Rocky
Short description
Rocky Balboa is a club fighter in Philadelphia who earns a modest living collecting debts for a loan shark and takes occasional bouts for small purses. His trainer Mickey has grown tired of what he sees as wasted talent and stops working with him. Everything changes when the heavyweight champion of the world, Apollo Creed, needs a last-minute opponent for a high-profile title defense and picks Rocky as an unknown name the public will find appealing. Rocky accepts, and the match becomes far more than the publicity stunt it was meant to be, both in the ring and in the life he is trying to build with Adrian, the shy sister of his friend Paulie.
Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay and stars as Rocky, with Talia Shire as Adrian, Burt Young as Paulie, Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed, Burgess Meredith as Mickey Goldmill and Thayer David as Jergens. John G. Avildsen directed, following his 1970 film Joe and several features before that; after Rocky he went on to make Neighbors, The Karate Kid and its sequels, Lean On Me, Rocky V and other films. Produced by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff for around 1 million dollars, the film went on to take roughly 225 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8.1/10 from about 685,000 votes and on TMDB 7.8/10 from around 8,900 votes, while its critics' rating stands at 8.5/10 from 73 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was shot in 28 days.
- Despite the producers' protests, Stallone insisted that a scene be filmed in which Rocky confesses his fears and doubts to Adrian (Talia Shire) on the eve of the decisive fight. In the end, Stallone was allowed to do only one take, and he was so nervous before filming that he got drunk.
- The filmmakers planned for all former world heavyweight champions to appear on screen in the scene preceding the fight between Rocky and Apollo. However, only one of them – Joe Frazier – showed up for the shoot on the appointed day. This turned out to be very opportune, as Frazier was a resident of Philadelphia, where the film is set and where filming took place.
- Bette Midler turned down the role of Adrian.
- When the producers received the script, they didn't yet know who Stallone was. Someone showed them a group photo from the film "The Lords of Flatbush" (1974), and they immediately became enthusiastic about making the film. They were just confused as to why a man named Stallone was a blonde with blue eyes. It later turned out that they had mistaken Stallone for his co-star in the film, Perry King. When the producers were shown the real Stallone, they were ready to abandon the project immediately.
- The role of Rocky was offered to James Caan.
- Stallone's father and younger brother appeared in small roles. Both are named Frank.
- The actor who played Gazzo had an asthma attack during filming and had to urgently use his inhaler. The scene was decided not to be reshot, as it looked quite natural.
- A Bulmastiff named Stallone appeared in the film. He can be seen in the credits under the name Batkas Stallone.
- Stallone wrote the screenplay after watching a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and a little-known Chuck Wepner. However, unlike Rocky, Wepner was unable to continue the fight, as a technical knockout was declared in the fifteenth round.
- Filming took place from January 9th to March 5th, 1976.
- The film was shot primarily in various parts of Philadelphia, with a few scenes filmed in Los Angeles.
- Sylvester Stallone sold the rights to produce this film on the condition that he play the lead role. The producers, however, offered him $150,000 to allow them to give the role to Ryan O’Neal. The studio ultimately agreed to Stallone’s condition, as the film’s budget initially did not exceed one million dollars (the producers even had to mortgage their homes to make the film).
- The boxing match scene was filmed starting with the fifteenth round, as Stallone and his partner Carl Weathers had to be heavily made up in this episode. The course of the fight was filmed in reverse chronological order, meaning that less and less makeup was applied to the actors’ faces. The film received an “Oscar” in the “Best Editing” category for this technical trick.
- Stallone became the third actor in history at that time to be nominated for an "Oscar" simultaneously for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. Previously, only Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles had received such an honor.
- During filming, Stallone genuinely punched frozen meat with his fists. As a result, the knuckles of his fingers became almost flat and remained that way.
- John G. Avildsen wanted to title the film "Rocky, a Simple Guy from the Working-Class Streets."
- Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay for the film while sitting in a windowless room and continuously smoking cheap "Tramp" cigarettes.
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