The Great Neighborhood Debate of 1977
The Story
The summer of 1977 was the summer of the great debate in my neighborhood. I was 11 years old. The controversy: Rocky vs Star Wars. It was divisive. You were on one side of this proverbial fence or the other. And while it didn’t end friendships (because the bonds of summer bike rides and swimming and camping in the back yard were too strong) it did spawn many an argument.
Both are epic films, in their own way, each with surface appeal and deeper life lessons at their core. Both are feel good movies, albeit of different kinds. And both have persevered through numerous (arguably too numerous) sequels.
I was (ahem … am) firmly planted in the Rocky camp.
I fell in love with Sylvester long before the steroids gave him the physique of the later sequels, before he got all Hollywood, fur coat and bronze statue. Actually, I fell in love with the story behind the story. It was one of my first encounters with a real-life rags-to-riches plot.
And it pained me deeply that my best friend, Suzy (name changed to protect the innocent), was a Star Wars girl, with little use for my beloved drama. We spent some time that summer trying to convince each other the error of our ways, but in the end we agreed to disagree and get on with the business of summer.
