When I was 16, I was one of many who entered a radio contest timed to the release of Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky V.” Our challenge? Sit through all five “Rocky” movies in a row — the entire odyssey of Rocky Balboa, Philadelphia’s Italian Stallion — without leaving our seats. There would be no bathroom breaks. Just Rocky, Adrian, Apollo, Paulie and the gang for almost nine hours. As someone who loved the Rocky movies and replayed them on the family VCR until the ribbon broke, this didn’t seem like much of a challenge at all.
Our challenge? Sit through all five “Rocky” movies in a row — the entire odyssey of Rocky Balboa, Philadelphia’s Italian Stallion — without leaving our seats.
By the time “Rocky V” began, the theater was nearly empty, an appropriate harbinger for a film that was hated by critics and audiences. By then, however, I was punch drunk enough to proclaim “Rocky V” the best of the bunch, and, after it was over, I along with a few others, emerged from the theater with my hands raised triumphantly, shouting for an Adrian who wasn’t there.
I’d won a gold chain with a boxing glove dangling from it. Yes, the gold was as fake as Stallone’s boxing prowess, and it turned my neck green within two weeks. But it was worth it. To me, the “Rocky” films had it all: pathos, violence, an underdog story and, perhaps above all, a plucky “great white hope” as a protagonist. In 1990, I took in that aspect of the Rocky movies far too easily and uncritically.
I am thinking about the durability of this franchise as an American institution as “Creed III,” the ninth film in the Rocky series, hits theaters Friday. It has been more than 46 years since “Rocky” was released in December 1976, and it’s been more than 32 years since I held my bladder and watched five Rockys in a row. “Creed III” looks poised to be another massive hit. Why do these stories and these characters have such a hold on us after almost five…
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