Rocky: Re-Visiting It

When I first saw Rocky – as a kid, I didn’t just watch it, I lived it, the way kids do. I LOVED the character: the way he walked – that black silhouette against the gritty grimy streets – the way he tossed the ball up in the air as he walked – also his fingerless gloves – I loved those. I could feel the cold of that city, I could feel the cold of the dawn where he’s running – when he punches the meat it felt like my hands hurt too – he made it so real.

I know I’m not alone in my response to that movie, and the franchise has obviously made some mistakes, none of the sequels live up to that first one, but my response to that first movie was so strong, so elemental, that I would never give up on it. A new Rocky’s comin’ out? I’m going. It’s a done deal.

The Stallone interview in the Special Features is well worth seeing. IHe’s big, with the deep voice, and he’s huge, and his neck is a tree trunk, but there’s also this sweetness there, a kind of self-deprecating self-awareness, that is just so appealing. There was something sweet about Rocky, even with the bluster and the rage and the tough-guy. That was part of the appeal. Part of the appeal? That was the MAIN appeal. It’s an archetype. A movie archetype. The tough guy with the tender underbelly that he can’t show to anybody but the woman he is in love with. Bogart had that. Brando had that in On the Waterfront. Cagney had it. The movie “tough guys”. Rocky (Stallone) is in that pantheon.

I watched part of the movie last night with the commentary track on, and producer Robert Chartoff said a cool thing. It was during the scene where Rocky pulls the 12 year old girl out of the bad group of kids on the corner and walks her home, lecturing her about not being a bad girl, because even though she’s 12 – she could get a rep for bein a whore (“Guys’ll think you’re … okay, I’m gonna use a bad word now, okay? Whore.”) – this was a scene that the studio wanted to cut out, they didn’t get what the point of it was (leave it to studio execs to just not have a goddamn clue!) – and of course the scene may not propel the PLOT along – but Rocky isn’t only its plot. It’s about this GUY. This character. If you looked at him and didn’t know him – you might be afraid of him. He walks with a swagger. He seems huge and strong. He’s all in black. He’s got that scowly bull-doggy face. He’s intimidating. But of course Stallone shows us the inner man … and that scene is crucial to getting who Rocky is. And of course the scene ends perfectly. She doesn’t say to him, “Thanks for the tip, Rocky – you’re a good guy.” She yells at him, “SCREW YOU, CREEPO.” Rejected, Rocky walks off into the night. So Chartoff watching that moment – of Rocky walking away – this solitary figure – says, “There’s something so … interesting … about seeing a big tough-guy … who’s scared, or alone. Movies don’t often show that.”

As a person who has dated some tough guys – I know the appeal of that sort of personality – with the discrepancy between who they are publicly (big tough guy) and who they are privately, with me (sweet gentle boyfriend). With certain guys, you just know that neither one of those aspects are poses. As in: He really IS a tough guy, and he really IS a sweet gentle boyfriend. Both things are true. They can exist at the same time. There are some tough guys who are just assholes, frankly, and can’t ever let the tough-guy strong-man thing go. Some tough guys have such a contempt for weakness (or maybe it’s a fear of it) that that contempt rubs off on all womankind. They hate women. But the ones who DON’T … who don’t see women as weak, but see women as the ones they can let down their guard with, and it’ll be okay … I know guys like that. I’ve dated a couple. M. was like that. He didn’t have to protect himself with me. But he also knew that when he was with all his buddies, and he was being a big tough guy (which was also a sincere part of his personality), I wouldn’t betray him. I wouldn’t try to make him be the PRIVATE guy out in public. I knew that there are two selves – public and private, just like I have.

Rocky can be gentle with Adrian, he can be soft and kind. He doesn’t ever try to bully her, or intimidate her. He knows he’s dealing with a delicate person. He can make that adjustment in his behavior. It’s a fascinating character study.

Stallone was describing the apartment he lived in when he was broke (he had 106 bucks in the bank or something like that) – and where he wrote Rocky. He said the apartment was so small that there was no distractions. He said in the interview, “The apartment was so small that I was able to close the door – and open the window – while sitting on my bed.” Ha. The image of that. So he lay in his little single bed, and scribbled out the script in 3 days.

