Stallone actually said himself that Rocky isn't a boxing movie, it's a love story. So you're definitely right about the fight being the B-plot.

One of the things I love about this movie is that Apollo isn't the "bad guy", this is just about someone proving to themselves they deserve self worth.

Simone: Making fun it's going to be a romance movie. Everyone who has seen the movie: Smiling, not because it's funny but because it's true.

Both "Rocky" and "First Blood" sneak up on you. You expect them to be, as Simone put it, Beef-caky, but they're actually deep, well made and well acted movies.

The ice rink scene was originally written to feature 300 extras, but the production couldn't afford so many people. When Sylvester Stallone turned up to shoot the scene, to his horror, there was only one extra. So, Stallone hastily threw together the scene as it exists in the completed film. This scene has become one of the most popular in the entire Rocky saga.

Adrian's hat gets knocked off when she's trying to get to the ring after the fight and Rocky is soooo in love with her that (even through the chaos and physical pain he's experiencing) he notices immediately. It's a throwaway little line, but speaks volumes about their relationship as the first thing he says to her when she greets him in the ring is "where's your hat?"

Rocky's relationship with his boss is the most underrated aspect of this movie. Rocky's boss really cared about him.

That was actually Rocky's point. He wasn't really concerned about winning the fight. He just wanted to be able to not only give HIS best but also TAKE Apollo's best and last till the end of the fight, to test how worthy he is as a fighter.

Stallone was a total unknown (and only had $106 in the bank) when he wrote the script and no studio wanted to buy it, except for United Artists. They were very enthusiastic about the script and were gonna give it a big budget (~$5 million) and cast a huge star in the titular role. They didn't wanna cast an unknown like Stallone but he refused to sell unless he was cast. They even offered him up to $360,000 not to star in his own movie but he would not relent. They finally agreed to cast Stallone but he was only paid $35,000 ($15K of which he used to buy back his dog) and the movie was only given a budget of $1 million-- the logic being that if it flopped, it wouldn't have been too big a flop. It went on to become the highest grossing film of 1976 ($225 million worldwide which inflates to $1.1 billion+ today) and turned Stallone into an overnight star, and it also went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Imagine a $5 million indie film grossing $1.1 billion today.

Everyone knows Stallone but the acting all around in this movie was incredible. Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers and Burgess Meredith gave some of the most amazing performances on a shoe string budget. There will never be a small movie that had such an impact on movies like this again.

It's not just a training montage, it's THE training montage, this is when the trope solidified in popular culture, it stemmed out of this movie.

9:08 "The fight is the B plot, the A plot is him wooing the pet shop girl" Exactly right!

Rocky’s greatest lesson is that you can lose while simultaneously winning literally everything that actually matters. Also you might not have noticed him but one of Apollo’s bodyguards is played by Michael Dorn, Worf from Star Trek.

Burgess Meredith (Mick) never played Popeye, but he was the first actor to play the Batman villain The Penguin on the 60s TV show.

Burgess Meredith is a fricking legend. I don't think anyone appeared in half as many top tier classic episodes of the Twilight Zone. Seriously, watching The Obsolete Man should be mandatory viewing for everyone.

Burgess Meredith (Mickey) was one of the best character actors ever. He was classically trained and did film, television and theater. He was The Penguin in the 1960s 'Batman' series, played George in the 1939 film adaptation of John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men', was Aemon in the 1981 'Clash of the Titans', and was Grandpa Gustafson in both 'Grumpy Old Men' and 'Grumpier Old Men' films...playing Jack Lemmon's father (and he basically steals every scene he is in. He never played Popeye...sorry.

Rocky hitting the side of beef: Paulie: “You’re breaking the ribs.” Round 14: Breaks Apollo’s ribs. Brilliant.

I always felt like Mick always believed in Rocky, but he hated that he became a thug, and that is when he gave up on him. So the fight with Apollo was a way for him to help Rocky prove what Mick already knew, that he was a great boxer.

As Stallone once said "It's not about how many times Life knocks you down, it's all about being able to get back up." Even on his sixth(?) Rocky movie his co-workers were amazed at the amount of work he put into every part of it. I saw this in the theaters as a teenager and it was amazing. Yes, it's the movie that started all the training montages too.!

28:12 This scene hit me a lot harder than it seemed to for you guys the first time I watched it. Paulie is a selfish but broken man in pain. Adrian is trapped by her shyness affliction and suddenly flips. It just seems such an accurate reflection of real life where family members depend on each other, take each other for granted, loathe yet love each other at the same time. So gritty and unexpected. Apart from the ending, this scene and the scene at Rocky's place with Mickey are the best scenes for me.

