I think it would be nearly impossible not to love Rocky Balboa as a character if all you’d ever seen was Rocky-Rocky III. Perhaps no series of films up to that point represented the classic underdog American spirit, and while the Rocky sequels had their problems, they still fell in line with this mantra and constructed a mythos that was as strong as any created in Western cinema.
The problem was, after the immensely entertaining Rocky III, what was left to prove for Stallone’s Italian Stallion? Rocky had come from the streets and survived the fight of his life to prove to himself he was more than just a nobody. Then a second moment of possible redemption (that might even seem undeserved if you watch the movie) had Rocky reaching his ultimate dream. Then, when the dream seemed to shatter right in front of him, and one of his closest confidants dies in his arms, Rocky still found the strength to fight back (clad of course, in old glory) and achieved redemption for the third time.
Where could you possibly go from here? Well, while Rocky had been adorned in the American flag before, he had never actually fought for it on screen. While a concept like this would seem like mindless pandering today, in the midst of the Reagan-Era Cold War this would seem like a perfectly reasonable storyline, with the Soviet Union the ultimate villains for our American hero to face. The result is a film that is so over the top that credibility gets thrown right out the window, but at the same time it’s that same ridiculousness that may never let this movie fade into obscurity.
Rocky IV Starring Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers, Tony Burton, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Brigitte Nielsen, and Dolph Lundgren. Director Sylvester Stallone
Honestly, this movie has so many ludicrous moments that it’s a little hard know where to begin. Basically, what Stallone (who again wrote and directed this sequel) does is take the same formula from the previous Rocky entries and simply turns up the volume on each element. For example, those that love the traditional Rocky Fanfare and opening crawl will be disappointed, as it’s completely omitted here. In its place is the indelible image of a boxing glove with stars and stripes opposite a glove adorned with a hammer and sickle. As the two gloves meet each other and explode, it’s pretty clear what kind of movie you’re in for.
Amplifying this ridiculous image was the fact that Conti’s music was conspicuously missing. According to Stallone, he was actually in the midst of a feud with Composer Bill Conti, who was previously responsible for Rocky’s iconic score music. Stallone’s backup plan came after the huge success of the song “Eye of the Tiger” in Rocky III. Instead of the inspirational stylings of Conti’s themes, this Rocky outing would almost completely rely on rock anthems as its way of conveying the same emotions. Unfortunately, Rocky IV’s soundtrack doesn’t have an “Eye of the Tiger” level song in the bunch.
Next up, the bad guy can’t just be anybody, he needs to be the complete opposite of the Italian Stallion’s American superhero. Enter Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), AKA: communist evil incarnate. Of all of the heavies featured in this series, no one even comes close to Ivan Drago at being this over the top. Honestly, this character could probably feel as much at home in a Roger Moore Bond entry as he does in this movie. Speaking only in short one-liners such as “I must break you,” and “You will lose,” Drago prefers to do his communicating in the ring, as the velocity of his punches apparently compare favorably with getting hit by a car. To say that Lundgren’s performance in this movie was one note is an understatement. The man is just a walking symbol for America’s view on communism at this time; cold, calculating, monosyllabic, and completely underhanded. Lundgren’s performance is indeed one note and that one note is evil.
Now while defending his country’s honor may be enough to logically get Rocky back in the ring, this series has always been more about Balboa’s personal struggles as much as it’s been about the boxing matches themselves. Thing is, his life is pretty much perfect at this point. Again, everything in this film is done to excess, even Balboa’s happiness. The Stallion’s retired, filthy rich, and enjoying time with his family. Even Paulie (once again played by the lovably cranky Burt Young) has little to complain about. Early on in this film, Rocky gives Paulie a robot for his birthday. Now I’m not talking about a little remote controlled car or anything like this, I’m talking about full-fledged, artificially intelligent android, that seems to fall in love with Paulie as the movie goes on.
