Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Road

Thirty years ago, the first Rocky movie came out of nowhere like the urban fairytale it was. Sylvester Stallone was a bit part player, a big slab of meat with a crooked mouth who played purse-snatchers and mafia hoods. He wrote the screenplay, an old time boxing picture like they used to make, refused to give it up unless they let him play the part, and improbably, the kid got his shot.

The rest is history: it turned out to be a movie everybody wanted to see. Almost everyone connected with it was nominated for an Academy Award (ten in all). They won three, including Best Picture and Best Director (John G Avildsen). Stallone himself came away empty handed, but with nominations for his screenplay and Best Actor he could afford to cry all the way to the bank… and anyway, it was in keeping with the bittersweet ending he'd written into the script.

But this wasn't the end, only the end of the beginning. As Sam Goldwyn used to say, a lot of water's been passed under the bridge since then. Stallone's career has had more ups and downs than the Yorkshire Dales, with Rocky shadow-boxing him every step of the way.

Few movie stars (actually I can't think of any) have been as self-reliant as Sly. Because of the way he looks and sounds (that droopy-eyed slur), he was never going to be a conventional leading man, and his limited acting abilities don't allow him huge range. Perhaps as a result he's been responsible for writing or co-writing many (more than 20) of his own scripts. He's also directed himself five times, including four Rocky movies.

It's worth remembering that, given his head for the first time, Stallone made two relatively ambitious, serious working class dramas - FIST and Paradise Alley (both 1978) - both of which he wrote. Neither quite came off, though both are worth a look, if only to see how Sly saw himself at the time: very much a man of the people (in FIST he plays a radical union organizer) and champion of the underdog.

His career in slippage, Stallone woke up and smelled the coffee: Rocky II (1979) is a pretty good retread of the first film, and reminded people why they liked him. And Rocky III (1982) is interesting for the way it expresses Stallone's doubts about his success through the boxer's problems dealing with money and fame.

Those reservations seemed to evaporate as the 1980s hit their stride. In the Reagan era Stallone transformed himself from the abused and misunderstood Vietnam Veteran in First Blood (1983) to the pumped up cold warrior in the Rambo sequels. Rocky IV (1984) was a slick, streamlined, soulless affair with Stallone wrapping himself in the Stars & Stripes to defeat Soviet killing machine Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). The underdog had become a superman.

Audiences at the time lapped it up: Stallone became the most highly paid star in Hollywood. At $12 million a picture he was earning twice his nearest rival, and John Rambo was everywhere. Ronald Reagan took to invoking him as a role model.

By 1990 the glory days were over: Rambo III (with Sly backing the jihadists against the Russians in Afghanistan) flopped. Arnold Schwarzenegger out-muscled him in the action stakes, while Oscar and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot only confirmed what everyone else already knew, comedy wasn't his strong suit. Hardly anyone saw Rocky V, (I know I didn't), but apparently Rocky's retired, bankrupt, and on the outs… much like Stallone.

With the exception of Cop Land (1997), the best vehicle ever given to him by someone else, the last ten years have not been pretty. Get Carter was an abomination. Driven resembled an Elvis Presley movie without the songs. He was even unconvincing playing himself in An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn!

Frankly, after all this time, the idea that Stallone could pull off another Rocky movie at 60 years of age was above and beyond unlikely. True to form, the only person who believed in the project was Stallone himself… and whaddaya, whaddaya? The underdog done gone and pulled off a fairytale comeback. Rocky Balboa has more than doubled its budget with a box office gross over $50 million in the first two weeks, garnered good reviews, and gets a user rating of 7.7 on the internet movie database. Only in the movies.

Tom Charity
Tom.charity@lovefilm.com

Top 5 Sylvester Stallone Roles

1. Rocky

Because there's only one Rocky.

2. First Blood

A very solid action thriller - recently ripped off in Apocalypto.

3. Cop Land

Sly's best performance, as a partly deaf, dumb, honest cop.

4. Cliffhanger

Vertiginous action thrills.

5. FIST

Sly stands up for the working