Rocky's 45th birthday
On November 20, 1976, the premiere of the film "Rocky" directed by John G. Avildsen took place in New York.
Everyone knows that Sylvester Stallone played a crucial role in the creation of this film. But perhaps not everyone knows the history of the creation of this film.
In 1967, 21-year-old Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone decided to become an actor and entered the drama department of the University of Miami. After two years of studying at this faculty, Michael Stallone began trying to find an application for his acting abilities in film and television. But apart from episodic roles for several hundred dollars and without mentioning in the credits or roles in porn films, it was not possible to find other work in the cinema. The young Stallone earned his livelihood by working as a doorman, cleaning animal cages in a circus, butchering fish at the market, etc. By the spring of 1975, Sylvester Stallone's bank account (he began to be called Sylvester since 1970) had as much as 106 dollars. He even had to sell his beloved dog for $ 50, because there were no funds to buy food for her.
In March 1975, an event took place in the sports world of the USA, which, as many believe, inspired Sylvester Stallone to write the script for the future movie "Rocky". Namely, a fight took place between a fairly average boxer Chuck Wepner and the absolute boxing world champion Mohammed Ali. Chuck Wepner managed to hold out in this fight for as many as 15 rounds and even sent the world star of professional boxing to a knockdown. According to legend, Stallone, impressed by this fight, wrote the script of the film in three days. To the description of the fight which formed the base of the script, Stallone added several well-known facts from the biographies of famous boxers, in particular, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, Rocky Graziano. Even the name of the main character did not have to think much, since two of the 4 prototypes were named "Rocky".
It is possible that the original version of the script, which Stallone showed to his familiar producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, really, he wrote in three days. But it is known that after that he rewrote this script nine times, following the producers' adjustments. Finally, the script was refined to a level that satisfied the producers. Moreover, they offered Sylvester Stallone $ 350,000 (equivalent to the current $ 1.8 million) for the sale of the film rights. Here it is - the finest hour in the life of a begging actor! After receiving the fee, Stallone first bought back his dog. She then starred in the movie.
But Stallone managed not only to sell the script at an unprecedented price. He also managed to include an important condition into the purchase and sale agreement. Namely, he made it a condition for the sale of the rights to the script to grant him the main role in the film. Stallone's condition slightly discouraged Winkler and Chartoff. The fact is that in parallel they were negotiating with the United Artists film company, which had already provided a budget of $ 2 million for the film. But only on the condition that someone from the recognized stars at that time will star in the main role. For example, Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds or James Caan.
In the end, a compromise was reached between the film company, the producers and Sly (Sylvester Stallone's nickname): Stallone will star in the main role, his fee will be 23 thousand dollars (the equivalent of the current 110 thousand dollars), the film company will allocate only one million dollars for the production of the picture instead of the planned two, all additional costs in excess of a million will be covered by the producers at their own expense. Such rather tough financial conditions led, firstly, to the appointment of little-known John G. Avildsen as the director of the film, and secondly, the tight deadlines for filming. The film was shot in just 28 days.
Despite all the savings measures, it was not possible to meet the allocated budget. The expenses exceeded the planned budget by 100 thousand dollars. To cover this excess budget, the producers had to mortgage their homes. But, apparently, Winkler and Chartoff had first-class entrepreneurial flair and knew what they were going for. The box office of the film "Rocky" amounted to $ 225 million (the equivalent of the current $ 1.08 billion) and more than 200 times exceeded the cost of its creation. Naturally, the income received more than compensated the producers for the unprecedented high price for the script, and all the other costs incurred.
Chuck Wepner, having heard about the colossal box office of the film, "recognized" himself in the main character of the picture and claimed his rights to co-author the script. The case almost came to trial, but Stallone paid the boxer some, apparently, a very large sum, and he withdrew his demands. And another curious consequence of the grandiose success of the audience of the picture "Rocky". As you know, the hero of Stallone in the movie "Rocky" performs under the sports pseudonym "Italian stallion". After the release of "Rocky" on the screens, the porn film of 1970, in which Stallone played the main role and which at the time of creation had title "The Party at Kitty and Stud's", became known as "Italian Stallion".
John G. Avildsen's film "Rocky" was not only a huge financial success, but also serious festival achievements. In early 1977, the film received 6 Golden Globe Award nominations. "Rocky" won one of them, but the most important one was the Best Motion Picture - Drama. In another important nomination - Best Director - Motion Picture - John G. Avildsen lost to Sidney Lumet, director of the film "Network". A little later, "Rocky" received 10 Oscar nominations, of which it won three, including two most important ones: Best Film and Best Director.
The film "Rocky" was also noted at film forums outside the United States. The Japanese Film Academy awarded it its award in the Best Foreign Film category, while giving it preference over the films of Sidney Lumet "Network" and "Le feu follet (The Fire Within)" by Louis Malle. But the British film academics, who nominated "Rocky" in five categories, did not give the film any of their BAFTA awards. In the most important nominations - Best Film and Best Director - the British Film Academy recognized the primacy of the film "Annie Hall" and, accordingly, its director Woody Allen.
Estimates of the film "Rocky" by professional film critics are characterized by a very wide range. So, The New York Times film reviewer Vincent Canby very harshly "walked" through the film in general and its main "creator" in particular. "The screenplay of "Rocky" is purest Hollywood make-believe of the 1930's, but there would be nothing wrong with that, had the film been executed with any verve...Throughout the movie we are asked to believe that his Rocky is compassionate, interesting, even heroic, though the character we see is simply an unconvincing actor imitating a lug."
The diametrically opposite assessment is made by the Russian film critic Yevgeny Nefedov: "It is difficult to overestimate the phenomenon of Sylvester Stallone for the success of "Rocky". And after a while, the amazing organicity of the actor's existence on the screen strikes."
James Berardinelli gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4 possible and in his review justified his assessment in this way: "Although the movie contains realistic elements and is set in a believable arena, it is essentially a fairy tale about a down-and-out pugilist who gets a chance at the fight of a lifetime, and, at the same time, wins the girl. Rocky certainly didn't invent all the sports movie clichés - they were around long before the mid-'70s - but it applied them in a way that captivated audiences and didn't seem over-the-top. Since 1976, nearly every film featuring a big sports comeback and triumph has been inspired by and/or compared to Rocky, regardless of whether it involves boxing or not."
But the highest assessment of John G. Avildsen's film "Rocky" was given by the guru of American film criticism Roger Ebert. He gave the film a maximum of 4 stars (although he did not include it in his list of "Great Movies"), and noted in the review of the picture: "why "Rocky" is such an immensely involving movie. Its story, about a punk club fighter from the back streets of Philly who gets a crack at the world championship, has been told a hundred times before. A description of it would sound like a cliche from beginning to end. But "Rocky" isn't about a story, it's about a hero. And it's inhabited with supreme confidence by a star."
The high appreciation of the film "Rocky" by moviegoers of the 70s of the last century is clearly evidenced by the financial indicators of the picture. The following figures speak about its assessment by modern moviegoers: 72% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of John G. Avildsen's film "Rocky" according to FilmGourmand was 9.076, thanks to which it took the 147th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
