting end to the franchise, perfectly book-ending the tale of one man's life. As Marie tells Rocky before his final fight, "You're going to show them that the last thing to age in this world is the heart."
And that's ultimately what I think I find so appealing about the series as a whole. I don't look at it as six separate films, but as one single story broken into six chapters. Rocky is a character that's curiously like Forrest Gump; he doesn't undergo a very radical transformation over the course of his life, but instead remains stalwart as the world and friends/family change around him. Each film essentially follows the same formula, but there are enough subtle tweaks to make each appealing and different in their own way. Even a character such as Paulie, who remains gruff and bitter until the end, is given enough material over six films that you feel for him and the life he's lived alongside our favorite underdog; he was downright abusive towards his sister in the early films, but by the end you can see what toll his life has taken on him, living alone without accomplishing anything significant on his own and blaming everyone but himself, but you also finally see the love and respect he has for Rocky, his best friend.
The Rocky franchise snuck up on me, with one entry after another fueling my appreciation for the series. Some parts are fun, some downright absurd, but it always remains touching and inspiring - the tale of one man's extraordinary life. I'll admit I probably have a different appreciation for it having watched the final entry first and then playing catch-up over the course of a weekend with the help of a Spike TV marathon (sorta like my relationship with the Harry Potter books, without the Spike TV, obviously) but it holds a special place in my heart, more so than most other franchises. Despite some entries feeling out of place, taken as a whole they all work, flowing seamlessly from one chapter of Rocky's life into the next, from a down-on-his-luck young underdog to a content old man at the end of his rather amazing journey. It's ultimately a story about following your passion and apologizing to no one for it. As Marie tells Rocky when he's questioning whether he should step back into the ring, "Fighters fight."
You gotta do what you love.
