Last Christmas I shared Rocky Balboa's triumphant return to the ring while watching the sixth installment of the incredible
Rocky franchise. Like many people, I've followed the boxer's life and career for the last 30 years. When the movie hit the video store, I rented it and watched it again. Just like the first five
Rocky movies, I'm sure I'll watch it a few more times as well.
I'm also eagerly awaiting the fourth
Rambo movie that is scheduled to be released next year in the theaters. Rambo is another Stallone character, although not created by him, I've always enjoyed. In fact, I've always enjoyed most of Sylvester Stallone's movies, even those that the critics panned and most people don't hold up as cinema masterpieces. Some people might be going, "are any of Stallone's movies cinema masterpieces?" My answer is YES.
Rocky won the academy award for Best Picture in 1976 and is included in many lists of greatest films. However, I did not start writing this to comment on the worthiness of films Sylvester Stallone has stared in, and if you don't like
Rhinestone with him and Dolly Parton, that is your problem and I'll still enjoy Sylvester Stallone, who won the Razzie Award for Worst Actor, singing the song that won the Razzie Award for Worst Original Song "Drinkenstein."
So why did I start this article? I think the success of Sylvester Stallone is something we can all look at and gain some valuable wisdom as well as using his example to motivate ourselves toward greatness. Watching some of Stallone's earliest films, including a soft core porn film, who would have thought he would become one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood at one time. His real life success resembles the success of his
Rocky character. Seeing him in those earliest roles, one would think he would be as unlikely a movie star as a bodybuilder from Austria with a heavy accent and a name most people couldn't pronounce. (The success of that movie star turned Governor of California will be a topic of future articles.) But the fact is, Sylvester Stallone was not only one of the highest paid actors of the 80's, the characters he portrayed were known around the world.
Rocky spanned more than thirty years and six movies and the forth
Rambo movie will be released next year, twenty-six years after
First Blood.
However, it is not the fact that numerous sequels were made of his movies, or the large paychecks per film he was making that I admire about Sylvester Stallone. The inspiring thing about Stallone is that he wrote the first
Rocky script in three days and then refused to sell the script for more than two hundred thousand dollars at a time that he and his wife were flat broke. And that was in the 70's when two hundred thousand dollars would buy something.
He refused to sell and insisted that the character was written for him, and that he should be the only one to play Rocky. He stuck to it, believed in himself, and eventually sold the project and found financial backing to get the picture made. The movie went on to win three Academy Awards including Best Picture. (Rocky also won Best Film Editing and Best Director) Stallone was nominated for Best Actor and for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. (Other nominations included Burgess Meredith, Best Actor in Supporting Role; Burt Young, Best Actor in Supporting Role; Talia Shire, Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Music, Original Score; Best Sound) The movie also won numerous other awards too. Wow!
What would have happened if Stallone would have sold the script? Rocky would not be who we know him as today, that's for sure. Maybe Stallone would not have become the success he became either. We don't know. However, I do believe the genius he had inside him combined with the courage and determination he had to see
Rocky done his way would have led him to success eventually no matter what. Personally, I am so glad he stuck to his guns, because Rocky has been a hero of mine for over 30 years now.
Stallone has been a hero as well. I admire what he did and the success that came to him for it. Success stories are motivational, and a success story that also involves such a motivational fictional character as Rocky is doubly so. I am sure that many people have succeeded with
Rocky and the story of Stallone as inspiration, and I'm sure many more will be inspired to greatness because of his story and subsequent films.
If you have never seen the movie
Rocky, go rent it. If you have seen it, check it out again if you need a quick boost of motivation and want to feel good for a couple of hours.
But remember the story behind the story and use that same determination and stick-to-it-ness to make your dreams come true too!
