"Rocky" (1976), An American Treasure
One Of The Greatest Movies Ever Made
Image by L.E. Wilson from RedBubble based on “The Chart” newspaper from archive.org
Packed with comedy, perception, and sensitivity, “Rocky” is a sincere, rousing film that raises the spirits and gladdens the heart.
— Judith Crist, Saturday Review
The movie Rocky (1976) is a triumph. It’s incomparable and clearly, without exaggeration, one of the best movies ever made. It’s what you want movies to be, complete with a divine musical score by genius Bill Conti that includes the brilliant and rousing “Gonna Fly Now” theme song. Rocky represents the best of humanity. It’s an aspirational movie that pays tribute to the indomitable human spirit, and is a “charming, grimy, beautiful fairy tale,” as film critic John Simon stated.
You’ll love this movie, and its namesake. But exactly how does the titular Rocky Balboa become a heroic, mythical, likable, sympathetic, and endearing character? By committing to a valiant fight that requires limitless inner strength, valor, grit, and endurance while showing that power stems from the confidence gained as a result of living life in a principled, virtuous way. This is the kind of person who can never be bullied or cowed, who can never be defeated no matter the results of a match, because being authentic and having personal integrity and pride is what winning is all about.
Rocky (1976) is a drama directed by John G. Avildsen about an amateur Philadelphia boxer, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), who gets the chance to fight heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) as part of a publicity stunt.
Life Lesson: Push yourself to reach your full potential.
🍿Movie Scene Link (movie quote)
Have you considered depending on yourself for your happiness, instead of on others? Have you considered fighting for your own personal glory, doing things to elevate your self-worth in your eyes, making decisions that increase your self dignity, pushing yourself to achieve goals and proving to yourself that you can reach your potential? This is how Rocky Balboa finds happiness, and it’s the deeper lesson in the 1976 movie Rocky, which at its essense is the embodiment of the Grantland Rice adage, “it’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how you play the game.”
Not enough attention or respect is given to this sentiment, but it really is about learning how to be happy, truly happy and satisfied, in life. If you focus on external signs of “winning,” on scoreboards, on strangers cheering for you, on others sending you a welcome wagon and clearing a path for you by giving you an opportunity that they didn’t have, then you’ll likely be disappointed because whatever is given can also be taken away. Going down this path is choosing to make yourself utterly dependent on others for your happiness, which can lead to feeling helpless and possibly resentful.
But there is another way. To feel everlasting happiness, you can learn to harness internal satisfaction: being proud of yourself and your achievements, feeling confident about your character and abilities, creating your own opportunities. What matters is not whether you win or lose, but "how you play the game” because it is something that can never be taken away by someone else, and can for the entirety of your life, make you feel good about yourself. Is this not what people really want from happiness? And by the way, wouldn’t the world be much better for everyone if more people behaved in more noble ways that increased the focus on self dignity and self worth rather than on external accolades and on defeating others?
Counting on other people, depending on others for your happiness, is a recipe for disaster. In the first place, people are busy with their own lives and quite naturally are self-interested and self-serving, sometimes to extremes. In fact, to preserve your happiness, you need to put boundaries up so that other people don’t trample you with their demands and needs. And interestingly, this is the core to increasing compassion in the world. We need to push back against behavior that unfairly impedes, hurts, or victimizes us or others because it’s the only way to stop unacceptable behavior. Once the boundaries are made clear, however, there is an increase in tranquility and comfort for all, which leads to being able to being more compassionate toward others. So, you have to stand up for yourself, and those who cannot defend themselves; otherwise the mistreatment will simply increase in both frequency and strength, which threatens everyone by normalizing abusive behaviors.
But the worst kind of self-defeating vulnerability is when you give people the power to decide your happiness based on their decisions, which will be self-serving, probably not rational, definitely never fully objective or, frankly, completely reasonable. So why would you put yourself in this position, particularly when you know everyone has biases, many of which are unlikely to work in your favor? You want other people to give YOU a chance when they likely would prefer to give their cronies, their family and friends, priority? You want strangers to give up their time and energy to help you when they’d likely only do so if it somehow helps them too? You want to take what someone else has built and use it for yourself? Look who’s being demanding and willing to trample on other people for personal gain.
Clearly this is no path toward happiness for anyone. But what can we really do to feel victorious and satisfied, to feel true fulfillment and real happiness?
Watch Rocky (1976). There’s no greater teacher for learning about the intrinsic happiness found by having self-respect and personal values than Rocky Balboa, who turns out to be a better human than most, by demonstrating the heroic, noble qualities of being good-hearted, brave, honest, dedicated, hard working, and conscientious. It is that sense of personal integrity, of personal accountability, that becomes a powerful source of confidence and inner strength. And this is what makes happiness self-sustaining and independent of other people, even when faced with adversity.
It all boils down to genuine authenticity. That’s why people like him, cheer for him, support him, and see him as victorious no matter what, which is also how he sees and feels about himself.
Think about it—and enjoy the spectacle!
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Great post!
I was 41 when I watched ‘Rocky’ for the first time - I was in training for my first 10k, and the theme tune was on my running playlist. I mentioned in passing to my husband that it was my favourite song to run to, and the next time he accompanied me on his bike on one of my training runs he rode with a towel around his neck.
‘What’s that for?’ I asked.
‘You know, Mickey Goldmill? Rocky’s TRAINER?’
I had no idea what he was talking about, but we watched the film that evening and it all became clear! 🤣
This is, shockingly, one of the films on my "never seen" list!! Thanks for the reminder that I need to keep working on that haha.