Rocky III is now 40 and talkSPORT pities the fools who don’t believe it’s the greatest Rocky film – no, more than that, the greatest boxing movie – of all time.
OK, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby and Sylvester Stallone’s first Rocky may have won more Oscars. But as a pure, popcorn-popping piece of entertainment 1982’s Rocky III is the undisputed champ. In honour of the film’s 40th birthday, here’s 40 reasons why it’s the ultimate sporting blockbuster.
1. It unleashed ‘Eye of the Tiger’: the power-rock epic which became boxing’s anthem. In fact, Rocky III is so incredible that ‘You’re the Best’ (eventually used in Karate Kid) was also written for the film, but Stallone rejected it in favour of Survivor’s song.
2. Rocky III features the combined muscle of Sly Stallone, Carl Weathers, Mr T and Hulk Hogan: four men who make the entire Fast and Furious cast look like choirboys. A line-up so powerful, Hollywood would never put this awesome foursome together again.
3. Further evidence of the cast’s greatness: Morgan Freeman auditioned for the role of trainer to Mr T’s Clubber Lang but was turned down. Yes, the acting bar was so high, Morgan Freeman was not good enough. Astonishing.
4. It’s got muppets in it – and what film could not be improved by muppets? (We’re looking at you, Taxi Driver.) Footage of Stallone’s real-life appearance on The Muppet Show is dubbed to have Kermit introduce ‘Rocky Balboa’ rather than the actor.
5. The best thing about Rocky II is the climactic fight with the double knockdown. Well, guess what? Rocky III starts with a full recap, so you get the best part of Rocky II before the third film even starts. Genius.
6. It genuinely reflects Stallone’s life. When writing Rocky III, Sly used the fact that he had gone from nobody to megastar to cover Rocky Balboa’s struggles with sudden fame, giving the story real emotional weight.
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7. It’s got two Stallones! Yes, Sly’s brother Frank Stallone plays one of the hapless tomato cans who gets pulverised by Rocky while he’s racking up easy KOs at the start.
8. It nails boxing politics. The story of how dangerous Clubber Lang rises to no.1 contender but is forced to sit on the sidelines while the champion picks off 10 ‘hand-picked’ opponents is scarily accurate of how the sport operates.
9. It’s got a WWE-worthy match starring Hulk Hogan’s Thunderlips in an anything-goes charity brawl. Features Rocky taking a savage backbreaker, vertical suplex, gorilla press and the fearsome leg-drop of doom.
10. The then WWF briefly fired Hogan for taking part in the film, but it was clearly worth it as it helped make Hulk a superstar and gave us dialogue such as: “The ultimate male versus the ultimate meatball!” which is what we say to our lunch every day.
11. Clubber Lang is boxing’s top bad guy. Sorry Ivan Drago fans, but while the Rocky IV villain had to have Brigitte Nielsen do his talking for him like a female Paul Bearer, Mr T spat his own insults. “I don’t hate Balboa, but I pity the fool.” Glorious.
12. It launched the career of Mr T – a former bodyguard to the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali, but a relative unknown when cast. Rocky III turned Mr T into an overnight star and led to the A-Team and eventually some Snickers adverts.
13. “The worst thing happened to you that can happen to any fighter: ya got civilised.” The warning from Rocky’s trainer Mickey is true to what any real-life boxing coach will say to a fighter: once you lose that raw hunger, everything goes wrong.
14. Rocky gets the snot beaten out of him. The Rocky series – and any boxing film – features only two types of contest: close, heroic victory or close, heroic defeat. Rocky III freshens it up by having Clubber demolish Rocky in two rounds.
15. It predicted the coming of Mike Tyson. Mr T’s powerful, glowering, bad-tempered, street thug Lang seems like an ‘Iron Mike’ clone… until you realise the film predates Tyson’s rise by four years. Eerie.
16. It features Mickey’s death: the ultimate heartbreaking scene made even more tragic by the fact that Stallone’s honest slugger has to lie to his trainer, hiding from him that he’s just been KO’d by Clubber. Gut-wrenching.
17. Carl Weathers turns face! As fun as he is in the first two Rockys, the Predator star gets a deeper role as Balboa’s enemy-turned-friend Apollo Creed, training the ‘Italian Stallion’ in how to KO Clubber. No wonder it is Weathers’ favourite Rocky film.
18. Rocky III addresses race relations. No, seriously. Rocky has to integrate into an African-American boxing gym in LA (imaginatively named “Tough Gym”) – despite the prejudices of idiotic brother-in-law Paulie. Thankfully, our hero is more open-minded.
19. There is also a scene where Rocky enters a gym and everyone stops what they’re doing and stares at him like he’s a chump: scarily realistic of our own experience of walking into any gym for the first time.
