Rocky

In February 1979 I was watching a movie over at my brother’s house because I didn’t own a TV at the time. We were watching Rocky. I had seen it a couple of years before at the theater but this was the first time on TV and it was being aired on a large American network.

As I drove along the darkened streets on my way home I saw some one jogging. It was almost midnight but I never thought too much about it until I saw the second, third and then fourth jogger. In total I must have passed two dozen people out running – and it was raining. My brother latercalled it “the Rocky effect.”

To recap the movie, in 1976, an unknown actor named Sylvester Stallone became a star. That same year, an inexperienced prize fighter, Rocky Balboa, became a champ in the hearts and minds of millions of moviegoers across the globe. Rocky, of course, was the fictitious alter-ego of the multi-talented Stallone. The hero of a screenplay penned by Stallone himself, Rocky Balboa became a contemporary symbol of all those who attempt to go the distance in life, those who attempt to make their dreams a reality, who rise to success through sheer determination.

I have watched all the movies many times, especially the first one which is still a gem even though it beat out, arguably, better pictures in Network, All the President’s Men, Bound for Glory and Taxi Driver. What I have heard since is that after Watergate, the fall of Vietnam and the oil crisis Rocky came around at a time when Americans needed an uplifting story. They wanted to cheer for an underdog and feel good about themselves and their way of life, one which allowed a nobody the chance to compete for one of the greatest titles in the world.

Rocky is still an inspiration to me. I am not a fanatic about the movie but I think about it when I want to try something that, at first, seems impossible.  I repeat to myself what Stallone says in the movie: “I just wanna go the distance.”