"Let's get ready to rumbleeeee!!!" Was almost 8 yrars after this movie came out. Popularized by Michael Buffer, a boxing ring announcer. Later in the mid 90's he did cameos in wrestling organizations using that catchphrase. I think he even released a song based on it.

I grew up in Philadelphia. Rocky is a legendary, mythical character in Philly to this day. The theme song is played at Eagles and Flyers games to pump up the crowds. Every hour of every day, there are people running up the Rocky steps at the art museum. This movie and Rocky Balboa will live forever in pop culture!

"Rocky" won best picture the year it was released... an amazing story that STILL holds up well with audiences. "Rocky II" was a great follow-up. "Rocky III" and "Rocky IV" was good - but not to the same quality. As a bit of an OCD completion-ist I would go ahead and watch "Rocky V" ... the follow-up sequel "Rocky Balboa" was a GREAT return to form for the series and a nice close-out to this series. Stallone felt they were done and had put away the character for good after "Rocky Balboa" and then someone came to him with a new idea and new angle to continue the story... and thus we got "Creed" (in which Stallone earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination) and "Creed II"

I'm always so interested watching the first time reactions of people who don't know much about Rocky. The later movies are definitely more straightforward sports movies, but the first one is such a good character study and romance. It's kind of like how people just hear "Rambo" and think "super violent action movie" and then watch First Blood and realize that movie, while it's certainly got some of those elements, has SUCH a deeper meaning and is about PTSD and the treatment of Vietnam vets upon returning home and is, likewise, as much a character study as anything else, and only the sequels went full-fledged action hero.

"He doesn't know it's a damn show! He thinks it's a damn fight!" Love it!

Most people are surprised to realize that this is a love story at its heart. Rocky going the distance is just as much about his relationship with Adrian as it is about the boxing match.

RIP Carl Weathers...deserved an Oscar for this role.

Probably my favorite line from this movie, "it doesn't really matter what happens, I just wanna go the distance. Cause if that bell rings and I'm still standing, I'll know for the first time in my life that I'm not just another bum from the neighborhood." That line just hits so damn hard, seeing him finally open up to Adrianne. Rocky and Rambo: First Blood both take people completely by surprise, as everyone goes in expecting the standard 70s/80s action tropes (or as Simone called it, "beef-cakey"), only to find that the action of the movie is really just a B plot that's more the setting than the actual story. Rocky is a love story that just happens to include some boxing, and First Blood is....well, you'll see, if you decide to watch it.

My favorite film of all time. You HAVE to watch Rocky 2 as soon as you can. Rocky 1 & 2 is essentially one film split into two parts.

Apollo's biggest defeat is him cheering at the end. He was the undefeated, uncontested world champion. Nobody wanted to even challenge him, his entire persona was built around his total dominance. Rocky completely shattered that. That he was uncertain about the victory is his defeat. Rocky OTOH won just by standing at the end, that's why he cared nothing about the decision. In his mind, his boxing days are over, he proved to himself what he wanted to prove, and that's it, now all he thinks about is Adrian. Oh, and they agreed to not having a rematch. So, what happens in Rocky II? :)

Back then, most pro boxing fights were 15 rounds in length. But as concerns over serious brain injuries in boxing grew, matches were shortened to 12 or even 10 rounds. They also wear bigger gloves for more protection, and the referees are now more responsible to step in and stop a fight if they see that one of the fighters is too injured, unable to defend themselves, or otherwise unable to continue the fight. This is quite evident in the Rocky films. Though they're fictional and the fights are quite dramaticized, Rocky takes an absurd amount of punishment. The refs of that era may have allowed those fights to continue, but it is extremely unlikely that a ref in the sport today wouldn't stop a fight if a boxer took as much of a beating as Rocky took.

I wrote something similar in another reaction post about this movie. Rocky isn't just a boxing movie. It's a movie about the has-beens of society. It's a film about the losers, forgotten masses, shy introverts, and others that never got a chance just because of their environment. Rocky is a good guy. But, you'd look at him and call him a no-account loser that can't win a decent fight and works for a loan shark. Adrienne is so cast aside from life that she's little more than scenery. Mickey, the trainer, had the talent but no help or training. It took him 50 years of fighting and training others to gain the tools to be a good fighter. Even the loan shark is a relatively nice guy that gives Rocky money as a gift. When have you ever heard a loan shark give money away? He knows he's seen as scum in the neighborhood. So, he does the nicest thing just to help out a friend. And, Rocky is more than a employee. He's a friend. That's why the loan shark doesn't get angry when Rocky doesn't hurt people. He's disappointed and explains how it hurts his business, but he doesn't have Rocky beaten. Boxing, the sweet science, is the perfect activity for this movie. People think of boxers and people in MMA as mean, aggressive dummies. That could not be further from the truth. I trained in martial arts, did some boxing, did some kick boxing, etc... Fighters and trainers are some of the nicest people you'd ever meet. Now, when the bell rings they will try to take your head off. But, once the final bell rings they shake your hand and probably buy you a beer whether they win or lose.

