Rocky (1976)

Rocky is the film that launched Sylvester Stallone’s career. It sees Rocky Balboa picked to take on Apollo Creed in a title match in what looks like a David vs Goliath encounter. The film builds up to this match with the clear sights of Balboa being a lowly fighter who spends large chunks of the movie trying to woo Talia Shire’s Adrian. The climax of the movie sees the fight last far longer than anyone had expected and its only due to a split decision that Apollo Creed wins but despite not winning the title its something far more than that that, he wins the respect of the public and with that his love. Now that might have been a bit sarcastic towards the end there but despite my cynicscm I must say that I actually found this film to be quite enjoyable. However I did have to stick the subtitles on because Stallone at his best is mainly understandable but Burgess Meredith was even worse.

Stallone is quite good as Rocky Balboa. His does come across as someone who is a good boxer but doesn’t look like he’s ever going to get beyond that and its only due to a lucky opportunity that he becomes something bigger. Talia Shire goes on quite the development throughout the film, at the beginning she looks quite shy with massive glasses and a woolly hat and by the end of the film she is quite the glam figure despite this I thought that Shire was very good and becomes at times the most coherent person in the film. As the antagonist, Carl Weathers is quite good as Apollo Creed. He is the cock-sure boxer who feels like he is doing Balboa a favour by sharing the same ring with him and is soundly embarrassed when Rocky doesn’t give in quickly.

Rocky is an enjoyable adventure that doesn’t try and do the stupid by having Balboa win the title but manages to beat people’s expectations. I haven’t seen all the Rocky films but I suspect that this is probably the strongest one because it didnt have anything to compete against and expectations were low but it has good performances and a perfectly good script.