{"id":36286,"date":"2016-09-22T06:30:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T13:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=36286"},"modified":"2016-09-22T06:30:51","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T13:30:51","slug":"challenge-week-35-rocky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-35-rocky\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Week 35: Rocky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rocky<\/em> has been one of my most notable blind spots for a long time – one of the few Best Picture winners I hadn’t seen, and also the last holdout in the Flickchart Global Top 100. I’m not a big fan of boxing movies (even ones that people tell me are not really about boxing), so I avoided it for a long time. I knew someone would assign it to me in this challenge, and sure enough!<\/p>\n

Unlike Gordon’s other film Animal House<\/em>, which confirmed my unenthusiastic preconceptions, I actually ended up enjoying Rocky<\/em> much more than I anticipated. I still didn’t really care for the boxing scenes very much, but there are really only two of them, one at the very beginning and one at the very end. And I can appreciate sports movies in general if they’re more about the indomitable human spirit than if they’re about the sport itself, or about ego.<\/p>\n

\"sylvester-stallone-as-rocky-balboa-in-rocky-1\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rocky<\/em> is about neither. Rocky<\/em> is about a loser proving to himself that he can go the distance, and yes, that’s a cliche, but it works here. It helps tremendously that Rocky himself is a much more likable guy than I expected. He’s no Jake La Motta. Rocky’s a two-bit boxer earning chump change for low-stakes matches and supplementing as a mob heavy in between. He’s got a friend with a sister he’s sweet on, and while the friend is kind of loud-mouthed moron, Rocky and Adrian’s growing romance is pretty enjoyable to watch.<\/p>\n

When Rocky gets a chance at what is basically an exhibition fight with the undefeated lightweight champion Apollo Creed (under the showy auspices of Creed giving a nobody a chance at the American Dream), he takes it seriously and gives it his all – which takes him through the whole 15 rounds, even though Creed expected to be done in three. The fight is rough for both of them, but it’s a clean fight (I wasn’t cringing like I was watching The Wrestler<\/em>) and shot to maximize Rocky’s determination rather than to highlight brutality.<\/p>\n

\"rocky-1\"<\/p>\n

This may be a movie about one of my least favorite subjects, but the style and largely the substance is pure old-fashioned entertainment and inspiration, and that’s what came through to me.<\/p>\n

Stats and stuff…<\/h3>\n

1976, USA<\/em>
\ndirected by John G. Avildsen, written by Sylvester Stallone<\/em>
\nstarring Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m ranking all my Challenge films on Flickchart (as I do all the films I see), a movie-ranking website that asks you to choose your favorite between two movies until it builds a ranked list of your favorites. Just for fun, I will average out the rankings and keep a running tally of whose recommendations rank the highest. When you add a film to Flickchart, it pits it against films already on your chart to see where it should fall. Here’s how Rocky<\/em> entered my chart:<\/p>\n

Rocky<\/b> > Il Postino (The Postman)
\nRocky > Come and Get It<\/b>
\nRocky < The Mummy<\/b> (1999)
\nRocky < Roman Holiday<\/b>
\nRocky < School of Rock<\/b>
\nRocky<\/b> > The Orphanage
\nRocky < Hero<\/b>
\nRocky < The Iron Giant<\/b>
\nRocky < Rope<\/b>
\nRocky < Henry Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque<\/b>
\nRocky < X2<\/b>
\nRocky<\/b> > Cops<\/p>\n

Final #867 out of 3703 films on my chart (77%)<\/p>\n

It is now my #1 John G. Avildsen film, my #1 Sylvester Stallone film, my #28 New Hollywood film, my #6 Sports Drama, and my #4 film of 1976.<\/p>\n

Rocky<\/em> was recommended by Gordon Spates, a friend from the Flickcharters group on Facebook. Averaging together this #867 ranking with my #3175 ranking of his other film, Animal House<\/em>, gives Gordon an average ranking of 2021.<\/p>\n

A few quotes…<\/h3>\n

Rocky:<\/b> I been comin’ here for six years, and for six years ya been stickin’ it to me, an’ I wanna know how come!
\nMickey:<\/b> Ya don’t wanna know!
\nRocky:<\/b> I wanna know how come!
\nMickey:<\/b> Ya wanna know?
\nRocky:<\/b> I WANNA KNOW HOW!
\nMickey:<\/b> OK, I’m gonna tell ya! You had the talent to become a good fighter, but instead of that, you become a legbreaker to some cheap, second rate loanshark!
\nRocky:<\/b> It’s a living.
\nMickey:<\/b> IT’S A WASTE OF LIFE!<\/p>\n