Now step back and think for a minute about the origins of this series. Think about the lonely Rocky Balboa, struggling to find the courage to ask his precious Adrian out, and coming from nowhere to give the Champion of the World the fight of his life. Now it was nice to see Balboa’s state of success in Rocky III, but now he’s at a point where he’s able to either purchase robots, or perhaps there was even a subplot that was cut where Rocky himself even invented artificial intelligence. That’s pretty much the level of ridiculousness that this film is at.
Also, the Rocky that we grew to love in the first two movies is largely gone. I miss the guy that cracked horrible jokes and really knew his roots. If nothing else, he loved life and knew to enjoy the world around him, even if he was in the same poor neighborhood he’d spent his whole life in. Rocky spends most of this film completely somber, not relishing his success like we know the character from the first film would.
Now when Mickey (Burgess Meredith) died in the last film, the moment was pretty shocking, and carried emotional weight. Now if you’ve ever seen the trailer or read the back of the DVD cover for Rocky IV you know that another death provides Balboa’s motivation for this movie as well. This time out Apollo Creed (the awesome Carl Weathers) is the one that falls in battle, at the hands of Drago in what was supposed to be a simple exhibition.
So what does Rocky do? He goes to get his revenge by challenging Drago to a fight on Christmas day in Moscow. Now far be it for me to challenge the film’s logic, but is this really the best way to get justice fore Apollo? I mean if this were the WWE, I could see how this could work because of some sort of “warrior’s code” type of mentality, but would professional boxing really stand for this sort public display of vengeance on Pay-Per-View? Well I supposed if there was enough money involved boxing would allow it, but Rocky’s fighting Drago for free. And does this really avenge Apollo’s death?
All of this murky logic isn’t helped by the usual pleading of Adrian (Talia Shire) for Rocky not to fight. Making it even worse is that she pretty much completely turns her back on Balboa this time out, even though he’s been victorious countless times before. You would think some sort of new wrinkle could be added to make this plot more interesting, but instead we get the warmed over “You can’t win!” speech. Honestly, it’s like Stallone was watching a copy of Rocky III when he was writing the screenplay for this movie, as there’s so much rehash in this movie its preposterous.
Maybe the worst aspect of this movie is its reliance on montages. Now, I understand that the montage has always been a key element of the Rocky series. The “Gonna Fly Now” sequence from the first movie is probably the reason it won Best Picture that year. Like everything else in Rocky IV though, Stallone gives us wall to wall montages. Honestly, it seems like there’s twenty three montages that take place in this movie’s short 91 minutes. The most ridiculous of these comes after Apollo’s death and Rocky simply drives alone to collect his thoughts. John Tepper’s “No Easy Way Out” screams on the soundtrack as we get footage of Apollo dying and other moments like Adrian screaming at Rocky from just the previous scene.
What’s really incredible about this movie is that despite these ludicrous happenings, it’s still kind of fun to watch. Also, the movie ends really strong, with a training sequence (yet another montage) that features Rocky in low tech surroundings while Drago is shooting steroids and taking advantage of the most modern looking training facility in the history of cinema. As rocky climbs a mountain (yes, a mountain!) and screams “DRAGOOOOOOOOO!” at the top, we’re back to rooting for Rocky like always.
Now if you were wondering if Rocky IV would end with an old-school down and dirty fight with the two combatants tortured and beat up like we saw Apollo and the Stallion in the first two films of this series, then think again. The fight is indeed an epic war, but there really aren’t any surprises. Stallone does cash in one last completely absurd card as the Russian crowd ends up turning on Drago and starts screaming for Rocky, and then the film ends with the famous “If I can change then, you can change!” speech.
So if we go to the score cards, Rocky A) virtually defeats communism, even getting Mikhail Gorbachev to applaud him at the end of this bout, B) avenges Apollo Creed’s death by knocking the man out that KILLED his best friend, putting the matter to rest forever C) climbs a mountain with nothing but grit and intestinal fortitude, and D) invents artificial intelligence or at least knows someone who sells androids. If this sounds like a good time, then by all means go for it. Despite memorable performances from Carl Weathers and Tony Burton (His speech to Rocky as well as his ringside coaching is awesome), Rocky IV can’t really go past a guilty pleasure.
So next week, we look at Rocky’s ultimate fall. See you guys then.
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