Rocky Balboa: Tough Guy With a Heart

You gotta love a tough guy with a heart.

Well … maybe you “don’t gotta,” as Rocky would say it – but you probably will when you see his new film, opening Wednesday.

Yeah, that Rocky. Rocky Balboa. The human punching bag of five previous movies. The legendary boxer who never gives up, even while his face is being pounded into goo by the fiercest fighters on the planet.

He’s back -- with a sixth flick, the self-titled Rocky Balboa -- the matching bookend to Rocky, the Oscar-winning first film in the series from Sylvester Stallone.

Wait a minute. The first film won an Oscar?

Three of them, in fact, including Best Picture (1976). If you’re like me, the formulated sequels that followed movie No. 1 made it easy to forget Hollywood ever rewarded Rocky with its hallowed statue of gold.

Thankfully, movie No. 6 brings back the shining inner quality that made movie No. 1 sincerely memorable -- Rocky’s heart of gold.

Fitting, then, that Philadelphia’s small-time loan-shark enforcer turned famous boxer is back where it all began -- his blue-collar neighborhood in The City of Brotherly Love. It’s the perfect place for a tough guy with a heart.

Rocky’s aging now, of course. Retired from fighting (and collecting debts). Fit, but sort of doughy-looking. Certainly too out of shape to box and presumably too old to. He again lives in a modest, working-class house with his two turtles and still enjoys an occasional glass of raw eggs for breakfast.

He drives an equally aging white van, like an Econoline that might double as the work and family vehicle. No limo, Lexus, Benz or Escalade needed. Rocky’s back home.

He’s a working owner of a restaurant –Adrian’s -- an Italian place named for his now-deceased wife. We’re not sure what became of his boxing earnings (invested in the restaurant, it’s presumed) but his fighter accolades adorn the eatery, where he entertains customers with his old stories.

Rocky thrives in this environment. He’s a clownlike figure, slightly goofy and pitiable, who engages people in his personable, heartwarming way. He’s also a pastoral figure in his neighborhood who is cloaked behind his “big kid” persona, frumpy clothes and undersized hat.

In contrast, though, he foreshadows the fire still inside him when he sets a local bully straight in an early scene. But soon afterward his tenderhearted side is back, when he befriends down-on-her-luck “Little” Marie (Geraldine Hughes), the youngster in the first movie who gave him an earful when he scolded her for smoking. She’s grown, with a teenage son, and becomes one of his closest allies.

With Rocky’s personality firmly established, Stallone proceeds to carry this well-acted film, with excellent supporting help from veteran actor Burt Young, who’s back from Rocky as Adrian’s brother Paulie.

Stallone’s believability in-character rallied viewers to stand, applaud and cheer for him at special moments throughout the drama – which includes, of course, a climactic fight.

A slick pair of boxing promoters throw down the boxer’s bait – the type of challenge Rocky can’t refuse – and he bites. It’s off to Las Vegas (after a season of meat-grinder training) for an HBO-PPV fight under casino lights against the world heavyweight champ, Mason “The Line” Dixon (Antonio Tarver).

The night before the main event, after the bigger and younger Dixon tries to intimidate his underdog opponent, Rocky delivers Dixon his signature answer: “Yo! It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Looking befuddled, Dixon mocks, “What’s that from – the ’80s?”

To which Rocky retorts good-naturedly, “Nah … more like the ’70s.”

Stallone’s shout-out to Rocky 30 years past drew a roar of laughter from the audience. But -- as this latest sequel proves – Rocky ain’t over till he’s over, movie fans.

Rocky Balboa shows us why. It’s because we love a tough guy with a heart.

By Jimmy Stewart, managing editor of Charisma magazine, charismamag.com.