Movie Review: Rocky

"It's okay, I didn't want turkey anyway"
"But it's Thanksgiving!"
"Maybe to you it's Thanksgiving, but to me it's just a Thursday"

One of my favorite quotes from the film. This is a really good movie, one of my favorites of all time. It has a great plot, connectable characters and it's full of quotable dialogue.

Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is a temperamental, down on his luck fighter and money collector with a fighting spirit and a heart of gold. This movie can really be broken into two halves. The first half of the movie focuses on Rocky's effort's to woo his best friend's sister, Adrian (Talia Shire). Halfway through, the movie changes tone and course. Through a stroke of luck, he gets the chance to fight reigning champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in a match for the title. Apollo knows that he can easily win, but unfortunately for Apollo, Rocky doesn't know that. It's an epic tale of triumph of the spirit that you must see.

The film is a bit of a character study, and it does it very nicely. Rocky goes from being a bum who isn't willing to work toward his goals to a determined and powerful character. During one of my favorite scenes in the movie, we observe his temperamental nature when his trainer, Mick (Burgess Meredith) comes over to convince him to get a manager. He quickly goes from welcoming to recessive and locking himself in the bathroom. Mick leaves and Rocky comes out, becoming angry and yelling through the door at Mick about how his house stinks and he never got into his prime. Mick is far away when Rocky has a final change of heart, running after Mick and apologizing, accepting his help.

Rocky is an extremely relatable character created by Sylvester Stallone who not only played him but wrote the screenplay for the film. Director John Avidsen uses a number of cinematic tricks that go well with the story. One thing I noticed was that in the beginning of the movie, each shot seems to linger for half a second too long, throwing the audience off-balance. He also masterfully uses focus. Not only are there several cool shots where he pulls focus, but during the fight scenes where Rocky is losing he puts the frame a touch, just a touch, out of focus. It's a disorienting effect that makes the audience further connect to the way that Rocky feels.

Overall: 4 out of 4 stars. One of my top movies of all time, an enjoyable and uplifting journey that proves movies don't need excess violence or sex to interest audiences.

Reference scale:
Remember the Titans < Rocky < Nothing. This, so far, is my favorite sports movie of all time.