I grew up in a small working-class town in the 70s, and this is how a lot of people were. Pauli reminds me of a lot of people I knew growing up. It's sad but true, but people have changed a lot since then.

Stallone wrote the script in 3 days, if I remember right. And he had the stipulation that the movie studio could only get it if he played the title character. The studio reaaaallly didn't like that, and wanted to cast a far more known actor, but the eventually relented. When they were looking for an actor who could play Apollo (whose personality is partially based on Mohammed Ali), they looked at several and Stallone would also sit in for the casting calls. When Carl Weathers came in, they explained that his character would be fighting Stallone's character. Weathers said, in a most Apollo voice, "I have to fight this chump?!" Stallone knew instantly they had their guy.

I never realized how close this was made to The Godfather. Talia Shire was in some big hits in the 70’s.

Fun fact -- when Rocky's getting reprimanded by his boss & his boss pulls out the inhaler, that was the ACTOR, needing a hit from his inhaler. It wasn't a scripted moment, it just happened.

You are correct sir, gloves made it more dangerous. Less likely to break your hand thus more volume of punches and more on them. Reasoning behind it was too many fights ending early (which is kinda funny considering how long they used to fight) because of broken hands and superficial cuts. Gloves helped curb those things albeit at the cost of additional brain trauma

I believe Stallone still has those Turtles.

Did you notice the food being thrown in the first fight? Those were the "Extras" promised chicken if they stay while the match gets filmed; as you see, by the time the match is over, they're throwing the chicken bones around!

All the comments are great, but nobody is mentioning how Iconic and Perfect the music score is. Bill Conti ABSOLUTELY nailed it! It ties into the movie so seamlessly that it plays like an opera.

The actor playing the loan shark (Joe Spinelli) was in the first two Godfather movies, Nighthawks (which also starred Stallone) and lots of other films. I don't believe he ever had any huge roles, but lots of character work. He pulled out the inhaler in the scene with Rocky because he truly needed it. He was sickly. They were filming the scene and he realized he needed it. So, he pulled it out and used it. It made the cut.

It's one of the all-time great love stories. It's also an incredible time capsule of life in the 70's. Rocky II is a great sequel, but the rest of the franchise doesn't live up to it. Rocky Balboa (2006) however is fantastic.

You should continue watching this entire franchise

Director John G. Avildsen would also go on to make another pop culture staple w/ The Karate Kid (1984). Definitely check out that trilogy and catch up on one of the most revered TV shows right now: Cobra Kai.

Did you….Rickroll…everyone at the very beginning? Lol

The reason Pauly is so mean, cruel, and surly is he is supposed to represent what Rocky COULD BE if his life was like everyone else in the neighborhood. This is why they referenced being a 'bum' so much... from the opening scene fight when someone in the crowd called him a bum, to when he had his night of the soul moment before the fight when he said if he could just go the distance against Creed then he knew he wouldn't just be another 'bum from the neighborhood'.

Why Rocky won a academy award for best picture is this film is so good.

when me and my sisters were little, my dad would wake us up on a saturday morning playing the the rocky song on record full blast. and we'd all run down stairs at jump around in the living room. it was awesome. my dad did some golden gloves boxing when he was young so this movies is nostalgic for us. thank you for watching this!

I love how practically all of Sly's family were in this movie. Even his dog

"Let's get ready to rumble!" is a trademarked catchphrase by the announcer Michael Buffer so no one else is allowed to say it in a professional match without his OK. He gets $25,000 to $100,000 per fight to be the announcer. He's earned $400 million from the phrase, licensing it for boxing, wrestling, football, movies, video games, etc.

Funny thing is, Paulie was an actual boxer when he was young. Had an impressive record too

Sylvester Stallone was in Cleveland Ohio one evening watching a nationally known, ranked boxer fight a relative unknown from the area, which is where he came up with the idea for the script. He became only the 3rd person in history to be nominated for an Academy Award for writing and acting in the same film.

Adrian is the heart and soul of these movies!

I was so happy to see someone else appreciate the apartment scene when Mick shows up to pitch being his manager and the end when Rocky finally lets it out. You nailed the reaction I had when first seeing it. There are few scenes that powerful in any movies to this day. Sylvester Stallone pisses me off because he had so much talent as an actor and wasted it on so many bad movies.

