All language subtitles for 40.Years.of.Rocky.The.Birth.of.a.Classic.2020.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-TEPES

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(shutter clicks)

(cheering)

(orchestral music)

[Sylvester] It was early in
the morning

on the streets of Philadelphia.

It was freezing cold.

And I just started to feel
something welling inside.

And they go, "Sly, are you
ready?"

I go, "I'm not.

"But Rocky is."

(inspirational orchestral music)

I was a complete unknown,
even unknown to myself.

And I had this idea.

A lot of peo

e were feeling
kind of the way I was, going nowhere fast.

And I didn't know whether I had
it or not.

So I wrote this story about an
underdog,

a person who wasn't very
appreciated,

and I was

ven a break by United Artist and
now, you had to put up or shut up,

so I couldn't believe my good
fortune

and every day we'd go to the
studio

and work on the script a little
bit.

Of course, I had a bit of
an odd personality I guess.

Maybe I was born

o play this part, I don't know, but it
just seemed to fit into all the things

that I sort of believed in.

Anyway, we started working on

experimental ideas about boxing.

There had been many boxing films
like,

maybe over 300 made in Hollywood

and they weren't very successful
so

I couldn't believe my good luck
here

when they're doing a boxing
film about this character.

But the point is, it wasn't a
boxing film.

It was a story about
obsolescence,

about not getting an opportunity
in life,

and more importantly, eventually,
a serious love story.

And he happens to be a boxer.

So the relationship comes
a little bit later on

but it's the key to the whole
movie.

John Avildsen in the background.

He always took these,
he's driving me crazy

with these eight millimeter
films

but here we are, so I'm glad he
did it.

But at the time I thought,
what a waste of film.

Now, Mike Westmore, who
was a great, great, great

makeup artist, part of
the Westmore family,

he started doing all of the
experiments.

Here again, I'm just overdoing
everything.

Makeup tests.

And it was great, but I ended
up with barely any eyebrows

left the rest of my
life, so there is that.

At one time I actually
wanted Rocky to look

very, very punchy and I thought,

why don't you glue my nose
to the side of my face?

So they got this kind
of colostomy bad glue

and it was so bad, it
looked like a cartoon,

like I had run into a wall like
Gumby.

So anyway as you can see, I
took things to kind of extremes.

I mean, it looks like a lost
clam.

We got lucky with Burgess
Meredith

who was a world class actor
with 50 years experience

and he took it very serious.

He was f

tastic and developed his characterthat
was based on a real character

and he had all the mannerisms.

'Cause I did real good last
night,

and you should've seen me.

Big deal.

You should've seen me, too.

Hey, kid.

You ever think about retiring?

No.

You think about it.

[Sylvester] My friend
Stan Shaw in the back.

Great guy.

(dramatic music)

I didn't know anything.

You know, I talked a good game
like, yeah, I'm a good boxer.

I didn't know how to box
anything, except maybe oranges.

But I was willing to try.

The character was not supposed
to be a gifted fighter.

He was gifted in other ways.

He just could take an
incredible amount of punishment,

and he was fighting for an
ideal.

He had no allusions that he was
a winner,

he just wanted an opportunity.

Then we came across this
amazing guy, Carl Weathers,

the gr

test film boxer of all
time.

This man could move.

Well, he was a world class
athlete and a great actor,

but God, could he move.

This is us really
beginning to figure it out.

There was a situation happening.

They had hired a choreographer

and the choreographer was used
to doing old-fashioned films

like you hit me, I hit
you, you hit me, I hit you.

And that's what was normally
done in a closeup of two guys

just sort of, as we say,
shoe-shining.

One-two, one-two, one-two,
one-two.

And I thought you know, let's
try to do something different.

Oh, look who just popped up.

My brother.

He was a great singer, is a
great singer,

and I thought well, since I
can't afford anyone else,

I'll use him.

♪ I said I been told by ♪

♪ Do do do do ♪

♪ Some people and they all ♪

Now here's him in the ring,

really showing his love and
appreciation for the job.

