Like
its famous predecessor, Rocky
Balboa is written by and stars
Stallone, who here also directs and produces. Reprising their
roles from the original are Burt Young as Paulie, Rocky's
conflicted lifelong friend and brother-in-law, who has appeared
in all six Rocky films; and Pedro Lovell as Spider, a one-time
opponent who now lingers at Rocky's restaurant because he
has no where else to go.
With Sylvester Stallone as Rocky the
character strikes a resonant chord because audiences see
themselves in him and after a 30-year gap since the release
of the original film, Stallone sought to create a story
that would connect these ideas to a new generation – the
film's central truth is that anything is possible if you
believe enough.
“It's a pretty universal dream to try to rise up and
take your best shot at life,” says the writer/director/star
of Rocky Balboa. “You may not totally be successful
but at least you had the chance. I think that's the biggest
frustration a lot of people have in their own lives – never
getting their shot.” Producer William Chartoff adds, “Rocky
has never really left Sylvester's system. To him, it was
unfinished business, just as it is to the character's legion
of fans around the world. Though Rocky Balboa is really the
last sequel, in many ways it's the most like the original.”
“The first movie was a little film, but written like
a masterpiece,” says Burt Young, who has portrayed
the complex character of Paulie, Rocky's best friend and
brother-in-law, for three decades and six films. “Ninety-eight
pages of street prose. There was no fat. And it
was very romantic. Lots of people never fully appreciated
how terrifically romantic it was. I was excited by it. It
was probably the best screenplay I ever read.”
In Rocky Balboa, the title character
has, in many ways, returned to the same kind of existence
he had in the first film. “He's literally back where he was at the beginning,
all alone, except he has lost his naiveté,” says
Stallone. “He's very worldly. There's a certain calm
about him. He carries himself with a weight on his shoulders
but with that also comes a kind of enlightenment. He knows
more and tries to convey more. He doesn't have as big a chip
on his shoulder that he had.”
Returning to shoot in the south side
of Philadelphia (in addition to practical locations in
Las Vegas and Los Angeles), Stallone wanted to reflect
Rocky's world as it was, not a clean Hollywood version
but a gritty reality. “This
is going to be as real as possible,” he told himself,
recalls co-producer Guy Reidel. “Consequently, not
one frame of the film was shot on a stage,” Reidel
notes. “It was all done in the real world, which adds
a whole new set of challenges to filmmaking.”
With finite resources and only five
weeks in which to shoot, Stallone adopted a spare, down-and-dirty
shooting style that he sees as completely harmonious with
the central tenets of the film. “No tracks, a lot of handheld, no cranes,
none of these elaborate tracking shots,” he describes.
The first to be scheduled and most
daunting challenge of the shoot was the monumental title
fight between Rocky and Mason “The Line” Dixon, which was to be an exciting
Vegas-style event. Stallone had just completed a gruelling
training regimen and was in top shape, a benefit he would
lose the longer the shoot progressed as directing and acting
ate up his training time. Consequently, the fight scenes
would have to be shot up front. “Boxing is very unique,” he
comments. “It's a skill set that takes years and years
to learn.”
With a start date looming, they began
a search for a boxing venue. Each suitable arena they found had a full schedule
and could not accommodate a movie crew. Stallone was
aware that HBO planned to shoot a pay-per-view match – Bernard
Hopkins v Germaine Taylor – in Las Vegas. An independent
filmmaker at heart, Stallone struck on the idea of piggybacking
on that event, and benefiting from a crowd the production
could ill-afford to hire on as extras. But the match was
set for two weeks earlier than principal photography was
scheduled to start. Ever-resourceful, Stallone's solution
was to move up the start date by two weeks.
The production set about negotiating
with HBO and the Mandalay Bay Resort And Casino, where
the action was to take place, to secure the benefit of
the real life fight. But while
the production demanded nine days, the Mandalay Bay could
only give the filmmakers six.
As the producers figured out how to
make it work, Stallone immersed himself in casting. “I didn't want the screen
filled with people you've seen in a dozen other movies,” the
director explains. “You lose a certain reality
when you use familiar faces.”
