I remember coming out of a small town cinema, the 'Rex' in Haslemere, Surrey, in short trousers, probably a bit sticky from melted ice cream that was a big treat at that age, throwing punches into sudden bright daylight after the long matinée darkness.
Aged eight, I had never given boxing a second thought. Suddenly, I wanted to feel pain, inflict it, and be bloodied and unbowed. And it wasn't about the boxing. It was just a brilliant film.
It may sound clichéd, but I used to run up the cathedral steps in our town in my thirties with the theme in my head. My kids remember dad and Guildford's 'Rocky Steps'. And that feeling of throwing punches into space as an eight year old has been a part of my life ever since.
I just read that Rocky has been reclassified as a 12A - which would have prevented me seeing it in 1977, and may have changed everything.
Love this Cole. I wrote a sports underdog movie a few years back and watched (or in some cases rewatched) a lot of sports films to inspire and inform me. You're so right about the non-sport emotional elements being the key ones. That's what makes the victory on the field (or in the ring!) powerful and meaningful: knowing what the character has been through to get there, and not just - indeed not mostly - in terms of their training.
I noticed (doing my research!) that boxing, baseball, basketball and horseracing seem to be the top sports of choice for sports movies. Do you think that's because there's somethig inherent in those sports that lends itself to films? Or is it just because they're popular US sports (and ofc many if not most are based on true stories)?! I heard someone say once that football (as in: soccer) is really hard to portray on film, and that's why - or at least partly why - there are so few soccer movies. But of course it could just be that Americans are less into soccer...?! Would love to know your thoughts! :)
It's entirely because Hollywood will only make films about sports that play well in the States *and* abroad. And these days, baseball doesn't even do that. I say this as someone who's thrice been told a project would never work because the sport wasn't popular enough in America. As for soccer, it's a sport that *should* play well enough in the States and huge overseas, right? But even then, it has rarely been as successful as it would need to be to become a sub-genre of its own in cinema. Last/this year (depending where you are), Taika Waititi had a soccer film come out he wrote and directed, for example. Nobody saw it. And it was Taika doing Taika! Why?! "TED LASSO" was about a football/soccer team, but it was far more a workplace comedy than about sports. There are exceptions to everything, of course. CHALLENGERS exists. BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM was a huge international hit. I can go on, as I'm sure you could.
That is both very interesting and rather depressing, haha (but adds to the idea that, as we did with our sports underdog movie - which is about a very niche sport - it's got to be about much more than the actual sport itself, right?). To add to the recent football films list: Thea Sharrock's THE BEAUTIFUL GAME, which starred Bill Nighy and which I'm not sure got much of a theatrical release sadly (as it was a Netflix film). BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM is, to use a word that's over-used but is nevertheless true here, I think: iconic. Not least because its characters, story and thus significance/influence goes way beyond football (per the point of your post!).
i wrote an underdog sports movie as well, might have even been one of the ones you watched or rewatched to inspire you -- i just stumbled upon your comment and thought i'd respond
I admit, I haven't seen _Rocky_ but it's always interesting and surprising how successful Stallone has been _as a writer_, and I appreciate how much credit you give his screenwriting here (and I just thought your piece was a nice piece of writing itself).
ROCKY stands apart from the rest of the series in that it's as skillfully written as any other masterpiece of the '70s, but also, in some ways, serves, like STAR WARS, as a coda to the cynicism of the '70s. It's a wonderful piece of art and well worth a watch.
I'm working on that right now, though it's a contrast of it with BULL DURHAM and their approaches to baseball, Americana, and mythological romanticism in general.
I remember coming out of a small town cinema, the 'Rex' in Haslemere, Surrey, in short trousers, probably a bit sticky from melted ice cream that was a big treat at that age, throwing punches into sudden bright daylight after the long matinée darkness.
Aged eight, I had never given boxing a second thought. Suddenly, I wanted to feel pain, inflict it, and be bloodied and unbowed. And it wasn't about the boxing. It was just a brilliant film.
It may sound clichéd, but I used to run up the cathedral steps in our town in my thirties with the theme in my head. My kids remember dad and Guildford's 'Rocky Steps'. And that feeling of throwing punches into space as an eight year old has been a part of my life ever since.
I just read that Rocky has been reclassified as a 12A - which would have prevented me seeing it in 1977, and may have changed everything.
Thanks for posting, Cole.
And thank you for sharing this memory, Christopher.
Love this Cole. I wrote a sports underdog movie a few years back and watched (or in some cases rewatched) a lot of sports films to inspire and inform me. You're so right about the non-sport emotional elements being the key ones. That's what makes the victory on the field (or in the ring!) powerful and meaningful: knowing what the character has been through to get there, and not just - indeed not mostly - in terms of their training.
I noticed (doing my research!) that boxing, baseball, basketball and horseracing seem to be the top sports of choice for sports movies. Do you think that's because there's somethig inherent in those sports that lends itself to films? Or is it just because they're popular US sports (and ofc many if not most are based on true stories)?! I heard someone say once that football (as in: soccer) is really hard to portray on film, and that's why - or at least partly why - there are so few soccer movies. But of course it could just be that Americans are less into soccer...?! Would love to know your thoughts! :)
It's entirely because Hollywood will only make films about sports that play well in the States *and* abroad. And these days, baseball doesn't even do that. I say this as someone who's thrice been told a project would never work because the sport wasn't popular enough in America. As for soccer, it's a sport that *should* play well enough in the States and huge overseas, right? But even then, it has rarely been as successful as it would need to be to become a sub-genre of its own in cinema. Last/this year (depending where you are), Taika Waititi had a soccer film come out he wrote and directed, for example. Nobody saw it. And it was Taika doing Taika! Why?! "TED LASSO" was about a football/soccer team, but it was far more a workplace comedy than about sports. There are exceptions to everything, of course. CHALLENGERS exists. BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM was a huge international hit. I can go on, as I'm sure you could.
That is both very interesting and rather depressing, haha (but adds to the idea that, as we did with our sports underdog movie - which is about a very niche sport - it's got to be about much more than the actual sport itself, right?). To add to the recent football films list: Thea Sharrock's THE BEAUTIFUL GAME, which starred Bill Nighy and which I'm not sure got much of a theatrical release sadly (as it was a Netflix film). BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM is, to use a word that's over-used but is nevertheless true here, I think: iconic. Not least because its characters, story and thus significance/influence goes way beyond football (per the point of your post!).
i wrote an underdog sports movie as well, might have even been one of the ones you watched or rewatched to inspire you -- i just stumbled upon your comment and thought i'd respond
Great to hear from you, Tommy. I saw a direct message from you a bit ago. I'll try to be back in touch this weekend.
That is a lovely description of the movie.
Thanks, Nick.
I admit, I haven't seen _Rocky_ but it's always interesting and surprising how successful Stallone has been _as a writer_, and I appreciate how much credit you give his screenwriting here (and I just thought your piece was a nice piece of writing itself).
ROCKY stands apart from the rest of the series in that it's as skillfully written as any other masterpiece of the '70s, but also, in some ways, serves, like STAR WARS, as a coda to the cynicism of the '70s. It's a wonderful piece of art and well worth a watch.
Very well said Cole! Your reasoning is probably why I like Rocky too.
Thanks, Dan. Glad to hear the piece resonated with you.
Now do Moneyball.
I'm working on that right now, though it's a contrast of it with BULL DURHAM and their approaches to baseball, Americana, and mythological romanticism in general.