Appreciate it, like start
tackling me, knocking me down.

Of course I'm trying to
make him feel good here

by getting a concussion.

Back to Carl, he's improving a
great deal.

And I said to the stunt
coordinator,

I said, "Why doesn't Carl come
out

"and hit me like four jabs on
the right?

He goes, "That isn't the way it
is."

I said, "Well how about
three jabs on the right?"

He goes, "No, just follow my
thing."

I said, "Well, I wanna
see something different."

He goes, "Okay.

"I quit."

So he left, and I was stuck,

and Irwin looked at me
like hey, who are you to...

Well this is the guy actually
right before he left.

His name was I think Stackler
or something like that.

Nice guy, but he had his

old-fashioned way of doing
something,

and I wanted it to look as
close to real as possible,

and usually boxing films,

the actors really were not
in any kind of great shape

and they didn't work any
kind of choreography,

it was sort of done on the fly.

You hit me, I hit you,

and no one was ever in
really excellent shape

so we started writing it up.

The director said hey, why
don't you write it out?

And I thought okay, you mean
like a dance?

Absolutely like a dance.

Then we hired Jimmy Nickerson

and he got in some semi-pros
here

who blocked out the actual real
boxing

and I would study it and go hmm,

that's believable, that's
believable.

And then I started to borrow things
from the world's greatest fights

and condense them into
moments in our film.

So everything you've ever seen
in Rocky

has actually happened before.

In the back there's famous Gene
LeBell,

world famous stuntman and Judo
champion.

This is all practice footage,

and he's working on Jimmy
Nickerson

who insists on him
actually hitting him a lot,

which I don't know what was
going through Jimmy's head.

He actually did get knocked out.

There's Gene LeBell practicing.

He's overacting as his (laughs)

as a referee.

I never

w a referee
get into a full squat, but why not?

This is footage that was
never seen in the movie.

It was supposed to be in the
movie.

Rocky is watching Apollo
knock all these people out.

Mickey is going, "You don't
have a chance," basically.

This is a real fighter
named Sonny Shields,

father of the world class
fighter named Randy Shields.

He thought Carl was just an
actor,

I said he's a powerful
man, and he blasted him,

and eventually knocked
him down again, for real.

We never used this footage,
which is unfortunate.

It was a work in progress.

So in between setups, I would
constantly be re-writing

and re-writing (laughs)

and trying to make this thing
work

for the budget that we
had, which was nothing.

And our locations were pretty,

you know, pretty sparse.

But you know, I think that
worked out for the best.

I hadn't figured out
Rocky's color combination,

so this is just us practicing
basically choreography

and makeup tests.

And you can see like the
ropes hanging on the ground.

This was again, just for us,

too much smoke or too much
makeup,

we were trying to figure out.

Like this.

Hey, anybody want a hamburger?

How you doin'?

Like, little bit of overacting

putting the cart in
front of the horse here.

I think Carl again, this
was mostly a makeup test.

This place was freezing by the
way,

it was in the dead of winter,
so.

It was not conducive
to moving around a lot.

But again, we did what we could

because we were borrowing
the Olympic Auditorium.

And we're seeing how close we
could get with the punches.

Those are actual eight ounce
gloves

that are not doctored up,

and when you get hit with them,
it's...

My eye is closed, your depth
perception

is way off.

So this is what these
rehearsals helped with,

figuring out what works
and what doesn't work.

Oh there's my father.

We're sitting around before the
film

kind of figuring out theúlogistics with the set designer

and it was great to be
part of all of this.

I didn't know what I was
doing, but it sounded good

and it looked good.

And we were pretty passionate
about it.

But really there's something
good

about not knowing everything,

you're just throwing
yourself headlong into it.

Made my father the bell
ringer, that was interesting.

He'd always ring the bell
about 20 seconds late

and I would take a beating.

And I kept going, is this kind
of Freudian by any chance?

