00:04the name Rocky Balboa transcends boxing it's become a standard not only a movie
00:12standard because it was the Academy Award-winning movie but it's something
00:17we now know and it works and it stands on its own and we can say Rocky Balboa
00:24Sylvester Stallone or Rocky Balboa the movie or Rocky Balboa the fighter
00:29or Rocky Balboa says the Philadelphian it's my city I'm a hard-hat city that's my
00:36city I'm proud of that man because he made it
00:45first fight I ever saw was Joe Lewis and Buddy Bear and 42 it was a Griffith Stadium
00:53and my granddaddy took me and all I remember was at night and I just kept
00:58looking at the lights I'm so excited boxers they are wonderful sure they're
01:04exceptions but it might be because they're not in a team they don't have
01:09eight or four or ten other players that they can surround themselves with hide
01:14from the public they're singular the fighter is on his own and he relates to
01:21people of his own and boxing just doesn't get its upper moments yes at its worst it's
01:26brutal at its best it's balletic but it's it's an excellent sport with a lot of
01:32shortcomings I'm an advocate but not an apologist but damn it's great boxing and
01:39films have been one I mean Chaplin Keaton everyone was in a boxing film the silent
01:47days directors like Hitchcock and Cooper and others have directed what boxing
01:54movies more boxing movies in any other sport more awards than any other sport
02:01and why first of all two men in the ring is life there's a winner there's a loser
02:07and those people are basically naked and you can invest them with anything in
02:12effect the canvas of the ring becomes the canvas of the movie boxing has made the
02:19greatest movies of any sport because it is just that it is a process that you can
02:26manipulate for your own story your own direction your own action and your own
02:32characters
02:35and that brings us to Rocky it really worked and it worked within the context of
02:43hope and I think that's what made it such a an important movie really not just boxing
02:52because it used boxing as a process a backdrop it was about a man who really got a
02:59second chance in life you know a loser it was a way a melody a concert for losers who
03:08can still buy into the American dream boxing at that time was not necessarily
03:13healthy and then we get Rocky it's a double infusion for the sport and it
03:20really fertilizes the sport all of a sudden people see Rocky and either become
03:26hardcore as opposed to peripheral fans or young kids who want to become boxers but
03:33more than that Rocky stood on its own I mean the music I have been to fights and
03:38little clubs and East overshoe somewhere and they still play the Rocky theme when
03:44the main event comes on and the fans are up and they're going like this
03:51so everything worked in rock music character development feel good
03:58Philadelphia boxing and the fact that he couldn't speak well also added to it so
04:04when you get the D's and those and here's Rocky Balboa sounding like that to
04:08me it resonated true I mean we're not getting our recruits for boxing at the
04:13W time line at the local country club he's a hard scrabble kids from hard
04:19surroundings and that's what Rocky Balboa and Sylvester Stallone were
04:24Stallone portraying him obviously as such this is what boxing's about this was
04:33realism it helped boxing immeasurably kept it in the public eye it gave it more
04:39exposure and God knows we could use another Rocky today now that boxing has
04:45just gone the way of cable TV and pay-per-view because it needed this
04:51exposure and it got it from Rocky
04:57in 1976 which was also the not incidentally the bicentennial year and in
05:03Philadelphia they adopted Rocky Balboa he was fictional they don't have much
05:08going on remember these are the people who have to defend Philly cheese steaks as
05:12a culinary dish so they've got something that's upper and that's why this film
05:18worked for them as well as the audience Rocky Balboa was their champion and still
05:25is because in the city it's always been struggling since probably the Continental
05:32Congress left it and the trade moved in New York and the government moved in
05:37Washington they've been in the shadow of these two cities for this movie they
05:43weren't anybody shadow this was Philadelphia this was their champion and
05:48this was a feel-good for them beyond boxing and beyond Balboa and beyond
05:53Stallone it was Philadelphia and that was important not only to the movie the
06:02Cinderella and boxing trunks theme or any man can but to the times it was a tonic and it worked
06:19I mean whereas gin is my tonic Rocky Balboa was everybody's tonic
06:30so
06:45you
06:46you
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