{OAP}SagaLout
03-06-2001, 00:53
Having just watched the video commentary on the Rocky DVD I have come to realise that Stallone isnt the knucklehead I have always thought. Dont get me wrong, I have enjoyed most of his films, the Rocky and Rambo series, Cobra, Copland etc. I just never thought he was anything more than a good action star.
The story of how Rocky came to be made is truly inspirational stuff. Whilst I knew it was written by Sly, I didnt realise he was very poor, down to his last few bucks living in bedsit about to sell his dog etc etc. After getting producers interested in his script during an audition for another film he was then offerred $300,000 NOT to play Rocky in it. Now that must have been a hell of a temptation to anyone broke, but stallone stuck to his principles and insisted on the part. The whole film was shot for $950,000 and Sly also played a large part in the casting.
After hearing his story I thought good luck to the guy. He deserves his millions in Hollywood (at least as much as any of the others do anyway). He took his one chance and made a success of it. In fact, you wonder if should have spent more of his career on writing and directing and less in acting.
I hadnt watched this film for quite a few years and watching it again on DVD was really enjoyable. The grim setting is much more apparent on DVD, whilst the training montage never sounded better :) Having said that I found the picture was a little soft for a relatively young film (eg, the picture on Lawrence of Arabia is much better) suggetsting that there wasnt spent on restoring the print whcih is a shame. The sound also sounds very scratchy in places, but that could be down to the fact it was so low budget in the first place.
Overall, an excellent film and the disc has some great extras.
The story of how Rocky came to be made is truly inspirational stuff. Whilst I knew it was written by Sly, I didnt realise he was very poor, down to his last few bucks living in bedsit about to sell his dog etc etc. After getting producers interested in his script during an audition for another film he was then offerred $300,000 NOT to play Rocky in it. Now that must have been a hell of a temptation to anyone broke, but stallone stuck to his principles and insisted on the part. The whole film was shot for $950,000 and Sly also played a large part in the casting.
After hearing his story I thought good luck to the guy. He deserves his millions in Hollywood (at least as much as any of the others do anyway). He took his one chance and made a success of it. In fact, you wonder if should have spent more of his career on writing and directing and less in acting.
I hadnt watched this film for quite a few years and watching it again on DVD was really enjoyable. The grim setting is much more apparent on DVD, whilst the training montage never sounded better :) Having said that I found the picture was a little soft for a relatively young film (eg, the picture on Lawrence of Arabia is much better) suggetsting that there wasnt spent on restoring the print whcih is a shame. The sound also sounds very scratchy in places, but that could be down to the fact it was so low budget in the first place.
Overall, an excellent film and the disc has some great extras.