That's me wearing my incredibly
expensive York shirt.

Kind of hung up on the
tank tops at the time,

I don't know why.

Storyboards are something
I'd never seen before.

It was very interesting.

It was laid out what
we were supposed to do.

This whole kind of ritual of two
men

getting ready to face one
another,

Rocky being incredibly inferior

and Carl, or Apollo Creed,
just taking it as another day

in the life of a champion, no
big deal.

But all these maneuvers
here like the Vick's

and the greasing up, this is
pretty much

what we were taught by authentic
trainers.

Rocky knows he's basically
going to get slaughtered

so he's just praying he
doesn't get hurt too much.

And Carl, this is the first
time we actually see him

get serious in the film as
Apollo Creed.

You won't believe this camera.

This is so gigantic.

Everything we had was, I don't
know,

just scraping things together.

This gigantic camera, that
we had to lash to the car.

They don't even exist anymore.

This fella here, his
name was Jimmy Gambina,

he was also a trainer,
his father's a trainer,

and I thought I'd put him in a
movie

'cause he was really
some kind of character.

And it worked out.

Don't you think you oughta
take a rest?

No, my back is hurt.

Your back?

My back is hurt.

You deaf?

No, I'm short.

[Sylvester] As I was
getting prepared again,

me being very mature between
takes,

this is how I prepare for a movie, by
chasing Adrian with a meat cleaver.

You think it's a little odd
perhaps.

We tried to keep it loose.

It was a lot of fun in
a way, and I tend to

ot want to walk around all
moody, and I just try to

keep it relaxed 'cause if you're
relaxed,

the rest of the crew is relaxed.

And then you turn it on when you
have to,

so you can see me with Joe
Spinell who played Mr. Gazzo

and John Avildsen,
makeup man Mike Westmore,

and we're just having a good
time.

That hat was a real bone of
contention.

Nobody wanted me to wear the
hat.

They wanted me to just
be, you know, bareheaded.

I go, (groans)

So there was a store there
and I bought the hat,

there's the director's children,

bought that hat for like $3

and I wanna wear the hat.

And the producer goes,
"You can't wear this hat."

and I go, "Why?"

He says, "Because,

"Gene Hackman wore it
in French Connection."

I says, "So, that's the end of
hats?

"So, hats are banned?"

I said, "It kind of
tops off the character."

And I just went ahead and used
the hat.

I'd never seen a hat like it,

it was like this cheap,
felt, cardboard hat,

but it just worked perfectly,

and I think made a great
impression on the character.

I think it just set the whole
thing like a suit of armor.

It was a costume that he
was sort of hiding behind.

And then when you see
him put on the glasses

like they should realize, he's
not this real tough specimen,

he's kind of nerdy in a way.

Oh yeah, this is us in between
takes, just hanging out.

This is a scene that was
amazing.

I wrote it for 300 extras.

And Adrian was s

posed to be taken out on the ice by this
incredible ice skater and he's showing off

and I'm sort of humiliated

and then I get into sort
of a beef with the fella.

I show up on the set, they said,

"Well, we've had to cut the
extras back a little bit."

I go, "To what?"

He goes, "To none."

You're kidding me!

How about a heads up?

So I went back and I started
re-writing immediately

and, well, the proof is in the
pudding.

It became just the two of us on
the ice

and since I can't ice skate,
Rocky runs alongside of her.

That's George Memmoli who
was a great character,

actor and a friend,

and it turned out to be
a thousand times better

if there had been a big, big
crowd here.

So, again, taking the negative
and making it a positive.

Got very lucky on that day.

But that scene sort of set the
tone for Rocky's first date.

He wasn't used to you know,
being very... (laughs)

Well we'll just say
sophisticated,

but I think that was part of
his charm was his honesty.

No it's okay, it's okay.

Hey listen, are you closed
to the general public,

or are you just closed to
everybody, you know what I mean?

You can see here, we really
struggling.

