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MOVIE FEATURE

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Rocky (1976) was the first sports film to win an Academy Award for best picture. Furthermore, it introduced moviegoers to Rocky Balboa, arguably the most memorable and beloved character in movie history, and one that would spawn a Rocky franchise that continues to this day. Words Bob J

Carl Weathers and Sylvester Stallone

evocative nickname when he fought professionally. The theme now becomes Rocky's rise to the challenge with moral support from his shy and timid girlfriend Mickey. Rocky begins his intensive training, arduously toughening up his blows by punching frozen slabs of beef and jogging night and day through the streets of Philadelphia. His increasingly faster runs evolve into probably the film's most memorable sequence, Adrian (Talia Shire) and grumpy trainer

Fun fact: Sylvester Stallone wrote all six instalments of the original series and directed four of them. He also produced all three of the subsequent Creed films, served as a writer on Creed II , and earned a 'Best Supporting Actor' Oscar nomination for Creed .

• Rocky 1-6 4K Collection is out on Jul 31

I n the early '70s, Sylvester Stallone was a starving, unsuccessful actor and would-be screenwriter living in New York. In an effort to change his luck, he moved west to Hollywood where he tried to sell a few movie scripts he had written,

take a gamble on Stallone. The film centres on second-rate club fighter Rocky Balboa, whose background is that of a ring career that never went anywhere and who now earns his living by strong-arming for a dubious loan shark. He stills trains daily to try to stay in shape at his former gym run by trainer Mickey (a great performance from Burgess Meredith), who constantly criticises him for not realising his full potential. Meanwhile, undefeated heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) needs a new opponent for the title fight after his current one has been injured. He dreams up a novel publicity stunt of fighting a complete unknown for a once-in-a-lifetime shot at the title. Scanning the boxing registry an amused Creed selects "The Italian Stallion", which was Rocky's

culminating in Rocky's sprint up the steps of the city's art museum accompanied by Bill Conti's iconic musical score Gonna Fly Now . The climactic fight choreography is brilliantly staged as a brutal 15-round slugfest and, although Creed retains his title, it still feels like a victory for Rocky, who has confidently proven himself a worthy competitor. Rocky is an inspirational film; a true American classic about the human highest-grossing movie of 1976, with a worldwide box office total of $225 million, and garnered an impressive ten Oscar nominations - winning three. spirit and the ability to overcome all the odds. Subsequently, it became the

Sylvester with Burgess Meredith

performance inspired Stallone, who in just three days wrote his basic Rocky Balboa screenplay. His agent was sufficiently impressed to present it to movie producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff who, after insisting on minor changes, offered Stallone $75,000 for the script, which he refused. They then upped the offer to $265,000, but Stallone told them he would not accept any

in between taking on minor and variably uncredited acting assignments, with little success. By chance one evening in March 1975 Stallone watched the telecast of the now famous heavyweight bout between Muhammed Ali and the then little known Chuck Wepner, who was not even expected to last four

rounds. However, the determined Wepner went the distance over 15 rounds

DYK?

amount unless the producers agreed to cast him as Rocky. They finally managed to persuade United Artists to

Stallone’s first starring role was in a soft-core pornographic movie called The Party at Kitty and Stud's (1970), a job he credits as saving him from homelessness. He claims that “by today’s standards the movie

and even scored a knockdown on Ali in the fifth. Wepner did not win the fight, but his sterling

would almost qualify for a PG rating”, but we’re not so sure about that.

30 JULY 2024

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