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.