She was not exactly you
know, Ice Capades either.

We're just struggling
out there which I thought

kind of reflected on who they
were, too.

It's like, neither one of
them is very graceful in life.

But together, they're a perfect
fit, they really really are.

I almost b

ke my neck on this about 10 times.
This turned out to be very, very good.

You can see where John's
rehearsals

were absolutely duplicated in
reality,

so it was a perfect thing.

I tell you, things get
pretty rough in the rink.

Again, this is the
makeup with Mike Westmore

and we'd be running lines here.

So we've hit the ground running.

I like to learn a lot of
dialogue

a long time before the
production

so you can let it go and ad lib

and then come back to the
script.

And Burgess, who's a classically
trained actor and I wasn't,

was totally on board with that.

And he was just fantastic.

He's really a consummate
performer.

I didn't realize it at the time

'cause I had never worked
with anyone that good,

but now, as I reflect on
it, one of the greatest.

This was an actual
apartment, believe it or not,

and I thought we should add
some things that are a bit odd,

like a mattress stuck to
the wall full of bayonets.

Don't explain it, just,
that's the way he lives.

And a bowl full of turtles and
so on.

(inspirational music)

We couldn't afford a hose
to wet down the street,

so we'd do it by buckets.

Rocky solidifies his
relationship with Mickey

after a tempestuous brawl
a few moments earlier

where he just unloaded on
Mickey about being ignored.

But that's what made the
character,

he's just always forgiving.

This

s my friend Gene Kirkwood, he was very, very
important in having the film actually made.

And Burt Young, who was
fantastic.

We start in Philadelphia and
we end up here, this is L.A.,

running along the side of
the meat packing place.

I don't know exactly why
I wrote in a slider house,

but it was just an idea.

Like boxers are considered meat,
you know,

we don't think of them as you
know,

regular human beings, but they
are.

They have a lot of heart and
soul,

they're not just flesh to be hit
upon.

And so that was somewhat a
symbolic move,

a little heavy-handed
but I think it worked.

And here we are outside.

Yeah, with my dog Butkus
which was actually my dog

and I thought Rocky and the
dog looked very much alike,

so I wanted him in the movie.

And I thought it again added
a little bit of character

to who Rocky was, and it
was a gift from Adrian.

This is a scene that
was made up on the spot.

What's that, Butkus, huh?

Whose truck is this?

Come on.

I was supposed to just be in
there.

I thought, you know, it'd
be great if he just shows up

and there's Burt saying,
"Hey, hope you don't mind,

"I called your television
network,

"and I'm basically here to
embarrass you."

And of course, Rocky takes it in
stride

and goes along with it 'cause
he's that kind of a guy.

This place was so magical.

I mean just these streets,

I go back there every now and
then.

It's amazing.

They're so small, so
narrow, so claustrophobic,

the terrain is just so
graphically interesting.

Yo.

Yo.

Yo, you look great.

And then, right here, this
is where she just exploded.

I mean, she became Cinderella.

This is what he saw.

When he's here to pesh up,
everyone else saw this homely,

very, very shy woman.

He saw really a beautiful
person, inside and out.

And she really sold it in that
moment.

This is the game changer.

This man's name is Garrett
Brown, he's an inventor,

he lives in Philadelphia
and just out of luck,

he goes, "I got this camera
called the Steadicam."

I go, "Excuse me?" It kinda
looks like a vacuum cleaner.

But no, this thing was amazing.

You could run as fast as you
could, be on a bouncy truck,

yet the picture is incredibly
level.

And here we are in this
very, very inexpensive film

using a revolutionary
camera, which really,

basically revolutionized the
business

and is used probably
on every movie there is

around the world.

Extraordinary.

Oh yeah, fight night.

Carl

we had this idea of him being Uncle Sam. I
thought, we're gonna push the envelope here.

This probably was so
much out of our budget

we could barely afford it.

The robe they made for me

was for a guy who was six foot
five

but again, we work it into the
movie.

