Rocky

Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen, written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated, kind-hearted working class Italian-American boxer, working as a debt collector for a loan shark in the slums of Philadelphia. Rocky, a small-time club fighter, gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship. The film also stars Talia Shire as Adrian, Burt Young as Adrian's brother Paulie, Burgess Meredith as Rocky's trainer Mickey Goldmill, and Carl Weathers as the reigning champion, Apollo Creed.
The film, made on a budget of just over $1.1 million, was a sleeper hit; it earned $225 million in global box office receipts, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1976. The film was critically acclaimed and solidified Stallone's career as well as commenced his rise to prominence as a major movie star of that era. Among other accolades, it went on to receive ten Academy Award nominations, winning three, including Best Picture. In 2006, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". "Rocky" is considered to be one of the greatest sports films ever made and was ranked as the second-best in the genre, after "Raging Bull", by the American Film Institute in 2008.
The film has spawned eight sequels: "Rocky II" (1979), "Rocky III" (1982), "Rocky IV" (1985), "Rocky V" (1990), "Rocky Balboa" (2006), "Creed" (2015), "Creed II" (2018), and "Creed III" (2022). Stallone portrays Rocky in all eight films, wrote six, co-wrote two, and directed four of the six titular installments.
Plot.
In 1975, the heavyweight boxing world champion, Apollo Creed, announces plans to hold a title bout in Philadelphia during the upcoming United States Bicentennial. However, he is informed five weeks from the fight date that his scheduled opponent Mac Lee Green is unable to compete due to an injured hand. With all other potential replacements booked up or otherwise unavailable, Creed decides to spice things up by giving a local contender a chance to challenge him.
Creed selects Rocky Balboa, an Italian journeyman southpaw boxer who fights primarily in small gyms and works as a collector for a loan shark. Rocky meets with promoter George Jergens under the presumption that Creed is seeking local sparring partners. Reluctant at first, Rocky eventually agrees to the fight which will pay him $150,000. Rocky undergoes several weeks of unorthodox training, such as using sides of beef as punching bags.
Rocky is later approached by Mickey Goldmill, a former bantamweight fighter who turned trainer and whose gym Rocky frequents, about training him further. Rocky is not willing initially, as Mickey has not shown much interest in helping him before and sees him as a wasted talent, but eventually accepts the offer.
Meanwhile, Rocky begins to build a romantic relationship with Adrian Pennino, who is working part-time at the J&M Tropical Fish pet shop, culminating in a kiss. Adrian's brother, Paulie, helps Rocky get a date with his sister and even offers to work as a corner man with him. Paulie becomes jealous of Rocky's success, but Rocky placates him by agreeing to advertise the meat packing business for which Paulie works, as part of the upcoming fight. The night before the fight, a sleepless Rocky visits the Philadelphia Spectrum and begins to lose confidence. He confesses to Adrian that he does not believe he can win, but strives to go the distance against Creed, which no other fighter has done, to prove himself to everyone; if he can go the distance, he won't be just "another bum from the neighborhood."
On New Year's Day, the fight is held with Creed making a dramatic entrance dressed as George Washington and then Uncle Sam. Taking advantage of his overconfidence, Rocky knocks him down in the first round — the first time that Creed has ever been knocked down. Humbled and worried, Creed takes Rocky more seriously for the rest of the fight, though his ego never fully fades. The fight goes on for the full fifteen rounds, with both combatants sustaining various injuries. Rocky, with hits to the head and swollen eyes, requires his right eyelid to be cut in order to restore his vision. Apollo, with internal bleeding and a broken rib, struggles to breathe. As the fight concludes, Creed's superior skill is countered by Rocky's apparently unlimited ability to absorb punches, and his dogged refusal to go down. As the final round bell sounds, with both fighters locked in each other's arms, they promise to each other that there will be no rematch.
After the fight, the sportscasters and the audience go wild. Jergens announces over the loudspeaker that the fight was "the greatest exhibition of guts and stamina in the history of the ring", and Rocky calls out repeatedly for Adrian, who runs down and comes into the ring as Paulie distracts arena security. As Jergens declares Creed the winner by virtue of a split decision (8:7, 7:8, 9:6), Adrian and Rocky embrace and profess their love to each other, not caring about the outcome of the fight.
Production.
Development and writing.
Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay for "Rocky" in three and a half days, shortly after watching the championship match between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner that took place at Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio on March 24, 1975. Wepner was TKO'd in the 15th round of the match by Ali, with few expecting him to last as long as he did. Despite the fact that the match motivated Stallone to begin work on "Rocky", he has subsequently denied that Wepner provided any inspiration for the script. Other possible inspirations for the film may have included characteristics of real-life boxers Rocky Marciano and Joe Frazier, as well as Rocky Graziano's autobiography "Somebody Up There Likes Me" and the movie of the same name. Wepner filed a lawsuit which was eventually settled with Stallone for an undisclosed amount.
At the time, Stallone was represented by Film Artists Management Enterprises (FAME), which was a joint venture between Hollywood talent agents, Craig T. Rumar and Larry Kubik. Stallone submitted the script to Rumar and Kubik, who immediately saw the potential for the script to be made into a motion picture. Rumar and Kubik shopped the script to various producers and studios in Hollywood but were repeatedly rejected because Stallone insisted that he be cast in the lead role. Eventually, Rumar and Kubik secured a meeting with Winkler-Chartoff productions. After repeated negotiations with Rumar and Kubik, Winkler-Chartoff agreed to a contract for Stallone to be the writer and also star in the lead role for Rocky.
United Artists liked Stallone's script, and viewed it as a possible vehicle for a well-established star such as Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, or James Caan. Stallone's agents, Rumar and Kubik, insisted that Stallone portray the title character, to the point of issuing an ultimatum. Stallone later said that he would never have forgiven himself, had the film become a success with somebody else in the lead. He also knew that producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff's contract with the studio enabled them to "greenlight" a project if the budget was kept low enough. The producers also collateralized any possible losses with their big-budget entry, "New York, New York" (whose eventual losses were covered by "Rocky" success). The film's production budget ended up being $1,075,000, with a further $100,000 spent on producers' fees and $4.2 million on advertising costs.
Pre-production.
Although Chartoff and Winkler were enthusiastic about the script and the idea of Stallone playing the lead character, they were hesitant about having an unknown headline the film. The producers also had trouble casting other major characters in the story, with Apollo Creed and Adrian cast unusually late by production standards. Real-life boxer Ken Norton was initially sought for the role of Apollo Creed, but he pulled out and the role was ultimately given to Carl Weathers. Norton had had three fights with Muhammad Ali, upon whom Creed was loosely based. According to "The Rocky Scrapbook", Carrie Snodgress was originally chosen to play Adrian, but a money dispute forced the producers to look elsewhere. Susan Sarandon auditioned for the role but was deemed too pretty for the character. After Talia Shire's ensuing audition, Chartoff and Winkler, along with Avildsen, insisted that she play the part.
Boxer Joe Frazier has a cameo appearance in the film. The character of Apollo Creed was influenced by outspoken boxer Muhammad Ali who fought Frazier three times. During the 49th Academy Awards ceremony in 1977, Ali and Stallone staged a brief comic confrontation to show Ali was not offended by the film. Some of the plot's most memorable moments—Rocky's carcass-punching scenes and Rocky running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as part of his training regimen—are taken from the real-life exploits of Joe Frazier, for which he received no credit.
Due to the film's comparatively low budget, members of Stallone's family played minor roles. His father rings the bell to signal the start and end of a round, his brother Frank plays a street corner singer, and his first wife, Sasha, was stills photographer. Other cameos include former Philadelphia and then-current Los Angeles television sportscaster Stu Nahan playing himself, alongside radio and TV broadcaster Bill Baldwin; and Lloyd Kaufman, founder of the independent film company Troma, appearing as a drunk. Diana Lewis, then a news anchor in Los Angeles and later in Detroit, has a small scene as a TV news reporter. Tony Burton appeared as Apollo Creed's trainer, Tony "Duke" Evers, a role he would reprise in the entire "Rocky" series, though he is not given an official name until "Rocky II". Though uncredited, Michael Dorn, who would later gain fame as the Klingon Worf in ' and ', made his acting debut as Creed's bodyguard.
Filming.
Principal photography for "Rocky" began on January 9, 1976. Filming took place primarily throughout Philadelphia, with a few scenes being shot in Los Angeles. Inventor/operator Garrett Brown's new Steadicam was used to accomplish smooth photography while running alongside Rocky during the film's Philadelphia street jogging/training sequences and the run up the Art Museum's flight of stairs, now colloquially known as the Rocky Steps. It was also used for some of the shots in the fight scenes and can be seen at the ringside during some wide shots of the final fight. "Rocky" is often erroneously cited as the first film to use the Steadicam, although it was actually the third, after "Bound for Glory" and "Marathon Man".
Certain elements of the story were altered during filming. The original script had a darker tone: Mickey was portrayed as racist, and the script ended with Rocky throwing the fight after realizing he did not want to be part of the professional boxing world after all.
