T he script for Rocky is practically a schematic for three-act structure success, and Sylvester Stallone rightly received an Oscar nomination for writing it. There were some significant changes made in between the page and the screen, however. The climax of the movie we know focuses on Rocky and Adrian struggling to reach one another in the post-fight chaos, whereas the ending in the shooting script describes their reunion in just a few brief lines before the closing credits. Instead of searching for his girlfriend, Rocky was meant to deliver a quip to Mickey about getting his old gym locker back, the audience would storm the ring, and then both Rocky and Apollo Creed would crowd- surf their way across what threatens to become a riot between unruly fan factions. A different vibe altogether. But that ending is miles away from the screenplay’s first draft, in which Rocky took a dive in the final fight, used the money to open a pet store for Adrian and then moped back into obscurity. All that aside, in the version seen by moviegoers in 1976, the character- building is so good and the storylines are so tightly braided that when the ring announcer’s reading of the scorecards is completely drowned out by the crowd’s euphoria, the swelling music and the Rocky/Adrian game of “Marco Polo,” it almost feels like you’ve been tricked into watching a love story – and gratefully so. Audiences to this day still cheer the outcome of a fight whose winner is never even shown getting his hand raised. There was another revelation that would happen in the editing room near the end of Act 2, just before the Italian Stallion realizes that going the distance is more important to him than beating Creed. In the script, it begins on page 88 with: “Rocky is pounding the heavy bag with intense concentration. As he strikes from all angles, Mickey instructs.” The next scene calls for sit- ups (“The pain is evident on his face”). Push-ups follow, then mitts, speed bag
WE NEED A MONTAGE
ROCKY IS THE UNDISPUTED CHAMPION OF UNDERDOG MOVIES, BUT IT ALSO PERFECTED A TECHNIQUE THAT HAS SPREAD TO EVERY GENRE IN CINEMA By Brian Harty
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 41
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker