Category: Honors

On December 16, 2010, Warren Tasker of The Edmonton Journal listed his choices for Five of Hollywood’s Best Knockouts.  “Rocky” made the list and here’s what he had to say:

2. Rocky (John G. Avildsen, Avild-1976)

Sylvester Stallone learned this month that he will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame for writing the screenplay to Rocky, , the tale of a Philly club fighter plucked from obscurity to fight the heavyweight champion. Can’t disagree at all with the decision.

Rocky, the opposite of Raging Bull, is a feel-good yarn that delivers on its message: If you try hard enough, your dream will be realized. Stallone’s Rocky Balboa is a lovable lug, a self-deprecating deprecating boxer with a killer left hook to the body. Audiences love him, the supporting cast, the music and the gritty boxing scenes. You catch yourself cheering, even after all these years. Yo Rock, we still love ya.

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On December 8, 2010, SignOnSanDiego posted Christy Lemire choices for the Five Most Powerful Boxing Movies.  As one would expect, Rocky made the cut and here is why…

• “Rocky” (1976): Again, from the what-more-can-we-say? department. We went with the first “Rocky” here, tempting as it was to dredge up later installments featuring Mr. T and Dolph Lundgren, because it set the precedent for the franchise. It was the little movie that could, the one that came out of nowhere with no budget and shocked the world by winning the best-picture Oscar over bigger and more traditional contenders: “Network,” “All the President’s Men,” “Bound for Glory” and “Taxi Driver.” Sylvester Stallone wrote the script and starred as the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer who would go on to win the heavyweight championship. As full of cheesy uplift as the ending is, it still sends chills.

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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.

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