Both Stallone and Weathers suffered injuries during the shooting of the final fight; Stallone suffered bruised ribs and Weathers suffered a damaged nose, the opposite injuries of what their characters had.
The first date between Rocky and Adrian, in which Rocky bribes a janitor to allow them to skate after closing hours in a deserted ice skating rink, was shot that way only because of budgetary pressures. This scene was originally scheduled to be shot in a skating rink during regular business hours. However, the producers decided that they could not afford to hire the hundreds of extras that would have been necessary for that scene.
The poster seen above the ring before Rocky fights Apollo Creed shows Rocky wearing red shorts with a white stripe when he actually wears white shorts with a red stripe. When Rocky points this out, he is told that "it doesn't really matter, does it?" According to director Avildsen's DVD commentary, this was an actual mistake made by the props department that they could not afford to rectify, so Stallone wrote the brief scene to ensure the audience did not see it as a goof. Conversely, Stallone has stated that he was indeed supposed to wear red shorts with a white stripe as Rocky, but changed to the opposite colors "at the last moment". Similarly, when Rocky's robe arrived far too baggy on the day of it was needed for filming, Stallone wrote in dialogue in which Rocky points this out.
Music.
Soundtrack.
The musical score for "Rocky" was composed by Bill Conti, who previously composed a score for director John G. Avildsen's "W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings" (1975) that was ultimately rejected by the studio. In fact, David Shire (then-husband of Talia Shire) was the first to be offered the chance to compose the music for "Rocky" but had to turn it down due to prior commitments. Thus, Avildsen reached out to Conti without any studio help due to the film's relatively low budget. "The budget for the music was 25 grand," said Avildsen. "And that was for everything: The composer's fee, that was to pay the musicians, that was to rent the studio, that was to buy the tape that it was going to be recorded on."
The main theme song, "Gonna Fly Now", made it to number one on the "Billboard" magazine's Hot 100 list for one week (from July 2 to July 8, 1977) and the American Film Institute placed it 58th on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs. A soundtrack album was released on November 12, 1976 by United Artists Records. The album was re-released in 1988 by EMI on CD and cassette.
Release.
Theatrical.
The movie was released on Sunday, November 21, 1976 by United Artists at Cinema II in New York City.
Reception.
Box office.
"Rocky" grossed $5,488 on its opening day at Cinema II, a house record. When it was released nationally, it grossed $5 million during its first wide weekend and consistently performed well for 8 months and eventually reached $117 million at the North American box office. Adjusted for inflation, the film earned over $500 million in North America at 2018 prices. Overseas "Rocky" fared well too, grossing $107 million for a worldwide box office accumulation of $225 million. With its production budget of $1 million, "Rocky" is notable for its worldwide percentage return of over 11,000 percent. It was the highest-grossing film released in 1976 in the United States and Canada and the second highest-grossing film of 1977 behind "Star Wars".
Critical response.
"Rocky" received positive reviews at the time of its release. Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave it 4 out of 4 stars and said that Stallone reminded him of "the young Marlon Brando." "Box Office Magazine" claimed that audiences would be "touting Sylvester 'Sly' Stallone as a new star". Frank Rich liked the film, calling it "almost 100 per cent schmaltz," but favoring it over the cynicism that was prevalent in movies at that time, although he referred to the plot as "gimmicky" and the script "heavy-handed". Several reviews, including Richard Eder's (as well as Canby's negative review), compared the work to that of Frank Capra.
The film, however, did not escape criticism. Vincent Canby, of "The New York Times", called it "pure '30s make believe" and dismissed both Stallone's acting and Avildsen's directing, calling the latter "none too decisive". Andrew Sarris found the Capra comparisons disingenuous: "Capra's movies projected more despair deep down than a movie like "Rocky" could envisage, and most previous ring movies have been much more cynical about the fight scene," and, commenting on Rocky's work as a loan shark, says that the film "teeters on the edge of sentimentalizing gangsters." Sarris also found Meredith "oddly cast in the kind of part the late James Gleason used to pick his teeth."
Four decades later, the film enjoys a reputation as a classic and still receives nearly universal praise; "Rocky" holds a 92% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 66 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's consensus states: "This story of a down-on-his-luck boxer is thoroughly predictable, but Sylvester Stallone's script and stunning performance in the title role brush aside complaints." One of the positive online reviews came from the BBC Films website, with both reviewer Almar Haflidason and BBC online users giving it 5/5 stars. In Steven J. Schneider's "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", Schneider says the film is "often overlooked as schmaltz."
