Rocky III
This is where the Rocky series transitions into ‘80s action mode, perhaps I would even say live-action cartoon, but it’s still true to Rocky’s character so I like it. It’s a valid story. What happens when Rocky has been the champ too long and goes soft? There must be a new Rocky Balboa to take his place. The former rival becoming an ally is another poignant theme. Forgetting where he came from is hinted at with Paulie in the beginning, but it’s addressed and they move on. Still interesting for a few scenes.
We see Clubber Lang (Mr. T) in a montage contrasting with Rocky’s title defenses, but first Rocky has a charity match with Thunderlips (Hulk Hogan), who fights him for real. I have no idea why this scene is in the movie but it’s awesome. When Rocky announces his retirement, Lang challenges him to a real fight, even sexually harassing Adrian to goad Rocky.
Mickey reveals that the previous title defenses weren’t necessarily the best opponents for Rocky, or at the very least none of them were as deadly as Lang. Lang comes from the streets and does nothing but train to be the number one contender and knock Rocky out. That’s more intense than even Rocky’s original backstory.
Even still, Rocky doesn’t exactly take his preparations for the fight seriously. He invites the media and fans to watch him train at a fancy gym. He’s no longer punching meat and catching chickens. Now I understand one day as a media event, but are we to assume he did this for the weeks and months prior to the fight? And people kept covering it every day? Well, by the end we do see nothing’s left but a string quartet.
Now I think Rocky would have lost this fight anyway, but what really messes him up is Lang pushes Mickey before the fight and Mickey has a heart attack. Rocky wants to postpone the fight, which makes sense, but Mickey is pretty insistent. Distracted, poorly trained, Rocky loses, Mickey dies. Stallone the writer would begin murdering the supporting cast as the franchise progressed. Surprisingly, no charges are filed against Lang for pushing an old man to death.
This is when Apollo Creed returns, offering to train Rocky for a rematch. Apollo wants to bring back the eye of the tiger (remember that song?) Rocky had during their two fights. This gives Rocky a whole new slew of montagable training regiments, juxtaposed with Lang’s street level training. It’s still about the fragile male ego all the way though, as Rocky expresses self-doubts and Adrian is the one whose feminine side complements Rocky’s inadequacy, training his emotional side to be as indefatigable as his physical side. Man, I love getting deep about Rocky!
In a pre-rematch interview, Lang says, “I pity the fool.” Is that where Mr. T got his catch phrase or did they just shoehorn it in because he was already saying that? The rematch is pretty awesome with Rocky taunting Lang saying, “You ain’t so bad! You ain’t so bad!” He still operates under the “get hit in the face a lot” strategy, but once again the fight has a building narrative that’s really satisfying in the end, even though we know what happens by now. Rocky really earned this one.
