TF Issue 186: Is it just me? Rocky Balboa...

[Lizhawkins]

On page 153 of TF issue 186, Richard Matthews asks:

"Is it just me... or does Rocky Balboa knock out The Wrestler?"



Here are a few excerpts:

A lifetime of pain (and plastic surgery) hangs on the sweaty, steroid-puffed face. Ageing bones crack. Bulbous muscles burn. The weathered warrior grasps for one last shot of glory. Now, if you’re Darren Aronofsky, you kill Mickey Rourke’s Randy “The Ram” Robinson (his heart steroid-damaged, diving off the ropes into the abyss, fans chanting his name). If you’re Sylvester Stallone, you give an icon a worthy swan song (he loses with dignity, fans chanting his name). One film was critically lauded. The other was Rocky Balboa.

Unexpectedly, Balboa doesn’t play out every cliché it sets up, but has the cojones to go to town with those it does. It’s obvious that Rocky will fight and risk his marbles, but he doesn’t consummate his romance with single mom Geraldine Hughes. He’s always going to reunite with son Milo Ventimiglia (genius casting thanks to the Heroes star’s Stallone-esque wonky mouth), but Sly turns the heartfelt speechifying away from the ring to do so.

Given how, when and why these films were made, both are brave and both rehabilitated a great talent. But Rocky Balboa is braver for its feel-good knockout punch. I know whose name I was left chanting. Or is it just me?

Check out the full article in Issue 186 - on sale 29 September 2011.

Agree? Disagree? Have your say below - a selection will be printed in the next issue...

[JohnnyMac]

Now, if you had said, Rocky IV is better than The Wrestler, I would have been agreeing with you. You can't beat a Rocky film that's 90% montage. Rocky Balboa on the other hand would have been more powerful if he had died at the end. But the franchise is Stallone's safety net, and he can get a Rocky film financed with himself in the role of the 'old trainer', whenever he needs a hit. With that in mind, I can't honestly say it was brave to give the last film a happy ending.

[jaykays hat]

Rocky is way better than the Wrestler, the Wrestler was boring and a over hyped piece of shit, just like Aronofskys other over hyped piece of shit, Black Swan.

[Jeffbiscuits]

The Wrestler annoyed the hell out of me. The quiet, talky scenes were too quiet so to hear what was happening I had to turn the volume up pretty high then any time it cut to a loud wrestling scene with a roaring crowd I got deafened and had to race for the volume control again. Other than requiring a different volume level for each scene it was a pretty boring film. I'd take a Rocky movie over that in an instant.

[LSJShez]

Its one of those 'depends on my mood' choices this. Both are really good; but The Wrestler is the more original. Balboa is just a rough remake of Rocky, with age replacing inexperience. I can't see how Rocky Balboa can be praised for it's feel-good knockout punch - every Rocky films got one. In fact, Stallone's built his career on 'brave feel-good knockout punches'. He stuck one in Get Carter, and look how that turned out. Sly got blood out the stone one last time, but The Wrestler's bleak originality wins out for me.

[garethjnash]

They are both great films, but Rocky Balboa takes it for me. The Wrestler is under a disadvantage as we had known the characters of the Rocky saga for 30 years when Balboa was released. We had five previous films to get to know and love them. We saw Rocky and Adrian go on their first date, we saw them get married, we saw them holding their son for the first time, so we can feel his pain that she is no longer with him. We know why he has the "beast inside" that he needs to get rid of. The backstory of The Ram in The Wrestler, although very well done, cannot compete with seeing all these things as an audience and living through these experiences with the characters. That is why Stallone used so many flashbacks to the other films from the saga in Rocky Balboa. As if to say to the audience "You've lived through this with them".
It also boils down to this for me: Rocky is an icon. Randy 'The Ram' is a great movie Character.

[papaah]

Nothing controversial about this topic... Neither of them are particularly good films, but the grittiness of The Wrestler gives it a shock factor that Balboa lacks. Having said that, it's still a flimsy, thin film.

Balboa on the other hand feels like a high-standard TV movie rather than a cinematic feature. The pathos and weariness it presents delivers a new shade to Stallone's characterisation and a valid new chapter - in this instance, familiarity breeds respect. It's probably the best Rocky since II, and a better film than Aronofsky's. For me, the deciding factor is which one I could watch again; while I quite liked The Wrestler, there'd be nothing to gain from a second viewing, whereas I could happily waste a rainy Sunday afternoon on Balboa.

[dojj singh]

The Wrestler's failure is that it's actually very true to real life and, thus, doesn't have the glamour that Rocky does.

The Wrestler is a much better film but due to the popularity of wrestling being described as "fake", only wrestling fans and film types will watch it or understand its true explanation of what those wrestlers go through.

And the article seems to have fallen into the same trap, judging the film on preconceived ideas of what you "should" be watching.

I've been watching professional wrestling since 1984 and know all the ins and outs and could relate to everything he was going through, but, as with a lot of films, if you don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of of the specialist subject, you can't really understand the point, especially in something as niche as wrestling (you can all be fanbois about Batman and Superman and Spiderman without even having read an issue of the comic, but wrestling is totally different).

[LSJShez]

I'd say the fact that it's real to life is it's strongest point. Nothing to do with it being a less popular sport. Both characters are washed up and in agony, through years of punishment; The Wrestler doesn't romanticise it, and thats it's strength. Balboa was more of the same - The sixth story of an underdog coming through. Still enjoyed it though.

[quinner111089]

There is no way in hell that Rocky Balboa tops The Wrestler!!!

Although I love the Rocky franchise (well, the first four anyway), it has been parodied & become so cliched over time that the original impact of the story has faded.

The Wrestler however, gives us an in-depth look at the business itself as well as the protagonist, and Rourke's performance is so emotional & personal that we really feel for him when he has to give it all up!!! And finally, when he returns to the ring, the payoff at the end is so rewarding.

Rocky Balboa just doesn't have the gritty, realistic authenticity that The Wrestler has!!

Just my opinion, but that's the way I see it