In 2006, "Rocky" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Accolades.
"Rocky" received ten Oscar nominations at the 49th Academy Awards, winning three:
The Directors Guild of America awarded "Rocky" its annual award for best film of the year in 1976, and in 2006, Sylvester Stallone's original screenplay for "Rocky" was selected for the Writers Guild of America Award as the 78th best screenplay of all time.
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. "Rocky" was acknowledged as the second-best film in the sports genre, after "Raging Bull".
In 2008, "Rocky" was chosen by British film magazine "Empire" as one of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". In contrast, in a 2005 poll by "Empire", Rocky was No. 9 on their list of "The Top 10 Worst Pictures to Win Best Picture Oscar".
In 2015, "The Hollywood Reporter" polled hundreds of Academy members, asking them to re-vote on past controversial decisions. Academy members indicated that, given a second chance, they would award the 1977 Oscar for Best Picture to "All the President's Men" instead.
"Rocky" has also appeared on several of the American Film Institute's "100 Years" lists.
Other media.
Sequels.
The film's success led to eight more sequels, Beginning with "Rocky II" in 1979. Followed by "Rocky III" in 1982, "Rocky IV" in 1985, "Rocky V" in 1990, "Rocky Balboa" in 2006, "Creed" in 2015 and "Creed II" in 2018. Another sequel, titled "Creed III", will be released in 2022, but won't feature Stallone, as the actor announced he will not appear as Rocky in April, 2021.
Possible prequel.
In July 2019, Stallone said in an interview that there have been ongoing discussions about a prequel to the original film based on the life of a young Rocky Balboa.
Rocky Steps.
The famous scene of Rocky running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art has become a cultural icon, with the steps acquiring the vernacular title of "Rocky Steps". In 1982, a statue of Rocky, commissioned by Stallone for "Rocky III", was placed at the top of the Rocky Steps. City Commerce Director Dick Doran claimed that Stallone and Rocky had done more for the city's image than "anyone since Ben Franklin."
Differing opinions of the statue and its placement led to a relocation to the sidewalk outside the Spectrum Arena, although the statue was temporarily returned to the top of the steps in 1990 for "Rocky V", and again in 2006 for the 30th anniversary of the original "Rocky" (although this time it was placed at the bottom of the steps). Later that year, it was permanently moved to a spot next to the steps.
The scene is frequently parodied in the media. In the 2008 movie "You Don't Mess with the Zohan", Zohan's nemesis, Phantom, goes through a parodied training sequence finishing with him running up a desert dune and raising his hands in victory. In the fourth-season finale of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", as the credits roll at the end of the episode, Will is seen running up the same steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; however, as he celebrates after finishing his climb, he passes out in exhaustion, and while he lies unconscious on the ground, a pickpocket steals his wallet and his wool hat. In "The Nutty Professor", there is a scene where Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) struggles to and eventually succeeds at running up a lengthy flight of steps on his college campus, victoriously throwing punches at the top.
In 2006, E! named the "Rocky Steps" scene #13 in its "101 Most Awesome Moments in Entertainment".
During the 1996 Summer Olympics torch relay, Philadelphia native Dawn Staley was chosen to run up the museum steps. In 2004, Presidential candidate John Kerry ended his pre-convention campaign at the foot of the steps before going to Boston to accept his party's nomination for president.
Novelization.
Upon the film's release, a paperback novelization of the screenplay was written by Rosalyn Drexler under the pseudonym Julia Sorel and published by Ballantine Books in 1976.
Video games.
Several video games have also been made based on the film. "Rocky" was released in 1987 for the Sega Master System. More recently, a "Rocky" was released in 2002 for the Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, and Xbox, and a sequel, "Rocky Legends", was released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. In 2016, Tapinator released a mobile game named "ROCKY" for the iOS platform, with a planned 2017 release for Google Play and Amazon platforms.
Musical.
A musical was written by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics and music), with the book by Thomas Meehan, based on the film. The musical premiered in Hamburg, Germany in October 2012. It began performances at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway on February 11, 2014, and officially opened on March 13, 2014.
Documentaries.
The 2016 film "Chuck" depicts Chuck Wepner, his 1975 title fight with the heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali, and the fight's influence on the screenplay for "Rocky".
"Rocky" is featured in the 2017 documentary "John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs" about Academy Award-winning "Rocky" director John G. Avildsen, directed and produced by Derek Wayne Johnson.
Stallone later hand-picked Johnson to direct and produce a documentary on the making of the original "Rocky", entitled "40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic", which was released in 2020. The documentary features Stallone narrating behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the film.