I don't watch movies in the theatre all that often because frankly I cannot afford it. However I like to pass on a recommendation when I catch up to a good one.
Today I watched the movie "Rocky Balboa." It was a far cry from the formula driven Rocky II, III, IV, and V and resembled more the first hit in the series. It resembled the 1976 materpiece because Sylvester Stallone once again had a story to tell and something to say. Stallone will never get his due as long as he lives for creating two enduring characters in American fiction, John Rambo and Rocky Balboa. He will not get credit for his artistic genius because his creations took place after the 1960s. They came into existence after Hollywood started shying away from the John Waynesque or James Stewartesque American male hero.
Rocky Balboa works on many levels, as a story and a metaphor. Rocky is aging. His wife died of cancer, but he remains devoted to her memory through the entire film. Stallone breaks the Hollywood mandate that unrelated male and female leads must eventually have sex or at least look like they want to. The female lead remains a friend and Rocky remains wedded to the memory of his wife. It was refreshing that a male and a female could be friends in a movie. Anyway, Rocky gets a chance to fight an exhibition against the world champion, Mason Dixon. Dixon is undefeated but has never been tested. Rocky is given (of course) no chance and is treated as kind of a joke.
This is where it works as a metaphor, whether or not Stallone meant it. Stallone could represent the American heroic male as we rarely see in a movie. He is strong, tough, tries to hide the emotions that are destroying him, and faces everything with quiet courage. Stallone's Rocky in this movie is reminiscent of John Wayne's character J. B. Books in "The Shootist." This character also looked like a personalized metaphor for twentieth century fame. Rocky is an extremely kind and generous man who made his name through violence. He is a hero that we never see in movies anymore. Hollywood loves to mock and joke about the old hero images of earlier movies, just as Rocky absorbs insults and jokes in the movie.
What makes this a conservative movie? In one scene the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania denies Rocky a license to box. He replies with a monologue that attacks the government's right to deprive a man of his rights even for his own good. His son questions, at first, his decision to fight again and whines about living in his shadow. Rocky does not validate the whine or the selfish emotions behind it. He instead questions his son's courage and challenges him to be his own man, saying that nothing will hit as hard as life itself and that a man must get back up after taking the hardest hits. His son responds by quitting a job where his boss walked all over him and helps his father train.
It's a story about a good man being a hero by facing challenges laid before him by life. It attacks Hollywood's persistent undermining of male heroism by presenting a lifelike example of the figure it loves to mock more than anything, the good, even saintly, man of honor and action. Stallone pulls this movie off perfectly, making it about the characters more than the action. The exected training montage looks superfluous, but you can't leave it out.
This movie is also about Mason Dixon. He has no respect as a boxing champion because he never faced a real challenge. Stallone is saying with this character that there is no respect and no credibility unless you earn it first. You only earn it by facing a real challenge.
Rocky Balboa is a film about courage, facing challenges, and what it truly means to be a man.
It's a movie and it's a message that you never see anymore except on Turner Classic Movies. I highly recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment