Sylvester Stallone takes Rocky one more round
By John Kuebler

This is the time of year for holiday traditions – a time for families to come together to celebrate their most cherished rituals: decorating the home, preparing favorite meals, going to see the most current chapter of the Rocky Balboa saga.

Rocky has been an American tradition for 30 years. The first film in 1976, more a romance than an action film, was made on a shoestring budget and catapulted writer and star Sylvester Stallone and his screen counterpart, Rocky Balboa, into Hollywood history.

The story of an everyman getting a shot at the heavyweight boxing title mirrored Stallone’s own life’s story, at least metaphorically. When the studio optioned his great script, he insisted on one firm caveat: he would play the lead role.

Three decades years later, the sixth, and likely the final installment in the Rocky story, Rocky Balboa, agin resembles Stallone’s life, perhaps, than any movie since the original. Here we find a 58-year old Balboa leading a lonely existence after the death of his beloved wife Adrian. When a local sportscast speculates whether the former champ could have triumphed over the current titleholder, the fire in Balboa’s belly flares up and he prepares for a surprising return to the ring.

“When people turn 45, 50, 55, a lot of them have a lot of fire in their guts,” Stallone said. “It’s still there, but society is telling them, guess what? Your time is up. Move over. Make room for someone else.”

Whether Stallone is speaking of himself or his character is ambiguous. He had said that his hopes of making this one last Rocky film had been all but dashed by MGM execs who told him it was time to move on. But Stallone was unhappy with the less than noble ending the character had receive in Rocky 5, as were most Rocky fans.

“I thought I was gonna round out, you know, sort of the down side of success and people would accept it,” Stallone said. “But it was morbid. It was a big, big letdown, and it ate at me like you don’t know. I could’ve taken anything but to blow Rocky.”

When Stallone met with Revolution Films executive Joe Roth at a Mexican Restaurant one New Year’s Eve a few years back, Roth asked to read the script Stallone had been working on. Roth called Stallone the next day. The Italian Stallion would get one more shot at glory.

The character-driven script truly does resemble the excellent original story. And if one can suspend belief long enough to imagine a 58-year-old man climbing into the ring with a buffed-up former light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver (as Mason “The Line” Dixon), Rocky Balboa is a surprisingly enjoyable film.

Or maybe it’s not surprising. Rocky Balboa gives fans what they have come to expect and enjoy: the story of an underdog with a lot of heart. And of course an incredible fight scene in the end. Stallone is hopeful for the success of what he calls his favorite Rocky story, but he understands the likely audience trepidation. He said, “It goes against the grain of most people to see the sixth installment of anything.”

Even so, this is the Rocky fans will want to see. This is the ending we never got. With Rocky Balboa, Rocky has truly come full circle. Now we can put him to rest.