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Specifications: - Region 1 - Run time: approx. 119 min. - Subtitles: French, Spanish -
Menus: Animated - Package: Keep case - 25 chapters
Video Features: -
Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio Features: - English: Dolby Digital 5.1 - English: Mono -
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus Materials: -
Audio commentary by director -
Video commentary by Sylvester -
"Behind-the-scenes" featurette with - "A Tribute to Burgess Meredith" - "A Tribute to James Crabe" - Collectible booklet (2 pages) -
Original theatrical trailers for Rocky - Original TV spots (3)
Theatrical Release: 11/21/76 DVD Release: 04/24/01 Review Date: 05/07/01
List price: $ 19.98 On-line price: $ 14.49 Pre-order price was: $ 13.99
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Rocky Winner Academy Award® for Best Picture (1976) |
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Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess Meredith
Director: John G. Avildsen
MPAA Rating: PG Genre: Action - Drama Studio: United Artists (MGM Home Entertainment)
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Movie: B+ Video: C- Audio: C+ Extras: B+
Summary:
"Rocky" is crowd-pleasing knock-out
blockbuster film that is the first of
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The Story
Sylvester Stallone wrote this screenplay and starred in his own motion picture, which on three counts is a huge success: a box office smash, winner of the Academy Award® for Best Picture, and its critical acclaim. Sylvester Stallone plays the lead role as Rocky Balboa, a Philadelphia club boxer who goes by the name of "The Italian Stallion" and works as a tough guy for a loan shark when he is not training. In boxing, his trainer realizes that he has potential, but Rocky doesn't have the drive to further his career as a boxer. While he dabbles from one fight to another, he courts a shy young woman, Adrian (Talia Shire), an employee at a local pet shop. What begins seemingly as awkward dates flourishes into a strong relationship where both draw their personal strengths.
Meanwhile, the current heavyweight boxing champ, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), is looking for an exhibition boxing match to celebrate the most important day in the nation's history (which by the way I thought would be Independence Day, but the movie portrays it as if it were New Year's Day. Huh? Perhaps this is due to the production schedule of the movie. Who knows?). Anyways, without a worthy contender, Apollo comes up with an interesting proposition. He picks a local Philadelphia boxer to fight, saying that it exemplifies that America is a land of opportunity where an amateur boxer can go head-to-head with the reigning world champ. His publicists and promoters agree that it would be a great sell and decide to sponsor the event. Luck would have it that Apollo picks Rocky as his opponent. With inspiration from new-found love, Rocky reluctantly goes for the challenge and takes the next six weeks to train for the highly promoted event. Though Rocky doesn't expect to defeat the heavyweight champ, he strives to put up a good fight, hoping to survive enough rounds to prove to himself that he is a worthy contender and can go the distance.
Mickey (Burgess Meredith), a coach at the local gym where Rocky trains, volunteers to be his coach and manager. With a serious and disciplined training program, Rocky becomes ready for the big showdown. Though the odds are against him, Rocky delivers and proves that he is a worthy contender. I know it's hard to believe, but until this DVD, I had not ever seen a Rocky movie. What I had expected coming in was a plot that centered its focus on boxing and would be shallow around the edges. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the very rich character studies of Rocky, Adrian, and the people involved in their lives. The plot is equally rich in drama, with of course an obligatory but exciting finale of the boxing match that finally knocked me out with an unexpected emotional climax. Ding-ding. And the winner is... "Rocky"!
The Extras
The bonus features on this Special Edition DVD includes: an audio commentary by director John G. Avildsen, producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, Talia Shire and Burt Young; a video commentary by Sylvester Stallone, a 12-minute "Behind-the-Scenes" featurette with director John G. Avildsen that includes never-before-seen footage (based on his 8mm film of fighting sequence screen tests); "A Tribute to Burgess Meredith" featurette (8 minutes, narrated by Sylvester Stallone); "A Tribute to James Crabe [cinematographer]" featurette (3 minutes, narrated by director John Avildsen); a two-page collectible booklet; original theatrical trailers ("Rocky Teaser Trailer", "Rocky", "Rocky II", "Rocky III", "Rocky IV", "Rocky V"); and three original Rocky TV spots.
Listening to Sylvester Stallone speak in his very honest and revealing video commentary featurette, I come to realize the amazing success story behind Sly's real-life success. He was living in serious poverty just before striking it really big with this movie's huge success. It's hard to imagine that Sly was ever an "underdog". Interestingly enough, "Rocky" plays out on-screen an analogy to its real-world box office success, Academy Award® win for Best Picture, and Sylvester Stallone's real-life career success as an actor. Pretty amazing how real life parallels fiction.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic widescreen DVD is only fair, even when considering the age of this movie. There are frequent dust specks and other blemishes in the film stock that mars the transfer. Fortunately, the colors are generally accurate and saturated, with good shadow detail. The Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound is a special DVD remix of what was probably a mono soundtrack. The surround channels were not used much in this remix, if at all. The catchy "Rocky" theme plays nicely over the front three channels, while the dialog came across clearly.
Recommendation
For fans of this film, "Rocky" is available in this 25-year anniversary special edition, or as part of the 5-disc Complete Rocky Collection that includes Rocky II-V. And right now, if you want one of the "Rocky" sequels, you can't buy them individually. The sequels are currently only available as a 5-disc Complete Rocky Collection, or a "Rocky II-V" 4-disc set. Those of you who have seen this film, and are wondering if the bonus features are worth the price of renting the DVD? Maybe, if you're interested in seeing the film again.
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