Rocky (1976): A small time boxer gets a once in a lifetime chance to fight the heavyweight champ in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.

Rocky is definitely one of my favorite movies from my childhood. I remember getting a small bouncing ball and play with while walking in the streets. I never wanted to be a boxer though, and that says a lot about the dramatic parts of this story.

I always remembered Rocky’s way of walking, his face and his smile, and his relationship with Adrian and Paulie. That’s why I remember most fondly about it. But of course I also remember the training scenes, and the box matches, those are just icon images.

Watching Rocky Balboa recently sparked my nostalgia for Rocky, so I went back and re-watched all of them. I hadn’t seen the first 3 movies in a long long time, plus I only watched them in Italian dub, so I was curious to see them in their original language.

I knew that the first film was more about the love story and Rocky’s character, but I was surprised that the boxing match lasted less than 10 minutes of a total running time of 2 hours. And the previous training sequence was also very short.

The rest of the story is all about Rocky and Adrian’s love story. And I really like this story. Adrian is a very shy girl, in fact she always looks down at the floor. But she is a sweet girl, and I can see why Rocky would like her.

Rocky is not the brightest man in the world, but he has a huge heart and he can almost see people’s souls. He is the only friend Paulie has, because he knows Paulie is a good man inside. He is also a funny guy, not in the comedic sense, but he just feels like a good genuine guy to hang with. He feels intimidated by what’s happening to him, almost like a fish out of water, but he knows what he wants and he has conviction to do it.

Mickey is a great supporting character, with his voice and expression. Every time he makes an insult I just laugh. A tough but lovable character. Apollo is the villain of the story, and as such the little screen time he gets is spent making fun of Rocky and being an ass.

I was surprised to learn that Rocky actually wanted to retire in this first movie!! How ironic that 30 years later he is still fighting…

The music by Bill Conti is another one of those classic themes that everybody will recognize. Listening to the theme people will think of Rocky running up those stairs and putting his fists up, or just boxing in the ring. But it also is a great score for the love scenes, or the dramatic scenes. I almost tear up when I hear it and think about Adrian and Rocky.

The final fight is very quick, I didn’t feel as much tension as in later fights, but it was still fun. But the emotions pour out at the end, when Rocky looks for Adrian and shouts “ADRIAN!!”. That always gets me.

As much as I love this movie, at times it does feel slow, not necessarily boring, but some scenes didn’t feel like they were going anywhere and felt a little bit dragging.

That said I still love this movie and will gladly watch it again in the future. I will not wait that long to watch it again.

Rating: 4 Stars