"Don't you think this
robe is kind of baggy?"

"Eh it looks great, don't worry
about it."

We don't have many extras,

so the camera angles
are very, very important

to be shooting up

and these little lights which
you see in the background

which add depth of field,
these Christmas lights,

they're very effective.

And out here, we're starting
out working on the choreography

that eventually will be
almost punch for punch

exactly what happens in the
final product.

So it's interesting to see how,
bam bam.

(cheers)

It worked!

I mean, it was shocking.

I enjoy seeing this here.

Of course, you never know
when you get out there.

It could be the biggest waste of
time

and you go oh, it looks really
phony,

but we're able to take it from
the gym

where you didn't know, I mean,

you have to understand, we
didn't know what we were doing.

No one ever rehearsed for
months and months and months

and months and months.

And boxing films weren't
very, very popular,

so I thought, are we just
really wasting our time?

Or is this actually going
to translate into something?

So every day you go in there,
(grumbles)

I hope this is just not
gonna be an embarrassment.

From that little gym, it
worked in the big picture.

Punch for punch.

And we were able to do this
time and time and time again,

ich is why I always advocate for a long,
long, long rehearsal for boxing films.

And most people don't do it.

It's well worth the effort.

(dramatic music)

[Announcer] He can't
even get his gloves up

to protect himself.

[Sylvester] Here's Carl
just laying it on me.

Oh!

Beautiful.

His timing is amazing, it really
is.

The canvas was interesting.

We designed these stars
which was reminiscent

of Apollo Creed's trunks.

(inspirational orchestral music)

The acting started six
months earlier in the gym,

and you're just hoping it works
there.

We've been building up
to this, right here.

This is the harder part.

How do you keep the audience
engaged with the drama

that these men are going
through,

and the trauma what they're
going through.

(calm music)

This I believe is after the
show.

We're all pretty much wrapped up

and having a little bit of
barbecue

with John and his children.

In my Howdy Doody shirt.

This is uh, I guess, yeah,

it has to be probably while
we're editing

because my hair is longer in
this part.

This is great.

We tried to keep this as free to
the core,

this kind of family group.

Bill Conti, who I cannot express

how important he was to this
movie.

His music just took it to
another level.

Yeah, classical music
in an un-classical film.

Very interesting dynamic.

They wan

d to put in rock music at one time and
was talking about even Jimi Hendrix

and bringing in Bill,
he figured it all out.

There's John's children (laughs)

Hey Rufus.

I believe we opened up
in maybe two theaters

and this is the place where I
was an usher

several years earlier.

Two doors away at the Baronette,

and I would also work
over there at Cinema 2.

And now I'm back with a film.

That was my beloved manager Jane
Oliver.

She was great.

And then John with his son.

And the irony of being
in this movie theater

where I used to go back
and forth with my brother

there all the time

and he was singing on the
corner and I'm carrying tickets

and now I'm in the theater,
I'm on the marquis.

How did this happen?

It's amazing.

And this was in also on the
West Coast, in Westwood.

In one year, my life
exploded for the better.

So I tell people, you never
know.

You just never, never know if
you're gonna hit the lottery.

You just gotta k

p buying
tickets, you gotta keep going for it.

Yeah, I used to cut my
own hair, I know, I know.

Don't comment on it.

I was too cheap to hire
a barber at the time.

I didn't know any better.

Here on the lobby just greeting
customers.

I felt like hey, thank you for
showing up.

I didn't know how long
it was going to last,

I didn't know it was
going to be successful.

Yo

re a very lucky person when you can find outthe
best friend you ever had is some character

that just popped out of your
mind,

someone who was always
there when things got rough

and never quit on you.

That's what I look at
Rocky as, my best friend.

(applause)

And the winner is, Rocky,
(cheering)

Irwin Winkler and Robert
Chartoff

To all the Rockys in
the world, I love you.

(applause)

(inspirational orchestral music)

(dramatic orchestral music)

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