So to play Mason “The Line” Dixon, Stallone
cast boxing superstar Antonio Tarver, light heavyweight champion. Going
into rehearsals five weeks before the start of filming, southpaw
(ie. left-handed) Tarver would need to add 20 pounds to his
frame to take him from light heavyweight to heavyweight status.
It was a tough time for Tarver, as he also had to adjust
to the demands of acting, as opposed to the fighting demands
he'd been trained his whole life to meet.
Ultimately, Stallone's experience
in creating the distinct Rocky brand of movies smoothed
the process enormously for both cast and crew as he quantified
for them the dramatic value contained in every second of
fighting. Who is
winning at what point? Where is Rocky in both his physical
and emotional journey? “Every second has an emotional
beat that had to be in sync with the physical movement,” says
Tarver. “That's what gives their fight its life.”
“We were shooting right up against a live event, live
weigh in, real press conference,” describes Stallone. “We'd
shoot portions of the live HBO activities, then rush right
in afterwards with our cast and crew to take advantage of
the sets. It was a challenge to say the least.”
To add to the verisimilitude, the
producers enlisted real life commentators Jim Lampley,
Larry Merchant and Max Kellerman to play themselves, with
Michael Buffer serving as ring announcer for the Dixon-Balboa
match and dubbed “The Rage Against
The Age.” Boxer Mike Tyson plays himself in the film,
much as Joe Frazier did at the title fight in Rocky.
With realism being key during the
fight scenes, Stallone made the choice to shoot it with
high definition cameras. “I
wanted the dialogue to have one feel, but the fight to look
like sports fans expect a fight to look – bright, bold,
crisp,” notes Stallone.
After a week in Vegas, the company
returned to Los Angeles for 16 shooting days on locations
that supplement the scenes to be shot in Philadelphia. Major
and most challenging of the L.A. locations was Bro Pack
Meats in Pico Rivera, which serves as Paulie's place of
employment for the past 30 years.
A working operation, the plant could
not be shut down to accommodate the production. “Like us, they had a schedule
to meet, and we had to work around that,” explains
Stallone. “It is a very protected and fragile environment,
especially regarding temperature. We had to play by
their rules but luckily, they were very co-operative and
it worked. But it was one of our most complex locations.”
In Philly, Stallone wanted Rocky to
train in the hard, raw edge that cold creates, and utilise
the full benefit of the smoky effect that results from
hot breath confronting frigid air. But the weather,
at least initially, didn't comply. Sunshine in January
in Philadelphia?
Another unexpected aspect of shooting
in the City of Brotherly Love was the great affection the
city still harbours for both Rocky and Stallone – heroes of rather majestic
proportions in Philadelphia – a factor which ultimately
inspired not only the director but the whole company.
Enthusiastic crowds met the crew at
every turn, but
everywhere the production shot, fans were almost always respectful
and co-operative.
Comments Stallone, “It was an extraordinary experience
because they're not yelling for Sylvester Stallone; it's
all ‘Rocky! Rocky! Yo Rock!' There's no separation
between the two identities.”
Even 30 years later, the most affecting
moment comes when Rocky sprints up the grand steps of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, which opens out to the city's
breathtaking skyline. It is the most familiar and beloved
moment among all the Rocky movies. A day does not go by,
probably never an hour, that locals and tourists don't
make that same run, raising their arms in triumph, hearing
Conti's iconic theme in their heads.
On the day the production was to shoot the sequence in which
Rocky runs up the steps with his dog Punchy, the script called
for snow, but none but a few random snowflakes was forthcoming...until
the sky opened up. Production cranked into motion.
“So, I ran up the steps with Punchy, and when we finished
it stopped,” Stallone recalls. “The last run
up the steps was in this cloudburst of white, and we shot
from the beginning to the end of this burst. It was a very
emotional time for me. I was thinking,'When I'm done cutting
it's over.' It's like a 30-year journey – everything
I've ever had in my life, everything that I'll accomplish
that is really worthy, is done. And I'm looking at the city;
the sun is going down, and I think, 'At least you did it.
You got here. You ended it, in the snow, on the steps in
Philadelphia. Perfect, thank you, Lord. And then it was over.”
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