20. Rocky III has the ultimate training scenes, from being taught to dance in the gym (in a crop top/headband combo) to racing Apollo along the beach – complete with rousing musical score – it’s absolutely spine-tingling.
21. Talia “Adriaaaan!” Shire also gets her finest scene when she forces Rocky to finally confront what’s really holding him back: that he’s afraid. “How’d you get so tough?” he asks. “I live with a fighter,” she replies. Tears all round.
22. Carl Weathers should have won an Oscar just for the training finale, when he has to lose to Rocky in a foot race – meaning the strapping, 6ft 2in, ex-NFL ace has to sprint slower than older, smaller, full-time actor Stallone. He magically pulls it off.
23. Most boxing films only show boxers chopping trees and running up mountains when preparing for a fight, Rocky III actually has scenes of Balboa, y’know, sparring and working on tactics with other boxers. Revolutionary.
24. The big remodelling Apollo forces Rocky into is how to better use his feet and balance. Rocky films aren’t usually big on realism – but this is true to life: if you want to see how good any pro boxer is, don’t watch their fists, watch their feet.
25. Stallone is in the best shape of his career. To portray the fact that the heavyweight deliberately loses weight for his rematch, Sly got his body fat down to a ludicrously low 2.8%.
26. Paulie – always the most annoying part of any Rocky film – gets his comeuppance, being thrown in jail early in the film and chewed out by Apollo later. Good.
27. Rocky has a realistic strategy in place! Having been outslugged in fight one, he returns with a savvier boxing style in the rematch and – gasp – actually makes Clubber Lang miss with punches. Never seen before or since in a Rocky film.
28. Clubber’s downfall is also cleverly explained. “I don’t need any [strategy], Balboa is so stupid and predictable, he’s tailor-made for me,” he says – and boxers believing an opponent can’t adapt is the top reason why a previously victorious fighter loses the rematch.
29. The sound of Lang loading up his haymakers – one notch below a Jurassic Park T-Rex – is almost as violent as the fight scenes themselves. Clearly the Rocky III’s sound effects crew were also robbed of an Academy Award.
30. The final fight is real (ish). In filming the last round, knowing a few bumps and bruises wouldn’t matter at this stage, Stallone and Mr T decided to have at it and throw full-blooded blows to make the fight scenes look as real as possible on screen.
31. Rocky wears the stars-and-stripes shorts for the first time! The trunks that became iconic in Rocky IV are donned here when Apollo asks his rival-turned-buddy to wear Creed’s colours into the ring.
32. Rocky’s revenge win over Clubber borrows from the most famous heavyweight fight of all: the Rumble in the Jungle. Just as Muhammad Ali outlasted George Foreman, Stallone’s Rocky rope-a-dopes Mr T’s Lang, letting him punch himself out. A fitting tribute.
33. It touches on a boxer’s struggles in retirement. Apollo describes it as “too quiet” as the ex-champ admits his emptiness away from the ring, foreshadowing his tragic comeback in the next film.
34. Rocky III features Balboa’s last ever heavyweight title fight as he stops Creed to win back the championship. The rest of Rocky’s fights in the series are either exhibitions or street brawls.
35. The iconic bronze Rocky statue in Philadelphia is first unveiled in Rocky III. Forty years on, the statue still exists in Philly – although it’s right at the bottom of the 72 steps rather than at the top.
36. Muhammad Ali’s actual house is in the film: the Chicago mansion the great man was living in at the time is used as the exterior shots to show Rocky Balboa’s palatial home.
37. Its success gave us every other Rocky/Creed film that’s followed. Stallone had planned on making Rocky III the last part of a trilogy – but it was such a box-office smash (making $270million on a $17million budget), that Sly changed his mind and we’ve had five films since and Creed III still to come.
38. Its success also helped launch WrestleMania. Vince McMahon rehired Hulk Hogan after Rocky III was a hit – and even brought in Mr T (basically playing Clubber Lang) so the pair could headline the first ever WrestleMania in 1985, reuniting the Rocky III stars.
39. We get a Balboa-Creed trilogy fight! The final scene of the film has Apollo and Rocky alone in the gym for an unofficial rubber match. We don’t see the outcome but Rocky, ever the gentleman, later tells Michael B Jordan’s Adonis that his father won it in the first Creed film.
40. Despite that epic finish, the most bromantic moment in cinema history happens two-thirds of the way through when Rocky – after finishing his training – leaps into the sea with Apollo and the two pals hug and frolic in the surf. Hang that image in the Louvre. A perfect moment in the perfect boxing film.
https://talksport.com/sport/boxing/1118023/rocky-3-sylvester-stallone-creed-clubber-lang-hulk-hogan/
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