Yeah, that scene with Mickie in Rocky's apartment is genuinely one of the best scenes ever IMO! Love it! And loved your reaction, hope you definitely check out the next 2! :) (you HAVE to watch at least Rocky II ;) )

To this day the two most amazing parts about Rocky are that it was filmed on a budget of $1 million in less than a month made over $250 million at the box office and received 9 or 10 Oscar nominations winning three of them including best picture

One of my favorite movies. I watch it probably 15 times a year. It was written to be a love story. The boxing was just the device used to get there. Notice Rocky did not care what the outcome was. His focus was to let Adrian know he loves her. He even noticed her hat was gone because she was his focus. Part 2 is also great writing. 3 is where the stories start to tail off into silly but Stallone keeps the stories focused on relationships throughout until the fantastic final chapter which is “Rocky Balboa” where you witness the greatest father/son moment ever In a movie.

just discovered you guys today, and been CineBinging for about 8 hours ... great content! You have great taste in movies and interesting insights, also you are models of politeness and courtesy. Its a pleasure reliving these old films with you, thanks!

When Stallone just starting sprinting with everything he's got in the montage and Simone said "He's just givin'er!" I've never felt the Canadian vibes harder lol

Remember: this movie won the Oscars for best movie, best director and best editor in 1977.

The 70s had some amazing movies - a decade of more somber, "grown up" cinema before the simplistic fun of over-the-top action took over in the 80s. Movies like Annie Hall, Three Days of the Condor, Taxi Driver and Serpico are well worth a watch - also The Godfather, Deer Hunter, The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon etc. It's a somewhat neglected decade of filmmaking - but there are some true gems.

For all those Batman fans... Micky played the Penguin in the 67 Batman TV series with Adam West. Fun fact: the boxing rounds were shot in reverse order. They found it was easier to start them off in full makeup and as the rounds went on, they removed the makeup until the first round; where they are all clean.

Trivia 1) The Steadycam was invented for the scene on the stairs. Trivia 2) Burt Young (the actor of Paulie) could´ve whacked em all. He was (at his time) an undefeated heavyweight boxer.

Such a beautiful film. Won the Oscar for best picture. Adrian & Rocky both grow stronger and better through their love for each other. Inspires people everyday to be their best self. Masterpiece To answer a few of your questions: There were 15 rounds back then. Only 10 I think now. The "Cut Me" shot was a real thing back in the day. Illegal but necessary because the wounds fill with pus. Stallone wrote all 6 Rocky's (directed 2 through 4 and then 6.....1 & 5 are directed by John G Avildsen, same director as Karate Kid)

The dog is named Butkus after Dick Butkus (a truly unfortunate name) who was a legendary lHall of Fame linebacker for the Chicago Bears in the 1950s.

If you all watch the other movies you can see how much Rocky loved Adrian… it’s heart breaking in some scenes to see how much he misses her once she’s gone heartbroken 💔

In those days they fought 15 rounds for championship bouts, now it's 12. There is a point system, the winner of each round as determined by 3 judges gets 10 points, the loser 9 unless there is a knockdown, in which case 7 or 8.

What a great movie series to get into you will love it! Sylvester Stallone gave literally everything he had to get this movie done in the end it won Best Picture Best Director Best Film Editing and Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire(From The Godfather movies) got nominated for Best Actor And Actress so he might have played an uneducated boxer but he had the smarts to make sure the role of Rocky was played only by himself!

Really great reaction y'all! I loved that you really felt the emotion of Rocky's outburst in his apartment! It's one of my favorite scenes and a real insight on a character that doesn't usually let people know he's hurting and can't even tell Mick to his face. Hope you continue with the Rocky series, it's pretty cool to watch them all fairly close together to see the through-lines of the whole story 😊

Saw in the theater and still that scene in his apt with Rocky and Mickey gets me every time , thanks again

when Simone got teary eyed about the argument between Rocky and Micky... very sweet

Michael Buffer, the "Let's get ready to Rumble!" guy, didn't start announcing fights until 1982, 6 years after this film was made.

Doesn’t this make you want to go for a run? “ Hell No” hahaha classic!

The funny thing about his training scene when he's running, is that those sections of the city don't even connect lol. It just looks good for the movie

Some of my favorite Burgess Meredith rolls: The librarian in The Twilight Zone, the Penguin in the Batman series, The manager for Anthony Hopkin's character in the movie "Magic" (1978), Of Mice and Men, Grumpier old Men.

CineBinge - the old guy, is Burgess Merideth, he played the PENGUIN in the Batman TV series and in the 70's Batman MOVIE.

