Rocky and American Life
.... But Stallone – who at the time was a struggling actor and nearly broke – held out for he knew wanted to star in the movie he foresaw as being a major success. In an article on ESPN.com, Stallone described how he first got the idea for the Balboa character: Through fate or whatever, I ended up at the Muhammad Ali-Chuck Wepner fight. Wepner, a battling bruising type of club fighter who had never really made the big, big time, was now having his first shot. But the fight was not regarded as a serious battle. It was called a public joke. He would barely go three rounds, most of the predictions said. Well, the history books will read that he went 15 rounds and established himself as one of the few men who had ever gone the distance with Muhammad Ali, and he can hold his head up high forever no matter what happens. I am sure that moment means more to Wepner than any money he could ever receive from fighting because now he had run the complete circle. This is why he had been training for 34 years. That night I went home and I had the beginning of my character … I was going to make a creation called Rocky Balboa, a man from the streets, a walking cliché of sorts, the all-American tragedy, a man who didn’t have much mentality but had incredible emotion and patriotism and spirituality and good nature even though nature had not been good to him. Balboa, as Stallone himself described, represented someone that had little or no hope of success in the beginning of the movie. The one thing he had going for him was that he had a lot of heart and was a hard worker. When he ultimately was selected to fight Apollo Creed – and go the distance, losing in a split decision – it’s seen as a major success against odds as long as they get. Since Balboa succeeded, it’s the embodiment of the American Dream, and shows viewers that almost anything is possible so long as they work hard at it. The characters Paulie (Rocky’s friend) and Adrian (Paulie’s sister) introduce important elements into the movie as well. Paulie is similar to Rocky in a lot of ways, except he’s more of a lazy character that has even more faults. But in the end, Rocky and Paulie are loyal to each other. Paulie helps humanize Rocky. And when Rocky becomes interested in Adrian, Paulie can’t understand his friend’s infatuation with his sister. Adrian, after all, is very homely and extremely shy. In fact, the driver for Rocky’s boss said he “heard she’s retarded.” After a few dates, Paulie comes out and asks Rocky why he spends so much time with Adrian: Paulie: “Yo, Rock. What do you see in my sister? There ain’t much in there. Why datin’ her?” Rocky: “Adrian got gaps.” Paulie: “Adrian got gaps? What do you mean Adrian got gaps?” Rocky: “Well, uh, ya know. Adrian got gaps. I’s got gaps. Together we don...