Rocky Balboa. Cinematic Icon. About 15 minutes ago i arrived home from my local cinema (Hoyts @ Highpoint) where i have seen many groundbreaking films ranging from the first Batman film, Forrest Gump, Casino and i have even seen a punchup in the cinema between a couple of patrons during the screening of 'Kindergarten Cop' but tonight was a special night for me at the local cinema.
I must admit you the readers do not appreciate how much i love the Rocky Balboa films. Sure i've talked about them and seen them all many times before but you don't understand how much i really enjoy the films and how they tie into my life and the memories they have given me. When i think about the Rocky films i think about Michael and Daniel, my two good mates who have an equal love for the films as i do. Since we are all fans of Stallone's films (yes even such classics as 'Oscar' and 'Copland') tonight was a special night as it was the first time we had all gone to see a Rocky film together.
It's with 100% certainty that if the three of us get a few drinks into us then one of us will pull out an obscue Rocky quote which will lead to another and another and the conversation will snowball from there. These films about a boxer whose speech is slurred yet somehow manages to conquer the odds no matter how impossible they are have been one of the conerstones of the friendship between the three of us. Sure i had already seen the film 4 times already at home (thanks to a bloke at work and his access to recently released movies) and i knew what was going to happen but when that Rocky music started playing and the training sequence hit the screen, the half full cinema semi-clapped because they knew as i did, what they were seeing was in reality an impossibility yet the film still managed to make you think with your heart and not your head.
I had watched the 5 previous films in 2 weeks because I felt i had to watch them again to be prepared to march into the cinema and know exactly what was going on. This film showed Rocky more as a man rather than the superhuman protein enhanced genetic freak that is the conerstone of Rocky's III and IV. The three of us were sitting there having a few drinks in the cinema and just glued by what was going on in front of us on the big screen. To those who think Sylvester Stallone is a one dimensional actor you are wrong. OK granted he's no Lawrence Olivier, Robert DeNiro or Merryl Streep ( anyone who can go from Kramer vs. Kramer to Evil Angels deserves a mention) yet with the Rocky films Stallone knows what works for him and after the commercial and critical failure of Rocky V he knew this time around that all the people that watch the film want is the chance to enjoy the story of a man against the odds.
And everyone loves an underdog.
By the end of the film the feeling that the impossible was possible once again filled my sences and i was just thankful that i had the chance to see the final chapter of a 30 year cinematic journey on the big screen.
I was happy that i got the chance to see it with my friends.
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