Rocky review

Rocky review

            Produced by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, Rocky is 1976 American film. The film was released throughout the United States on the 3^rd of December in 1976 but has already premiered in New York as early as the 21^st day of November in 1976.  With a running time of 119 minutes, the movie is originally produced in English but has since been translated into a dozen other languages. The initial budget of the movie was $1.1 but the movie had a box office of $225 million. The movie’s distribution was handled by United Artists and the production was done by Chartoff-Winkler Productions Company. The movie has been classified as an American drama film as well as an American Sports film. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Burgess Meredith, Talia Shire, and Carl Weathers, the movie ranks highly amongst the 1976 films not only in light of box office revenue, but also in light of impact and critique (Avildsen).

The film revolves around the life of Rocky Balboa; a role played by Sylvester Stallone. The main character is employed to present a story about the American Dream – the transition from rags to riches. Rocky is an Italian American who is uneducated by extremely kind-hatred and hard-working (Avildsen).  Rocky lives and works in the slum settings of Philadelphia for a loan shark. He is a professional boxer who earns his living by doing small time fights in clubs but with time, this way of life changes for the better. When he gets his shot to contest in the world heavyweight championship, Rocky performs beyond expectation. In the film, Adrian is played by Talia Shire, Adrian’s brother by Burt Young, Rocky’s trainer by Burgess Meredith, and champion Apollo Creed by Carl Weathers. It is worth noting that Rocky was the inspiration and framework through which the 2015 Creed film by Ryan Coogle was created and presented (Cardullo).

In light of the script, there are important elements about the film to analyze. The movie is classified under the American sports drama classification. This genre is unique not only in how it presents the best of both worlds – drama and sports – but also how it acts as grounds through which the two unique genres intersect and interact. The film is successful in not only creating a balance between drama and sports, but also in employing the same balance as the tool through which the plot of the film flows and the secret through which the audience is entertained and captivated from the beginning of the film to its end. The main theme throughout the course of the film is the American film (Avildsen). The film is designed to present a humble man’s believe in the American dream and his honest pursuit of the same through a sport he loves. The point of view presented by the director and writers of the film was an honest man’s struggle from rags to riches when all odds were against him. The script was not only excellent in telling the story well and ensuring the audience was hooked to the plot, but also in ensuring character development took place in all the actors (Gray and Johnson).

In its broadest sense, the term cinematography refers to a science designed to analyze and develop the art of motion-picture movie making and photography. James Crabe was the cinematographer in this film. Apart from this film, some of the most excellent works by Crabe are evident in films ranging from The Karate Kid and Night Shift to The China Syndrome and Save the Tiger. As a professional cinematographer, Crabe is remembered for his works in the 1970s and 1980s. One of the most important elements to note in light of the cinematography is the use of slow and unique camera push-ins in studying and developing the three main characters in the film – Rocky, Mickey, and Adrian. Push-ins have been used to not only bring the three main characters together, but also to provide a platform through which the producer is able to explore each of these characters and develop them individually. There are two unique incidents during the course of the movie when the cinematographer features the main characters looking at images of themselves in mirrors on separate occasions. These shots are important as they provide the film with grounds through which visual motif is created and developed. For instance, Rocky was not only able to internalize his reflection, but also compared it to a photo that was reflected right below his image on the mirror (Avildsen). Although there are elements of both realism and formalism in the film, Rocky is more realistic than it is formalistic. This is evident in the events that shape up the different scenes and how the author brings these scenes to life.  Unlike in formalist films, power and beauty of the image have not been prioritized over the sense of reality and neither have the various visual presentations been stylized. It is also evident to note that there are no extraordinary events and characters in the film and the entire storyline was not birthed from an individual’s obsession. The film is filed in color and there were no specific colors dominating other colors throughout eh course of the film. This film is popular for its excellent application of quick-cutting montages. The director not only allows some specific shots in the movie to breathe, he also ensures that the movie fells less like popcorn entertainment and more like a piece of art. The use of this technique is effectively brought out in the shipyard training scene. Here, the author employs long shot camera techniques in presenting the audience with some depth into Rocky’s training and the environment around him (Gray and Johnson).

Movement is excellently handled throughout the course of the film and this is evident in the transition from frame to frame and scene to scene. There are instances when camera angles and the depth of the shot are employed in ensuring movement is effectively handled and a number of scenes that required stylization. This was done in order to ensure that the movie was less of a popcorn film and more of a work of art. The pacing of the film effectively marries into the order of the story. The selections of the scenes has been employed by the director to ensure that the audience is not only entertained from the beginning of the film to its end, but also in creating occasional suspense and ensuring the story comes out in the same way a picture does on an artist’s canvas. The style of the film is reflected and reinforced by the editing tools utilized therein. The balance between the sports and drama themes in the film is achieved and advanced through the editing techniques employed by the director. The lovers of sport – boxing – are presented with just as much entertainment as the lovers of drama through a very excellent flow in the plot (Poulton and Roderick).

There are five main characters presented in the film; Rocky Balboa – a role played by Sylvester Stallone, Adrian played by Talia Shire, drian’s brother by Burt Young, Rocky’s trainer by Burgess Meredith, and champion Apollo Creed by Carl Weathers. Each of these key characters plays out their role in an almost natural way. One of the main successes of the film is presented in the difficulty to separate the actors from the roles they were directed to play  (Corrigan and White). Personally, I identified with Rocky’s trainer. This is because the beauty of success for me lies not in the end achievement, but in the process through which the tool becomes best suited for its function. For Rocky, the various challenges he experiences in his bid to get out of the slum and become the best he can in the ring is the real success (Avildsen).

The use of lighting in the film was the investment I liked most. The directors of the film and the cinematography crew not only knew the role natural lighting would play in the film, but also what it would mean to the audience. Although natural lighting is one of the most underused resources in filmmaking, it is also one of the most powerful tools which can be employed in a film which inclines more towards realism than formalism (Bateman and Schmidt). One of the greatest significances of the film is presented in how it not only defines, but also expounds the American dream. The film not only communicates to the audience what the American dream feels like, but also the process through which it is achieved and maintained. During the 49^th Academy Awards, there were a total of ten nominations for the film. Talia Shire was nominated for Best Actress, Sylvester Stallone was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor, Meredith and Young were nominated for Best Supporting Actor while Scott Conrad and Richard Haisey were nominated for Best Film Editing. The film was also nominated for Best Sound and Best Music where Gonna Fly Now was presented as an original song. Out of the ten nominations, the film won three – Best Film Editing, Best Director, and Best Picture (Avildsen).

Works Cited

Bateman, John A, and Karl-Heinrich Schmidt. Multimodal Film Analysis: How Films Mean. Routledge, 2014.

Cardullo, Bert. Film Analysis: A Casebook. Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.

Corrigan, Timothy, and Patricia White. The Film Experience: An Introduction. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.

Gray, Jonathan, and Derek Johnson. A Companion to Media Authorship. Wiley Blackwell, 2013.

Poulton, Emma, and Martin Roderick. Sport in Films. Routledge, 2009.

Rocky. Directed by John G. Avildsen, Perf. Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess Meredith . 1976. Unired Artists, 1976.