When we think of the most inspirational films of all time, there are definite stand-outs that we can turn to and find messages of hope that elevate us out of our hum-drum lives and really inspire us to capture greatness. We finish watching these movies with hope that our goals are within reach and renewed optimism for our lives and the world around us.
So, what is the most inspirational movie of all time?
Is it It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) with its message of how the small moments of are lives are more vital than imaginary achievements? Is it The Shawshank Redemption (1994), with its messages of hope and friendship in the face of inescapable adversity? Is it Rudy (1993), showing us how to persevere and never stop working towards our dreams?
No. It’s not any of those.
The single most inspirational movie of all time, dear readers, and I mean this with all the gravitas and authority I can muster, is Rocky (1976). That’s not an opinion and it’s not up for debate (and oh man, I’m sure some of you out there wanna debate!)
Rocky is the most inspirational movie ever made, and now I’m going to tell you why…
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Part I: A Million-to-One Making Of
“I relished stories of heroism, great love, dignity, and courage, dramas of people rising above their stations, taking life by the throat and not letting go until they succeeded.” – Sly Stallone
Sylvester Stallone was born out of resiliency. Complications during his birth led to partial paralysis in his face, giving him his signature sneer and vocal timbre. Bullied as a child, he coped with bodybuilding and had aspirations of being a performer. Inspired by his mom, herself a dancer and promoter of women’s wrestling, he caught the acting bug from an early age. Despite meager roles (some more infamous than others), he was looked over as a leading man. He was often down on his luck, broke, and when he was 26 years old he had to sell his beloved pooch, Butkus, in front of a 7-Eleven for $40 to buy food (don’t worry, this comes back later…)
On his 29th birthday, he had a revelation to write. He wanted to write a story he would want to see on screen, of heroism and strength of the human spirit.
After seeing a Muhammad Ali — Chuck Wepner fight on closed-circuit TV — with the last of his cash, he was inspired to write about a man named Rocky. It took Stallone three-and-a-half days to finish the first draft, which made its way to producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff who negotiated a rate of $75,000 and a few rewrites. And, while the tide seemed to be turning for the fledgling writer, Stallone did the unthinkable. He insisted that he star as the titular Rocky.
Winkler and Chartoff, gaining confidence in the project with bids approaching $125,000, begged Stallone to attach a big-name star in the title role. They were thinking James Caan or Burt Reynolds, but Stallone held firm. Offers kept rolling in, topping out at $300,000, but Stallone still refused to sell unless he starred. It was a gamble, the same type of never-give-up ethos that surrounded the project, and Stallone won out. United Artists backed the project with a budget of $950,000 and the team got to work.
The first order of business…buying back Stallone’s pup, Butkus. The new owner (a gouger, if I ever heard one!) charged Stallone $15,000 which Sly happily paid with his script money. “He was worth every penny!” Stallone boasted in a 2017 tribute to the pooch. Butkus Stallone made his film debut in Rocky, also appearing in Rocky II before his passing in 1981.
Shooting mostly in Philadelphia, the budget did not allow for a typical Union gig, and director John Avildsen got creative, carting cast and crew in a van around Philly to get all the necessary shots of Rocky famous training montage. With the benefit of a new invention, Garrett Brown’s Steadicam, the city is energized with beauty and cameos from real Philadelphians, encouraged to interact with Stallone’s Rocky as he pursued greatness.
As the budget ran thin, creativity and belief in Stallone’s vision always won out. The scene in which Rocky takes Adrian (Talia Shire) ice skating was originally meant to have a 300 extras, but as budget didn’t allow them that luxury, the scene was changed so that Rocky pays off a security guard so they can have an intimate skate alone. The change turned out the most tender moment in Rocky, as he admits he doesn’t know how to skate and jogs along next to Adrian just to give her something special.
Going from alone in an ice rink to alone in a crowd, the original ending in which Rocky and Adrian walk alone out of the boxing stadium — an image that would appear on promotional posters and still images — was lost in a fire. A quick reshoot gives audiences the now beautiful ending of a crowded boxing ring as Rocky and Adrian devotedly shout for each other amidst what appears to be a wash of people. In actuality, it was only a small number of cast and friends thereof, again unable for budget reasons to bring in necessary extras, and they crowded the ring with expert camerawork to make the mob sufficient to show the fight for Adrian and Rocky to connect and celebrate their love.
Test screenings and raw trailers boasting the tag, “A movie for every nobody who ever needed somebody,” created buzz nationwide. Rocky premiered in New York on November 21, 1976, with full release on December 3rd of the same year, and it was a smashing success. The movie grossed $117 million worldwide, destroying expectations and earning it Oscar consideration in 1977.
Going up against Taxi Driver, All the President’s Men, Network, and Bound for Glory, Rocky took the best picture Oscar at the 49th annual Academy Awards. Director John Avildsen won Best Director and Editors Richard Halsey and Scott Conrad won Best Editing. Stallone and Shire received nods for Best Actor and Actress, Burgess Meredith and Burt Young for Best Supporting Actor, and Bill Conti’s inspiring theme “Gonna Fly Now” was nominated for best original song. Stallone’s writing also got props with a nomination for best screenplay.
