Review of Rocky Special Edition

Introduction

Here is a look at the special edition DVD of an undoubted classic & one of my child-hood favorites, dubbed best film of 76 - Rocky! I can`t put into words how pleased I am that they released this as a single retail disc & didn`t force everyone into buying their recent 20th anniversary box-set in order to own this piece of cinematic art. Reason being, I didn`t think much at all of the following four sequels that were spawned from 1979 to 1990, and I`d put money on this chapter in the series being the only one to ever get a definitive release on DVD. Don`t get me wrong, I`m by no means anti-Rocky, I just didn`t think any of the sequels offered as much as the original. They took the from rags-to-riches concept way too far and lost perspective of what made the original so damn good.

1976 was the year the Rocky saga began (years before I was even born), as did the career of Sylvester Stallone. Sly wrote the script himself and sold the rights for a cool $350,000 to a distribution company (you`ll hear all about this on the DVD), but only 10% of his original draft made it into the finished screen-play, as it was given a complete make-over. Well seemingly the changes were for the better as Rocky was a surprise world-wide hit and lead to an entire franchise (I even have great memories of playing the video-game on my retro Atari). Unfortunately, as great as it is, Rocky has fallen upon deaf ears in the past few years, and is now relatively forgotten by most people. So it was a breath of fresh air when I received the jazzed-up DVD version.

Without babbling on too much about the premise & story (which you`re more than likely aware of), the movie follows Rocky Balboa, an amateur boxer who lands the opportunity of a lifetime when he`s granted a brief elevation into the spotlight when he gets to headline a world championship boxing fight against champion "Apollo Creed". At the same time, he also tries to woo a local girl who`s a complete outcast and socializes with nobody with the exception of her jealous brother.

Video

Framed at 1.85:1, this looks exceptional for a movie over 25 years old, huge acclaim goes to MGM for their work here. Although there are flaws here & there, little fault can be made of the overall presentation of Rocky. There is the occasional evidence of a little wear & tear so to speak, but the transfer rate is impressive & even the darkest of scenes look smooth and clear.

Cinematographer James Crabe went for a look somewhat in touch with that of a documentary, and the film exhibits many dark scenes and heavy blacks, all of which, pleasing to say, the DVD transfer handles well, with good strong replication of colour in many scenes.

The movie doesn`t pack all that much in-ring action (and that`s a good thing), the fights are drastically un-realistic and are played out in like a video-game motion, but regardless can be fun to watch.

There`s no real problems here, and is visually pleasing.

Audio

Rocky receives a 5.1 remix for this release, and sounds pretty darn good too. For the most part it`s upfront, a three channel affair seeing the left and right mains handling the music and the center taking care of the dialogue, which at times is a tad muffled, but most likely due to the source material.

Features

As expected from any special edition release, there`s a ton of extras on offer here. But unlike any other supplementary material, some of the additions are truly unique and you wont find anything of its kind on any other disc.

First-off I`ll start with the Sylvester Stallone video commentary - which I loved. It`s around 25 mins in duration, and is a fantastic watch for not only Sly & Rocky fans, but also anybody who have aspirations of getting into the film-making industry. He talks about the whole process he went through in getting his script green-lighted by a distributor & the sacrifices and changes that had to be made. We hear a rather amusing story regarding his dog that featured in the movie, and the rigorous training regimes himself and Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed) went through. In-fact, Stallone delivers such a damn good commentary, I`d swear he was reading straight from the camera. But that`s not important, what is important is the fact that Stallone makes up from his distinct absence from the commentary with this superb addition to the disc.

Now onto some really interesting material. Included is a twelve minute interview with John Avildsen (director), in which he discusses piecing together the fight scenes for the film. This supplement includes some welcome 8mm rehearsal footage shot before film which includes Sly and Carl conducting their concluding fight-sequence over & over. It`s a nice look at how things were done way back in the 70s, and you can see what limited resources these guys had.

There are two nice featurettes that are loving tributes to the late Burgess Meredith and cinematographer James Crabe, the former being the longest at eight minutes in running time. The actors reflect among working with Meredith during the making of the Rocky movies, and knowing him as a friend in life. The tribute to Crabe is a three-minute dedication from director and friend John Avildsen in which he, rightly, praises Crabe`s work on Rocky, and reflects on working with him on this and other films.

Also in the ring is a wonderful Cast and Crew Commentary that is certainly up there with one of the best I`ve heard in a good while. Although the participants are all recorded separately, they each give detailed, and at times humorous accounts on the making of the film. I just would have liked to hear more from Stallone, that`s all.

Finally, trailers for all five Rocky movies are presented, along with the teaser and TV Spots for the first film. The full trailer for Rocky and Rocky V are, interestingly enough, presented in anamorphic widescreen, while the rest are all full frame affairs.

Overall, rocky has quality and quantity feature-wise. And I learnt a lot from watching some of these features. This aspect of the disc will be the most pleasing and will quench any fans thirst for further Rocky knowledge

Conclusion

There is little to knock about this disc, and it`s nice to have MGM provide an all round pleasing DVD release as frankly it is something they are somewhat lacking in. Fans of the film should not hesitate to make the purchase, and for those who have never experienced Rocky, there`s never really been a better time to do so then now.

An all around strong disc, that shouldn`t be passed on by anyone.