Rocky IV (part 1 of 2)

“The eye of the tiger, the eye of the tiger…” who could have forgotten that iconic phrase in Rocky III?

To claim that the Rocky series is one of the best sports stories of all time is an understatement as far as films go—and that is if you overlook the fact that I have only had the chance to experience the previous three installments.

A quick glance of the Wikipedia page was all that I needed to reassure myself that this movie would be as exhilarating as the previous ones. Perhaps the most noticeable fact is that Rocky IV is the most commercially successful feature in the whole series (including the recent Rocky Balboa).

That is no reason to rejoice though: box office performance does not necessarily constitute a consistently high level of quality for the film, vice versa. What it probably translates to is mass appeal— the values, perspectives or even the story itself conforms to the mentality of the average cinema-goers. Rocky in itself is a concept, an abstraction of one of the most ubiquitous (and hackneyed) scenarios - that the underdog miraculously pulls off a stunning victory against the powers that be.

Knowing fully what this genre has to offer, I was certainly not expecting a gut-wrenching melodrama, nor a hysterical comedy. Rocky is a classic albeit formulaic David versus Goliath story, and being familiar with Sylvester Stallone’s style, I was expecting more of the same “balls-to-the-walls” (excuse the French) performance right down to the thick Italian accent and that distinctive devil-may-care attitude. After all he WAS the Italian Stallion.

The credits after the opening sequence laid it all out on the table clear as day: that same pulsating theme music, clearly designed to evoke that familiar emotion, plays as prominently as ever, unadulterated, identical to the one played in the original Rocky, made almost 10 years prior. I imagined myself being fully prepared for this scene, but I was shocked how I was still caught a little off-guard, and how effective this technique of making use of the same music is in bring the audience right back into the story.


...to be continued

+listening to: 3x5 by john mayer