Brandon Coale Notes

I recently rewatched the original Rocky movie after having last seen it over 15 years ago, and was reminded of what a masterpiece it is.  The dialog is great and all of the actors gave excellent performances, they must have known they were working on something very special.  In my opinion the characters are completely believable since it takes place in a tough, impoverished city neighborhood in the 1970s. 

Rocky and Adrian have their first real date on Thanksgiving at an indoor skating rink.  In Derek Wayne Johnson’s documentary “John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs”, Rocky director John Avildsen said:  

“There were a lot of examples where not enough money caused us to change things that made it better.  The first date was about 8 or 9 pages written where they were in a café and there going to sit there, back and forth, really boring. So I said maybe they go bowling or they go ice skating, and so we decided that they’re going to go ice skating.  Well, we snuck into Philadelphia with a non-union crew to shoot all the exteriors because we couldn’t afford a union crew, and before we shot the ice skating scene down in the center of Philadelphia with a lot of non-union extras, the teamsters found us and we had to leave town and we came back to L.A. to shoot the interiors.  The producers said you know we have to put that first date back in the restaurant because we can’t afford all those extras to be skating around in the ring; I said maybe the rink is closed and nobody’s there, and Sylvester liked that idea and changed a couple lines and that’s how it came to be, and it’s so much sweeter and unique that way, and you didn’t have to pay the extras”.

During their first date, Adrian says “My mother, she said the opposite thing.  She said you weren’t born with much of a body so you better develop your brain.”  Fortunately the movie also demonstrates that people can have both a strong body and intelligent brain; this is shown in Apollo Creed’s character.  Apollo is a great fighter but also is smart; the movie clearly shows that Apollo is not just a fighter because he has learned and knows the sales & marketing side of the boxing business.  Smaller people like Adrian should be aware of their surroundings in rough neighborhoods to stay safe, but great fighters like Bruce Lee knew that even with their fighting skill set they should also use their brain to avoid unnecessary fights, as Bruce Lee demonstrates in the great scene in Enter the Dragon on the boat where he shows an arrogant opponent “the art of fighting without fighting”.  That scene in Enter the Dragon may have been inspired by a real life story that happened according to the book “Bruce Lee The Untold Story” (Unique Publications 1986):

“One night, two martial artists showed up at the College St. kwoon in Chinatown. They wanted to fight. Bruce explained that they were in the middle of class and would have to wait till class was over. He motioned for his best student, Dan Lee, to change his position in the line-up so that he was working out directly in front of the two observers. Awestruck, they watched as Dan went all out as he executed his techniques. At break time, Bruce walked up to the two spectators, who appeared visibly shaken by what they had witnessed. Bruce said that if they wanted to fight now, he’d be more than happy to let them spar with his students. They stutteringly declined the invitation, bowed politely, and left. This type of psychology was typical of Bruce’s philosophy of combat and he referred to it as ‘winning the war without firing a shot’”.

I saw an article that suggested that another 1976 movie Network (directed by Sidney Lumet) should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture rather than Rocky winning it, but I don’t agree.  Network is indeed an excellent black comedy and satire of the news media, and both Faye Dunaway and writer Paddy Chayefsky certainly deserved their wins, but I’m very glad that the Academy picked Rocky for Best Picture 1976.  Rocky had more mass appeal than Network, and in addition to Rocky’s terrific success at the box office, I’m sure having an Academy award was also a nice boost for Stallone’s and Avildsen’s careers, since I very much enjoy watching additional movies that Stallone and Avildsen made after Rocky.   

I’m sure having the award on his resume didn’t hurt for Jerry Weintraub to hire Avildsen to direct The Karate Kid in the 1980s, one of my favorite movies of all time.  It was great that Avildsen again picked his friend Bill Conti to do the film score for Karate Kid, which he did an excellent job on Karate Kid as well. In his review of The Karate Kid, Roger Ebert wrote that Daniel and Miyagi had “one of the most interesting friendships in a long time”.  In my opinion Rocky and Adrian had one of the best boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife relationships in movie history.  They have a wonderful partnership and bring out the best in each other, as Rocky says in the first movie: “She’s got gaps.  I got gaps.  Together we fill gaps.”

I was pleased to see that the good Youtube film critic The Critical Drinker included Rocky II in his recent video of his top 5 underrated sequels (linked to below).  He doesn’t care for the subsequent Rocky sequels, but I have to disagree with him there, at least for Rocky III and Rocky IV.  I consider both III and IV classics.  They both have good dialog.  Rocky III featured Mr. T and a classic scene with Hulk Hogan, and it is great to watch the friendship develop between Apollo and Rocky.  Rocky IV has very interesting and beautiful winter outdoor training scenes, brought some attention to Americans to the repressive Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and has an outstanding music soundtrack featuring songs by Survivor, James Brown, and others.