The Best Decade of Rocky Balboa
Back when I was young — not toddler young, but also not teenage young, so we’re talking Elementary School age young, which might be the best kind of young — every year in the days immediately following Thanksgiving, my parents and I would go get our Christmas tree. Now there were three very specific things that stand out about the day we would annually go get our Christmas tree. Two of those things were intentional and one was coincidental.
1. We would always go to get our Christmas tree on a Saturday evening … until we stopped going on Saturday evenings. Eventually we changed up the routine and we started getting our Christmas tree on Sunday mornings. But for the sake of this piece, let’s just pretend that I never brought it up that we started going on Sunday’s. I could’ve very easily just not mentioned it, but I felt weird about lying or misleading you.
2. For dinner on these Christmas tree Saturday’s we would get Subs from Cookie’s Deli in Batavia, New York. This is a detail that will mean nothing to most people, so I’ll try to elaborate. Ya know the amazing smell of meats and fresh bread and olive oil and cheeses that wafts over you whenever you go into a deli? It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Well, no deli smelled better than Cookie’s Deli. I don’t even remember specifically how the subs were or if they sold anything other than subs and cheeses and meats. But I’ll never forget that Cookie’s Deli smelled like Italian heaven, and that they had a poster of the Robin Williams movie Hook framed on the wall.
3. For whatever reason, there was a Rocky movie marathon on TBS every single year on these specific Saturday’s that we would go get our Christmas tree. So for a handful of formative years my parents and I would go get our Christmas tree, pick up delicious subs from Cookie’s Deli, and then come home and eat those subs and decorate our tree while watching the Rocky movies. Needless to say, Rocky Balboa became something of a cinematic superhero to young Sonny Giuliano. A tough, gusty underdog boxer with a great Italian name (not unlike myself) who was capable of taking an ungodly beating in the ring, dishing it out just as well, ending the Cold War and making cardio look like it could be a blast … I ate that shit up like a Turkey and Provolone sub from Cookie’s.
As I got older, I realized that what made the Rocky movies special was not anything that happened in a boxing ring, in a gym, or within any motivational workout montage. And honestly, I’m ashamed to admit that the first time this realization was really clear wasn’t until I watched Creed. For those who have been living under a rock or are just averse to great films, Creed was the wildly successful, critically acclaimed Rocky spin-off focused on the son of Apollo Creed. When I reviewed Creed for Hardwood and Hollywood back in 2015, I offered the following bits of praise:
“Creed took all of the right ingredients from that Rocky formula, added a few of its own, and made its delicious concoction of a film. We as a movie-going society are nostalgic about Rocky … it was the epitome of an underdog story, and it was masterfully crafted, brilliantly acted, and revolutionized sports film for the better. Creed manages to feel just as nostalgic as the original does, yet it’s brand new, and it is able to stand on its own two feet thanks to a modern-day grittiness, impeccable writing/cinematography, and performances on the screen that are both praise and Oscar-worthy.”
I’m proud of this co-written review, and everything I say in it holds up, but there’s one important concept that I didn’t elaborate on nearly enough, and it’s the only thing I regret about what I wrote … Sylvester Stallone’s performance in Creed was not only the finest of his entire illustrious career, but also the embodiment of what makes every film in the Rocky anthology special.
When we met Rocky he’s the plucky underdog who had no business even challenging Apollo Creed, let alone putting forth such a competitive effort against the Heavyweight Champ. Rocky would eventually defeat Apollo for the Heavyweight Title in their rematch in Rocky II, and over the next few years he became a figure in the Boxing world that was larger than life, so much so that the fictional character was arguably bigger than any real life boxer at the time. But by the time we reached Creed in 2015, it had become so clear that what makes Rocky Balboa so special, and what has made him so special since we first met him 40 years earlier, is that he’s both remarkably human AND a remarkable human. The problem is, we don’t glamorize the heart of Rocky Balboa (the man) like we do the heart of Rocky Balboa (the boxer). There’s a big difference between the two.
Inside the ring, Rocky was known for his ability to peel himself off the mat time and time again (like, a comical amount of times — one of the very few nitpicks I have about the Rocky film series is that knockdowns come far too easy), even after being uppercut into oblivion. He would battle back with an overabundance of heart that no other boxer came close to possessing. Outside of the ring, Rocky has always been surprisingly wise, delightfully charming, deeply compassionate and unexpectedly relatable to you and I. But these traits have never been on display more than in Creed and Creed II, when the chiseled body and championship belt are long gone, no longer in the way preventing us from seeing that the appeal of the franchise all along was the man, not the boxer.
At the risk of minimizing 4 hours and 23 minutes worth of film perfection, I’ve picked six moments from Creed and Creed II that exemplify what I’m trying to talk about here.
