I am completely forgiving. If I love something … then I’ll stick it out, even if it doesn’t live up to my expectations of it. (Tori Amos, I am looking at YOU.)
With Rocky II I recognize the creeping cheesy element that starts to come in here which was absent in the rawness of the first one. I can see those moments but I am detached from them. I don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. I’ve always been that kind of fan. Sometimes I wish I weren’t. That would mean that I wouldn’t have to suffer through movies like Touch of Mink. HOWEVER. That’s who I am.
Besides all of that, though – besides the creeping cheese Rocky II has a lot of awesome things about it. Not so much as a WHOLE – whereas the first movie I love as a WHOLE but in its parts. The parts don’t quite add up … but it has moments, tiny moments, that are effective.
Like the scene between Mickey and Rocky in the dark stairwell outside of Mickey’s apartment. When Rocky tells Mickey he’s thinking of fighting again … and Mickey tries to dissuade him. If he fights Apollo again, he won’t just get “hurt bad”- “He’ll hurt you poimanent.” says Mickey. With that battered nose in the bare lightbulb-lit hallway, the dankest hallway known to man. Stallone is so beautiful in this scene, even just the way he’s shot. But more than that: there’s this pride thing going on in Rocky, something that’s hard for him to admit. Adrian has gone back to work because they need the money, and this just eats at Rocky. He’s feeling the need to fight again, but he could go blind … and Mickey has this moment where he gives Rocky a little eye test – moving fingers back and forth in Rocky’s line of vision. Rocky lies and says, “Yeah, I can see the finger now …” They go back and forth a couple more lines, and then suddenly – out of nowhere – Mickey slaps Rocky. Hard. On the left cheek. Mickey says later, “You didn’t see that coming, did you? Now … I’m an old guy hitting you. Imagine what someone like Apollo could do.”
But the moment that I love here is Rocky’s response to being slapped like that. There are no words, almost no anger, but it’s a humiliating moment. He tries to get himself together, get the macho facade back up, but Mickey has made his point and Rocky just has to stand there and take it. It’s a small collage of 100 emotions that flicker and twitch over Stallone’s beautifully lit face, it’s fascinating acting.
This is what I focus on. And I forgive the other stuff. Not entirely, but in the main.
I have seen both Rocky and Rocky III recently on TV, but it’s been over a decade since I’ve last seen Rocky II. I remember being very fond of the movie. As a kid, it could be because those cheesy elements are very appealing as a child. But I certainly have very fond memories.
Yet another trip to the video store needed. :)
Cullen – yeah, there’s the scene where he runs thru the streets and all the kids start following him. That’s one of the moments where I was like: Hmmm. Not sure if I approve of this choice.
hahahahahaha
But still – I agree. As far as sequels go, I think it is quite good. I love his proposal to Adrian in the zoo – and I think their wedding scene is hysterical, with the loan shark being the only friend in attendance – wearing these sleaze-bag Ray Banz.
Man, that bit about not being a fair-weather fan hit me pretty hard. Sometimes I WISH I could give up. How much grief would it save? *sigh*
Off topic a little, but I watched Cop Land this afternoon, and as I did I kept some of your comments on Stallone in mind. He does a really good performance in it, and what a cast. I don’t know how I missed that one for so many years.
I don’t have your eye for judging actors, but I kept looking for subtle things in Stallone’s acting and found them, meaning I kept thinking…Yep, that’s exactly what Freddy(his character) would do.
Sheila – I agree with you on the run… every kid in Philly shambling after Rock… but there’s the great bit at the end where the one kid (he’s maybe 10, 12 years old) suddenly tries to catch Rocky and he just kicks it into fourth gear and blows the kid away. That KILLS me every time.
But I don’t want to go getting angry in a biblical place like this…
Nightfly – hahahahaha biblical!!
Yeah – when he kicks it into fourth gear – it’s always thrilling. Cause there’s no trick there – it’s really Stallone, who obviously is a phenomenal athlete – really running that fast.
I also LOVE the scenes where Rocky is trying to do commercials. And trying to read off cue cards. do you remember those scenes??
Where he’s dressed like a caveman and he’s in a cage and he’s really struggling with reading … the scenes are SO pathetic but also so so so funny. He’s wearing this Tarzan outfit and he looks completely like a jackass.
He murmurs to Adrian, “I look stupid, don’t I?”