Rocky:<\/b> Took you long enough to get here. Took you ten years to get to my house. Huh, what’s the matter? You don’t like my house? Does my house stink? That’s right-it stinks! I didn’t have no favors from you! Don’t slum around me. Talkin’ about your prime. What about my prime, Mick? At least you had a prime! I didn’t have no prime. I didn’t have nithin’! Leg’s are goin’, everything is goin’. Nobody’s getting’ no nothin’. Guy comes up, offers me a fight. Big deal. Wanna fight the fight? Yeah, I’ll fight the big fight. I wouldn’t wanna fight. Know what’s gonna happen to me? I’m gonna get that! I’m gonna get that! And you wanna be ringside to see it? Do ya? You wanna help me out? Huh? Do you wana see me get my face kicked in? Leg’s ain’t workin’, nothing’s workin’, but they go, “Go on, fight the champ.” Yeah, I’ll fight him. Get my face kicked in. And you come around here. You wanna move in here with me? Come on in! It’s a nice house! Real nice. Come on in and move. It stinks! This whole place stinks. You wanna help me out? Well, help me out! Come on, help me out. I’m standin’ here!<\/p>\n

Rocky:<\/b> I was nobody. But that don’t matter either, you know? ‘Cause I was thinkin’, it really don’t matter if I lose this fight. It really don’t matter if this guy opens my head, either. ‘Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Rocky:<\/b> I just want to say hi to my girlfriend, OK? Yo, Adrian! It’s me, Rocky.<\/p>\n

Apollo’s Trainer:<\/b> He doesn’t know it’s a damn show! He thinks it’s a damn fight!<\/p>\n

Mickey:<\/b> Your nose is broken.
\nRocky:<\/b> How does it look?
\nMickey:<\/b> Ah, it’s an improvement.<\/p>\n

A few more screenshots…<\/h3>\n

\"sylvester-stallone-as-rocky-balboa-in-rocky\"<\/p>\n

\"05_Rocky__Blu-ray\"<\/p>\n

\"rocky_5_stallone\"<\/p>\n

\"picture-27\"<\/p>\n

\"picture-121\"<\/p>\n

\"picture-131\"<\/p>\n

\"adrian-and-rocky\"<\/p>\n

\"rocky-4\"<\/p>\n

\"tumblr_npl551ftql1qetb0ho1_1280\"<\/p>\n

\"maxresdefault\"<\/p>\n

\"e8c5953f8d164bf0945bebbec562e5de\"<\/p>\n

\"picture-231\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rocky has been one of my most notable blind spots for a long time – one of the few Best Picture winners I hadn’t seen, and also the last holdout in the Flickchart Global Top 100. I’m not a big fan of boxing movies (even ones that people tell me are not really about boxing), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3027],"tags":[3217,3216,3218],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/rocky-5420419b471ab.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35800,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/challenge-week-16-the-wrestler\/","url_meta":{"origin":36286,"position":0},"title":"Challenge Week 16: The Wrestler","author":"Jandy","date":"April 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I decided I was a huge Darren Aronofsky fan on the strength of one film - The Fountain - and then proceeded to not really watch more of his filmography for a while, especially when his very next film dealt with a subject I could barely care less about -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/tf-feat-leap.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35345,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/letterboxd-season-challenge-high-and-low-1963\/","url_meta":{"origin":36286,"position":1},"title":"Letterboxd Season Challenge: High and Low (1963)","author":"Jandy","date":"October 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Film 3 for the Letterboxd Season Challenge. The other films I plan to watch for the challenge are here. Week 3, Sept 20-26: Master of the East Challenge: Watch an unseen film directed by Akira Kurosawa Film I Chose: High and Low (1963) I've been keeping up watching the films\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/tf-feat-HighandLow5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36288,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-36-3-women\/","url_meta":{"origin":36286,"position":2},"title":"Challenge Week 36: 3 Women","author":"Jandy","date":"September 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, that was absolutely nothing like what I expected. Here's what I expected: a complex and realistic character study of three women with a complicated friendship. Like, I dunno, Interiors crossed with Frances Ha. Here's what the film is: a fever dream of shifting and merging identities, sometimes violently, always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tf-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35387,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/the-2016-movie-challenge-a-preview\/","url_meta":{"origin":36286,"position":3},"title":"The 2016 Movie Challenge: A Preview","author":"Jandy","date":"January 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Because I can't leave well enough alone, here's a brief rundown of (some of) what I'll be watching in 2016 for this crazy challenge. I currently have 50 people signed up to recommend me movies, and all but a handful have already chosen their picks, so this thing is scheduled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/fc-keaton.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36289,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/challenge-week-36-paris-texas\/","url_meta":{"origin":36286,"position":4},"title":"Challenge Week 36: Paris, Texas","author":"Jandy","date":"October 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As a huge fan of Wings of Desire, I've been really eager to see more Wim Wenders films, especially this one. I didn't know much about what it was about, though. It's kind of a road movie, with Walt (Dean Stockwell) finding his brother Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) wandering through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/tf-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36432,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/challenge-week-41-westward-the-women\/","url_meta":{"origin":36286,"position":5},"title":"Challenge Week 41: Westward the Women","author":"Jandy","date":"November 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"What a super-interesting and unusual Western! And surprisingly under the radar. I'm a big fan of Westerns but had barely heard of this one before Laura assigned it to me, and I'm so glad she did. The premise is that a rancher in the newly developing California decides to bring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/tf-westward-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}