This is the very first time Rocky and Adonis meet, and it packs an even heavier punch because Rocky didn’t even know that Adonis existed up to this point. Even though they are practically strangers, Rocky still tries to talk Donnie out of pursuing a life as a fighter, a very fatherly thing to do. Rock recognizes that unlike himself, Donnie is well-educated and he doesn’t need to be a boxer. Donnie can sing and dance, so to speak.
In the original Rocky, Rocky tells a story to Adrian about how when he was young his father told him he wasn’t born with much of a brain, so he better use his body. Rocky was cognizant enough to know that he wasn’t someone who would go to college or make a living doing anything where intellect was too heavily relied upon. But what we see throughout the entire series at various points is that he’s one of the most emotionally intelligent characters in film, and there might not be a moment that crystallizes this more than when Rocky gives Donnie some of the most useful and practical advice you’ll ever hear … “Turn off your brain and let your heart do the talking.”
In Creed II, when Rocky probably knows that Donnie has come to his house to tell him that he wants to take the fight against Ivan Drago’s son Viktor, Rocky still tries to make the stupid joke about “What good is a light, if it don’t light?” Even more endearing … he caps the joke off by saying, “Kinda funny. Kinda stupid too.” He’s fully aware that the joke just didn’t hit, and that makes it funnier. And even more endearing than all of that … listen carefully before he makes the joke, you can hear him chuckle to himself, like it’s a joke that’s only funny to him. God, it’s so perfect.
More important than all of those fun little details, this is the moment that we see that Rocky is still grieving after what happened to Apollo in his fight with Ivan Drago back in 1985. Rocky’s been carrying around the guilt of not throwing the damn towel for over 30 years, and he’s obviously concerned that the same thing is going to happen again, this time to Apollo’s son. That brings us to …
There are like seven different moments in Creed II where something gets in both of my eyes and makes it appear as if I’m crying, and one of the sneaky ones is between the second and third rounds of the first Adonis Creed/Viktor Drago fight. Rocky isn’t in Donnie’s corner for this fight, but he is watching on Pay-Per-View from his restaurant in Philly. When Little Duke allows Donnie to go back out for the third round, we cut back to Rocky really quickly, and all he can do as the third round is about to begin is mutter, “Don’t do it.” He’s utterly terrified and it’s so heartbreaking, because all I think about in that moment is how Rocky is standing there totally helpless and heartbroken and horrified, thinking about how Apollo died in his arms, and as horrible as that was, it will be even worse if Adonis suffers the same fate and he’s not there for him.
Hey, speaking of crying …
It’s the best training montage from any sports movie ever, and it would have my vote for the most perfectly crafted scene from any movie this decade. I would love to someday type up 5,000 words just about what I love about the pre-Creed/Conlon fight training scene, but for now I’ll stick with just the relevant point … this is the most “human” we’re ever allowed to see Rocky Balboa in any of the eight Rocky films. He’s sick, vulnerable, and weak, and yet in these moments where he remains in Adonis Creed’s corner while he’s also fighting cancer, he’s more admirable and lovable than he was when he was the one sprinting through the Philadelphia streets with hundreds of fans following behind him, or racing Apollo on the beach in California, or climbing mountains in Russia.
Damn it! There’s something in both of my eyes again.
The night before his first fight against Apollo Creed, Rocky told Adrian that he knows he can’t beat Apollo. He goes on to explain to her that all he wants to do is go the distance because that would prove that he’s not just another bum from the neighborhood, and let’s be real, that was the perception of Rocky as he was going into this fight. Just a fledgling fighter who moonlights as a loan shark, Rocky would enjoy his fifteen minutes of fame, collect his paycheck, and likely never be heard from again.
But Rocky did go the distance, both against Apollo and in the grander scheme of things. The fight with Apollo went to a judge’s decision, and the film itself resonated with so many people that seven sequels have come since the original was released. It’s easy to understand why. There are certainly people like me who still go out of there way to watch selections from the Rocky film franchise at specific times of the year. I can tell you with 100 percent confidence that I’ll be watching Creed on Black Friday and most likely Rocky IV on Sunday night, after my parents and I get our Christmas tree. Yes, we’re still getting our tree on Sunday’s these days, we haven’t made the switch back to Saturday’s. And yes, we’ll be getting subs for dinner too. Not Cookie’s Deli subs (unfortunately), but still subs.
This is an accomplishment that can never be taken away from Sylvester Stallone or anyone else associated with the film series or the character Rocky Balboa. Over 40 years of legitimate and truly meaningful cultural relevance … enough so that it’s presence has become ingrained in the lives of countless fans, myself included. And they did it one step, one punch, one round, one fight, and one film at a time.
