With the 2010 Oscar winners almost ready to be announced, Tom Chivers was inspired to come up with his list of “The Ten Worst Injustices in Academy Award History.” Coming in at #4 was Rocky. Here’s what Mr. Chivers had to say:
4. Rocky, written by and starring Sylvester Stallone(above), is actually an underrated film. It isn’t helped by its endless sequels (we forget whether it’s Rocky IV or Rocky V that has the robot butler, and the bit at the end of IV where Rocky’s incoherent post-fight rambling seems to bring about the end of the Cold War is particularly ludicrous), but it’s touching, unpretentious fare, and Stallone does well in the role he built for himself. Still, it’s a bit of a stretch that it beat Scorsese’s Taxi Driver to the 1976 Oscar for Best Picture.
While I think it’s great that Mr. Chivers believes that Rocky is underrated, I’m surprised that he thinks it’s a “bit of a stretch” that Rocky beat Taxi Driver. I think the real injustice for Rocky is that Sly didn’t win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Mr. Chivers also says that Rocky wasn’t helped by it’s endless sequels. Perhaps he forgot that Rocky was judged on it’s own merits. At the time of the 1976 Oscars, there had been no sequels. And while it’s clear that Mr. Chivers may have been confused [Rocky IV has the robot not V] or allowed his opinion of Rocky to drop due to the sequels, the Oscar judges didn’t have to face that problem.
It’s interesting that if you take out Mr. Chivers references to the sequels you end up with:
4. Rocky, written by and starring Sylvester Stallone(above), is actually an underrated film… it’s touching, unpretentious fare, and Stallone does well in the role he built for himself. Still, it’s a bit of a stretch that it beat Scorsese’s Taxi Driver to the 1976 Oscar for Best Picture.
What you end up with is Mr. Chivers opinion that Rocky [a film he has nothing but praise for] should have lost to Taxi Driver. Okay. That’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it.
