On November 11, 2010, Rope of Silicon posted “The Five Greatest Boxing Films of All Time” by Bill Cody. I’m happy to say that “Rocky” made the cut coming in at #2. Here’s why…
Whatever you say about Sylvester Stallone, and a lot of people do, he wrote one of the greatest scripts of all time. Loosely based on Muhammad Ali’s fight with Chuck Wepner, Rocky is pretty much a perfect movie. Stallone was the right choice to play the washed up palooka from Philly and smart enough to insist the studio use him.
I could go on and on about this film. The casting, (Burgess Meredith, Burt Young and Jason Schwartzman’s Mom are all wonderful) the gritty way it was filmed, the soundtrack that would have been completely hokey in any film other than the tale of an outlier who finally catches the brass ring. But why go on? It’s Rocky. Like my choice for #1, it won the Oscar for Best Picture. And it’s the blueprint for almost every sports movie that has been made since it came out. Enough said.