One other thing that I just LOVED about the interview was his talking about how he constructed that last fight scene – and a couple of the different ways he had written it. Originally he had written it that – the fight ends – and Rocky is surrounded by people – and Adrian doesn’t come running to him, she stands off at the edge of the stadium, watching, waiting. People start to disperse. The fight is over. The brou-haha is dying down. Rocky then, without a crowd around him, meets up with Adrian … and the last shot of the film was the two of them, walking down a dingy hallway together, holding hands, towards the locker room. Stallone always said that he knew that the real heart to this story, the real key, was in that relationship. So that was the original ending – and as they went through filming, and as they got to the time to film that last scene (which took 3 days – Oh – the entire film was shot in 28 days. Think about that.) Okay – so anyway, as they got to that last fight scene – John Avildsen the director and Stallone both realized that that ending was not going to work. It was too quiet. It needed to end on the peak. On the peak of Rocky’s experience. So they designed that ending sequence thinking of that. Rocky has lost. His eye is closed shut. He looks like hell. Mayhem around him. And all he can do is scream for Adrian to come to him. Cut to Adrian coming through the crowd – screaming HIS name. Of course they cannot hear each other – the noise is too loud. Stallone kind of laughed in the interview and said that they rigged Adrian’s red fuzzy hat with a wire – so that it would be pulled off her head as she barged through the crowd.

And what is the first thing that Rocky says to her when she gets to him? Does he say, “I went the distance!” or “15 rounds!” or “I love you!”??

No. Rocky says, “Where’s your hat?”

SStallone, in the interview, started laughing too – this line was quite deliberate. It says EVERYthing about this beautiful character Rocky Balboa. Even with everything he has just been through, and his swollen eye … the first thing he notices is that the fuzzy red hat is gone.

Stallone, in the interview, laughing, said, “He’s just so into her … and he just loves how she looks … and it’s all about where is your hat?”

A brilliant moment, I think. Brilliant because it seems so real. We say the weirdest things when we are having a peak experience. We notice weird things – your vision zooms in on certain details … and Rocky just is in love with this weird little person, and loves it when she dresses up and puts on her little hats … and so he stands there, staring at her out of his one good eye, and he wonders where her red hat went.

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8 Responses to Rocky: Re-Visiting It

  1. Ceci says:

    I watched Rocky for the first time when I was about 12-13 years old and the film made a huge impression on me. I never really understood WHY a girl would become obsessed by a film about a BOXER, of all people – but as usual you put it so simply: the sweetness of the character, the fact that he was a tough guy but had this tender, beautiful side to him, which is so evident in his wooing of Adrian. I couldn’t help but fall in love with him.

    Needless to say, I had a giant crush on Stallone that lasted out all my teenage years. :)

  2. Rob says:

    Rocky was the ultimate underdog movie. It was gritty. It was real. It could not have been done better. One of my all times.

  3. alli says:

    And now I need (NEED!!) to see it again. Never seen it without commercials. In fact, I think I’ve only seen it once. Time to remedy this.

  4. just1beth says:

    One of my college professors had worked with Stallone when he was a teen, in some sort of student/teacher sort of situation. So, when I was in college in the mid-80’s, of course it was peak Stallone hysteria. This professor has always claimed that the original Rocky character was so true to the real Sly Stallone. It was so clear how much he really cared about the guy.
    I love him in a Henry Winkler kind of way.

  5. susanna says:

    Beth,
    What professor was that? Did I have him too?
    Susanna

  6. Carl V. says:

    Have you seen the latest? It is such a fantastic love letter to the Rocky fans. I really enjoyed it.

  7. red says:

    Carl – Yes! God, I just LOVED it. I wrote my thoughts about it here – but I totally agree with your love letter to the fans comment. Absolutely true.

  8. just1beth says:

    susanna- it was one of my hcf profs. i can’t remember his name, but i can see his face!! i can remember where i sat in the class, and that i had the class on weds. nights. i need to think a little more……..
    wait a minute… i think he had a boy a few years ahead of us in our high school. Betsy- who were some of those kingston professors???

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