Best Movie Themes

The Oscar winning Rocky is a film about the loser in all of us, but speaks to the winner hidden beneath it. Rocky Balboa is a natural born failure, he's not too bright, he's not very attractive, he's got no prospects, a shitty job, and nobody respects him. Beneath all of that fail is a soul that is wise, but not eloquent enough to convey it, compassionate but not experienced enough to express it, a fighter but not good enough to be a champion. What he lacks in just about everything, he makes up for in spirit, Rocky is a man who keeps forging ahead no matter how many times the world pushes him back. This is the key to Rocky's success, as a film, it appeals to the optimist in everyone.

Stallone gave, far and away, his best work as both a writer and an actor with this movie. He poured his heart and soul into it. A hungry artist will always produce their best work because that simply have to - Stallone wrote Rocky in a room with blacked out windows and barely a morsel of food to go on his plate, simply to force himself to produce something memorable. In doing so Stallone created a film that is both deeply personal but a rousing crowd pleaser because it feels personal to all of us. The script shines in it's eloquent simplicity.

Rocky Balboa became an icon of cinema because it's impossible to hate him, he's one of us. We all feel like Rocky from time to time, beat down and counted out, and we don't always want to get back up again but Rocky shows us there's something to be found in never giving up.

Adrian (played by the wonderful Talia Shire) is another of life's losers. Put upon by her bully of an older brother, Paulie (played by the marvellous Burt Young), she's timid and weak. She has no dreams or aspirations because she has never been allowed to have them, but she's a good soul, a kind and perceptive. Paulie is another kind of loser, bitter and domineering, he lashes out at the world because he feels it owes him. This is a trait that carries through many of the Rocky films, but we do see Paulie's softer side come through, and we see that he can be a good friend when his weak sense of character does not get the better of him.

Burgess Meredith, naturally, bristles as the ever-yelling coach, Mickey. His effortless work keeps Stallone on his toes and no doubt helped bring out the best in him, even when they weren't on screen together.

Carl Weathers was at his best here (other than perhaps Arrested Development) as the arrogant showboat, Apollo Creed, the polar opposite to the humble loser of Rocky Balboa. Apollo is the epitome of the American Dream, the self-made man, the success story. Pride, at the expense of humility. While he outclasses Rocky in almost every respect, he lacks the one thing Rocky has, the fighter's heart. He's a winner, so he has no urge to try harder. Rocky is a loser, and always tries. Apollo has access to the best training equipment man can buy, but his hubris keeps him from putting in the extra mile before the fight. Rocky is a poor boy from Philly and has to improvise every step of the way, bashing the hell out of racks of beef in a meat processing plant, running tirelessly through his home streets, he's the humble, proud son of Philadelphia. He doesn't stand a chance in Hell of winning, but he's going to give it all he's got anyway. That's what makes Rocky such a wonderful movie, it shows us the pride in trying.

The fight scene may play out as clumsy and a little cartoon-like now, but the two warring sides imbue the fight with so much personality that you can forgive the unfathomably unrealistic lack of blocking on display (seriously, these guys take it to the face with more frequency than a gangbang porn starlet). Rocky is a film with so much heart and charm that you often forget that it ends with Rocky losing, because running the distance against a superior fighter is Rocky's real triumph. A triumph so profoundly felt in the film's beautifully realized final moments that it feels more satisfying than any KO, TKO or Decision victory could have possibly felt. It celebrates the people who try, and they are not necessarily always the ones to succeed.

As a cinephile I should be resentful that a crowd pleasing, quasi-blockbuster like Rocky beat out classics such as Taxi Driver, All The President's Men and Network to the Best Picture Oscar, but in terms of just how dizzyingly wonderful this movie leaves me feeling at the end, I simply cannot argue with the Academy on this one. It's the sole defiant display of hope, against what was a tidal tidal wave of pessimism, cynicism and anger, and it stood it's ground and won. Somewhat like Rocky himself.