She says, “Yes.”
hahahahaha
Dave E – Oh God, I just think he is so great in that movie!! Everyone’s awesome in it, though – but I think his is the most courageous, the most unexpected performance.
I TOTALLY believed he was deaf in one ear. I thought it was so believable – like when he was sitting in the bar between Peter Berg and Ray Liotta and they are talking over him … you can just see Stallone (Freddie) kind of check out … not because he’s bored, or threatened … but because he cant really HEAR what is being said … it’s disorienting to him,.
God, I love him in that movie!!
I remember the commercials… After a while, though, I confess that I wanted them to lay off Rocky. But then there’s the fabulous contrast with the poem he writes for Adrian later. I love that poem. I love how Stallone reads it, and how Rocky (NOT Stallone) wrote it. Obviously the Stallion’s not the best reader ever, but you see that it was nerves (and maybe his hurt eye?) sinking him in front of the camera – somehow he knew that playing up the palooka-galoot image was beneath his dignity but didn’t know how to say no to doing it, and he couldn’t see the cards, and kept messing it up. It’s one of the best things about the movie.
Nightfly – OH, I totally wanted that asshole director to lay off Rocky and stop treating him like he was stupid. It was ridiculous. I loved when Rocky said at one point, “You got a lot of nerve. Talkin’ to me like that in front of my wife.” Like – there was no respect in that room. He could feel it, Adrian could feel it.
And then the later scenes – with Rocky and Adrian lying in bed, and she’s pregnant, and he’s reading out loud to her, practicing his reading skills. sniff, sniff.
It’s the details like that that really make this whole franchise.
And yeah, that poem just kills me.
The thing that gets me about the shampoo commercial scene is that it seemed to parallel the typecasting that was plaguing Stallone. I wonder if that’s the reason behind the sudden shift that killed the later movies – as long as Rocky was some dumb, inarticulate schlub, that’s all Stallone would ever be allowed to be. So, Rocky becomes a glamorous superstar in part III in the hopes that Stallone could be, too.
George –
Stallone said a really cool thing when he was talking about Rocky III – I can’t remember where I read it – but anyway, he said, and I am paraphrasing – “I think we, as human beings, are hard-wired to deal with failure. Failure is way more common than success. So we know, on a primal level, how to handle it. But success? We are not hard-wired to deal with success – with grace, or ease. I certainly experienced that in my life. And I wanted to see what would happen if I put Rocky in that position.”
That happens a lot to athletes – you see it all the time. Goombahs with no education, but with brawn or raw physical talent suddenly are bazillionaires – and it is a rare person who can handle that gracefully.
I guess what I’m saying is – I always saw the Rocky series as extremely PERSONAL (I think we’re saying the same thing, you and I, in that regard) – as in: Stallone was putting Rocky thru things that he himself was grappling with at the time.
He was successful – more successful than he could ever have dreamed at the beginning – and yet – even though I am hard pressed to think of any other actor who could have played Rocky as well as he did – maybe freakin’ Brando – but that’s it – you know? That’s the level that performance was at … but … that critical acclaim has not followed him. His beautiful nuanced performance in Cop Land was pretty much ignored. I just saw a really adorable romantic comedy he did in 2002 – called Avenging Angelo – which, first of all, had a terrible title – to pull in the Rambo fans – but the thing is a screwball comedy. And he was terrific in it. Terrific. Sweet, funny, a perfect comedic leading man. But … did anyone give a crap? Nope.
I think some of that is Stallone’s fault. We all have our flaws. Money makes people lazy sometimes.
That’s why I was so damn MOVED by Rocky Balboa, the latest in the franchise – and the last. Because there he is – Stallone – still grappling with personal shit … getting old. Becoming irrelevant. Still famous … but … what’s left? Just memories of the good old days? How much time does he have left? How will he spend the rest of his life?
And he is HONESTLY grappling with these issues. Beautiful. Just BEAUTIFUL.
Ah, I see that you have seen Rocky Balboa. I was going to warn you that the cheese does not creep in that one but flies off the screen at breakneck speed (e.g., the training montage w. sides of beef and beer kegs). That said, I still enjoyed the movie and the way Stallone manages to blend earnestness and self-irony.
Up next? Yet another Rambo sequel. For real!
Rozanne – Oh, I disagree about the cheese flying off the screen in Rocky Balboa. Couldn’t disagree more. I thought it was remarkably cheese-free!
And yo. Can’t wait for the Rambo sequel!!