I don't think Burgess Meredith ever played Popeye ... but he played the Penguin in the Batman TV series from the 50's or whenever that was

Amazing how 1970s films have impeccable composition in story and dialogue. Those were the years when 'It' was all about the script. These days we have films where Sean Penn or Jessica Chastain don't even have lines to speak.

Not sure if you guys realized, but the actress who plays Adrian, Talia Shire, played Connie Corleone, the younger sister of Michael Corleone, in the Godfather movies. She's also the real life sister of Francis Ford Coppola, the director of The Godfather.

Sylvester Stallone said it too, that this film was a love story, not a sports movie. Even at the end the only thing Rocky thinks about is Adrian, as she NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP NEVER GONNA LET YOU Down NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND DESERT YOU

I don't know if you noticed. Adrian is Connie from The Godfather.

The reason the audience looks like stock footage is that they shot that fight at two different arenas. One of the arenas was much smaller, so they kept it dark to hide how small it was. I was at a film shoot for Man On The Moon at the smaller arena in the '90s. Apparently it's owned by a Korean church now.

Stallone still has those exact turtles (Cuff and Link) He was injured being born and his speech impediment is due to some paralysis in his face. Don't let it fool you, Stallone is a smart guy. There's a documentary where Stallone talks about getting Rocky made. Selling his dog, living rough, fighting to sell the movie with himself as the star, refusing to sell it other than as a package deal. His misinterpretation of what his peers thought of the movie at the pre-release screening for people in the 'biz'.

Rocky 2 is to me in the top ten movies of all time.

The scene that is key to the movie is the one where he is lying in bed and says to Adrian that he knows he can't win, he just wants to be the first person to go the distance against Apollo. Then he'll know that he's somebody, and not just some bum. That's how/why it's a happy ending, he achieved his goal. Ironically, that scene almost wasn't filmed. They were running behind and the studio wanted to skip it, but Stallone insisted. They gave him literally one take to do it, and he nailed it.

The reason he talks so much at Adrian is because he's very very passionate about her and boxing.

This is one of my top 5 movies and it's flawless. It's my favorite screenplay of all time, by far. I don't know if it was in the original screenplay, but the choice to have Rocky run after Mickey to accept him as his manager in a wordless scene is beyond brilliant.

I strongly recommend watching EVERY movie with the subtitles on. It will make you get used to reading subtitles fast (which is a great skill to have if you want to watch a lot of foreign films and actually ENJOY them), and in the case of English films, you get to acclimate into an accent faster and get the more complete experience compared to missing words and expressions due to not understanding them.

Wait ... no thumbnail of Simone drinking a blender full of raw eggs?? Missed opportunity, there! ;-) Also, FUN FACT*: The scene running up the stairs with Rocky was the very first use of Steadicam in a film, if I remember correctly (which is why I put the asterisk after 'Fact').

A phenomenal film, and one of the very first to use a steadicam for both the fight scenes and the training montages (especially the running up the steps). You can even see it being used around the ring in some shots.

Burgess Meredith (Mickey) played The Penguin in the original Batman TV series. He was also well known from a classic Twilight Zone episode called "Time Enough At Last."

Rocky is obviously a really good movie, but if you ever get a chance, you should react to Cinderella Man (2005), an even more amazing boxing drama, set during the Great Depression, and a true story, starring Russell Crowe, Renee Zelwegger, and Paul Giamatti.

The sequels are all great up until Rocky 5. Also, random request but you guys should consider Cinderella Man as a boxing movie. Literally only one channel has done a reaction to it and it's one of the best sports movies ever made.

Not Butt-kiss-Butkus! Named after a famous football player, Dick Butkus, who played for the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1973. The old guy is the great Burgess Meredith who famously played The Penguin in the Batman series in the mid 60s. Mick is probably his best remembered performance for good reason.

I love it when people watch Rocky for the first time and it's absolutely not what they are expecting. Great reaction to a great movie

The Rocky franchise is my absolute favorite. Rocky and Rocky II are the absolute best. 3 and 4 are also great , but 5 should be skipped. Six is Rocky Balboa, which was shockingly good. Then you have Creed 1 and 2, which like you guessed is about Apollo’s son. But Rocky is also a major part of the story.

Please react to Rocky ll!

Micky was played by Burgess Meredith he had a very long acting career, He even played the penguin in the Batman tv series!

The man that passes by at 14:03, who Rocky tells to "get a job, bum", is Stallone's brother Frank.

lets get ready to rumble is Michael Buffer's phrase as ring announcer. and he started in 1982, six years after this movie. later he did WCW for Hogan fights.