Rocky Balboa Fights Another Round

Rocky, why do you fight? Because I can't sing and dance.

For children, Fall is a time of new beginnings. A new school year begins, fall baseball or football practices start, and everything that happened last year becomes the foundation of new possibility.

I’ve encouraged a family tradition with my three boys that we refer to as Manly Movie Night. The theme of it is fairly simple: we watch movies that have heroic or traditionally masculine themes. This year, in the week before the school year began, Manly Movie Night transformed into Manly Movie Week, and we watched the entire franchise of Rocky movies and the spin-off Creed franchise.

The movies are classics for a reason: Rocky — even at the height of his success — is the eternal underdog. In fact, he loses a significant percentage of the fights he has on and offscreen. He loses his first fight against Apollo Creed by decision. He is knocked out by Clubber Lang. Against all odds, he beats the Russian, Ivan Drago, but, in doing so, he suffers brain damage. He returns home unable to continue fighting and discovers that a mischievous accountant has stolen most of his wealth. He eventually returns to boxing in his 50s for an exhibition match that he again loses against a much younger heavyweight champion. In the first Creed movie, we learn the outcome of his private rematch against Apollo Creed occurring at the end of Rocky III: he lost.

There is not much that ever goes Rocky’s way. In the first movie, his trainer Mick kicks him out of his boxing gym. In the second, Mick initially refuses to train him because of damage done to his retina in the previous fight. In the third, it is revealed that Mick setup easy fights for Rocky to maintain his heavyweight championship belt. Mick has a heart attack and dies the night Rocky is knocked-out by Clubber Lang. His friend, Apollo Creed, dies in the second round of an exhibition fight with the Russian boxer, Ivan Drago. In the much maligned fifth movie he loses his ability to fight, his wealth, and the fighter he trains betrays him. By the sixth movie, he’s lost his wife, Adrian, and his son is trying to make a name for himself outside of Rocky’s large shadow.

There is one thing that does go consistently well for Rocky. The shy, demure, but constant Adrian looms large in all of the Rocky movies. It is a relationship that were they to remake the movies anew today, I doubt would be portrayed the same way — to the remake’s detriment.

Adrian is a shy, pet-shop clerk who lives with her verbally abusive brother, Paulie, Rocky’s best friend. She is intimidated by the rough and tough appearance of Rocky, who works as an enforcer for a loan shark when he is not boxing. Nonetheless, Rocky is kind and gentle to her, always showing her respect.

Their first date begins at an ice-skating rink, and ends back in Rocky’s apartment. Rocky has a mattress tied to a door frame he uses as a punching bag. There is a large knife stuck in the mattress. Rocky, in a tank-top, makes sure to display his imposing physique. Adrian backs away, but doesn’t leave. She is given the opportunity to leave, but she chooses not to. She knows she can leave, but she wants to stay. Rocky overcomes her modest resistance, and they seal the scene with a kiss.

This scene is considered problematic today in the wake of the “Me Too” movement. It is easy to criticize, and claim that it was very creepy, and a letdown to re-watch in modern times with modern sympathies, but the scene is pivotal for both characters.

Without the love between Rocky and Adrian, Adrian would remain the shy, demure girl who never comes out of her shell. The remaining movies portray her as confident and open, and she has a beautiful life through better and poorer with Rocky and the family they create.

Without falling in love with Adrian, Rocky would never discover his inner eye-of-the-tiger and he doesn’t have a reason to train hard nor to get back up when he’s knocked down in his pivotal first fight against Apollo Creed. Without the inner discipline Adrian brings to his life, he would be knocked out early and his story over before it began.

During that first fight, Rocky has been punched so many times, he’s broken his nose, and his eye has swollen shut. It need to be cut open for him to see. He has been knocked down several times. His apparently unlimited ability to absorb punishment and his refusal to quit take him to the last and 15th round. The fight ends with a flurry of blows from Rocky! It looks like he may knock out the champ! Alas, the final bell rings and Apollo wins by split decision.

The crowd is wild for Rocky though! David was on the verge of defeating Goliath!

What is on Rocky’s mind?

The girl that stole his heart and made it all possible. He says one thing — a name — several times: Adrian!

The movies are an interesting snapshot through American culture in the last half-century. The original film, released in 1976, shows a gritty, industrial side of Philadelphia symbolized by the loan sharks on the wharf and the meat processing plant where Rocky trains by punching large slabs of meat in a scene that Upton Sinclair could have written about.

The second, third, and fourth movies are all reminiscent of the culture and zeitgeist of the 1980s: everything is flashy and over-the-top. Mr. T and Hulk Hogan make appearances as Clubber Lang and Thunderlips respectively. Rocky and Apollo become unlikely friends.

The consistent theme is that Rocky must always go back to the basics and find the fire that exists inside of himself. It is a theme stressed to the max in the fourth movie where the evil, Russian boxer is taking steroids and has state-of-the-art equipment whereas Rocky resorts to old-fashioned ways of training in the cold, nether-regions of Siberia.

The fifth movie was released in 1990. It is generally considered the worst of the films in the series. It received negative reviews, and Sylvester Stallone has even expressed regret over the film. I remember watching it many years ago and being disappointed that the film ended haphazardly with a street-fight rather than a boxing match. This time, I still felt that same disappointment, but I found a new connection to the film.

Rocky’s son struggles with the change in their family’s lifestyle after they lost all of their wealth and were forced to move back into their hometown neighborhood. In the 1990s is was considered cool and tough for boys to wear an earring in only one of their ears. Growing up in the 1990s, I remember wanting to be cool and tough, and get my ear pierced. In the movie, Rocky’s son not only beats up his bully, but to fit into the rough neighborhood, he also wears a super-cool, dangly, sparkly earring.

It is probably for the best that I never did get my ear pierced, because my children couldn’t understand why the boy was wearing an earring. They expressed this disbelief even as two of them were wearing super-sparkly necklaces that have become popular in the youth baseball circuit. Today, the boys call it drippy.

Regardless of how you may feel about the brand of tough, meat-head masculinity displayed throughout the films, there is no denying that at least one aspect of the movies gives you the goosebumps no matter how many times you are exposed to it. It is arguably one of the most inspirational songs ever recorded, and there have likely been millions of miles run, and millions of pounds of weight lifted to its theme. The second I hear the horns, there are no amount of steps that could prevent me from pumping my fists in the air in victory at the top of them!

Rocky and Adrian’s love story comes to a close in the sixth movie. Rocky is old, and he has lost more. Adrian has passed away from cancer. His friend, Paulie, has been laid off from the meat processing plant. Rocky can only re-live his boxing days by telling stories to guests at his Italian restaurant, Adrian’s.

He revisits the ice-rink where everything began despite it being torn down and a pile of rubble. The movie ends with him at Adrian’s grave saying, “Yo Adrian, we did it,” recalling the end of the very first movie.

The quiet period that exists in Fall immediately before school starts is a time to reflect on the previous year. It is a time to meditate on the lessons from last year and set goals for the new year. Training montages aside, the films all have a theme that is maybe the most important lesson a young man needs to learn:

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.

It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.

But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.

Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you.

You’re better than that. 

— Rocky Balboa