The making of Rocky is rife with incredible feats, adversity at every corner, but an iron will to succeed that surpassed all expectations. Like Apollo underestimating Rocky’s drive, so had Stallone been underestimated, pushing himself to take a risk, grab opportunity by the throat, and win larger than he had ever dreamed.
Part II: An All-American Hero’s Journey
“He [Rocky] is a man of the streets. People looked on him as the all-American tragedy, a man without much mentality and few social graces. But he has deep emotion and spirituality and good patriotism…I have always seen him as a 20th Century gladiator in a pair of sneakers. Like so many of us, he is out of sync with the times. To all this, I injected doses of my own personal life, of my frustration at not getting anywhere.” – Sly Stallone
What does it mean to be inspired? Or to be an inspiring person? At its most basic level, to be inspiring is to believe in yourself and your ability, as well as the ability to believe in others. But more than that, they express endless optimism, courage, empathy, and express gratitude to others. In all these things, Rocky is the embodiment of inspiration from start to finish. He is an hero for the everyman and everywoman.
And do you know how I know he’s a hero? Because Rocky is a classic hero’s journey. It’s more subtle, more relatable, and more grassroots than those modern examples of Star Wars and The Matrix. It’s less supernatural than classic tales like The Odyssey. It’s heroism bred on the small scale, rising to greatness not by prophecy or destiny, but by one opportunity. One shot. One chance to rise up and grab the brass ring.
Rocky gets his call to adventure from the dirty confines of Might Mick’s boxing studio to stand toe-to-toe with a champion. He refuses the call, first told he’s only a sparring partner which he openly accepts. But when he’s faced with the championship bout, his personal belief that he’s not good enough leads to refusal. When he does accept, his aides come in many forms, from Mickey training to Paulie promoting, and has the “supernatural” benefit of being a southpaw. He crosses the threshold and enters the belly of the whale in the single most enduring training montage in modern cinema history (short only to Rocky IV which, if anything, is just an improvement on the original). This, of course, is the road of trials.
Enter the Goddess: Adrian, who promises riches beyond that of glory after the adventure. The boon of love, and the temptation which compromises his relationship with promoter and best friend, Paulie. His atonement and apotheosis are contained as he admits to Adrian that he doesn’t believe he can beat Apollo, but he strives to go the distance – lasting all 10 rounds – a feat which no other boxer has done before against Creed. To prove himself to everyone that he’s not just “another bum from the neighborhood.” It’s not about being the greatest, or winning, it’s about never giving up, believing beyond your means, and not letting the opportunity given to him pass him by.
And the ultimate boon: he goes the distance. Rocky doesn’t win, but he proves to himself, and to the worldwide audiences watching enrapt from the edge of their seats, and rises above his station. And in finality achieves the greatest boon of all as he calls out Adrian’s name and she calls his in return.
And thus the hero is born of the journey. And while, on a macro level, we see all the inspiration pieces which timelessly endure, there are small moments in Rocky that elevate the film, and Rocky himself, past other heroes.
Though he sees himself as a “bum from the neighborhood,” taking thug jobs by loan sharks, he is a gentle brawler with a humble heart from the start. We see this in the small moments: joining in a corner do-wop while walking home at night, endearingly buying a pair of turtles from his would-be paramour just to get to talk to her when he buys them food, walking a young girl home while giving her some seriously feminist life advice about being better than people’s expectation of her. His improvised interactions with an ice rink security guard, his joining in of actual Philadelphians during his training, every bit of Rocky speaks to his optimism in humanity itself. He often underestimates himself, but that doesn’t stop him from giving more, working harder, and achieving the status of street-wise hero.
Part III: Music and Stairs – an Enduring Legacy
“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” – Rocky Balboa
Now, I don’t have to tell you that Rocky’s incredible success led to a series of sequels, each with its own voice and stamina. Even more surprising, in fact, is that the quality of these sequels never waned (okay, I’ll submit a little on Rocky V) and the depth of his character arc established in the first film is upheld and expanded. This continued in the new Creed series which are just as good as the originals. Legacy withstanding, Rocky bred so many elements of cultural significance that they stand apart as monuments to its legacy outside the silver screen.
There’s nothing more iconic than the “Rocky Steps” located at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. When I visited in February of 2020, not a single person — not the trio of grey-haired ladies out for their morning walk to the middle-aged business man in full suit to the high school aged girls with neon hair — walked those steps. They all picked up their feet, some humming Bill Conti’s enduring theme, some singing “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor (a song that actually didn’t appear until Rocky III, but the Rocky series is that good), and jogged or raced or skipped up those stairs to take a photo at the feet of the Philly hero. And I do mean feet quite literally. A metal cast of the soles of a pair of size 11 Converse All Star High Tops is cemented into the stone floor at the top of the steps.
I, of course, took the liberty of busting out my phone and blasting “Gonna Fly Now” while running up and down the steps, accompanying all those making the trek to the top who would have me. The song is epic, welling with brassy, full tones that crescendo into the atmosphere, traveling from ears to chest to diaphragm and filling all those in listening distance with the immediate need to achieve greatness.
Conti was actually the third composer approached for the gig, mainly because they were bound again by budget, and Conti had to pay for much of the score production himself. Despite never having seen a boxing match prior to accepting the gig, Conti took to the challenge and it was recorded in three 1-hour session in an LA studio. When the film took off, trumpet player Maynard Ferguson started seeing radio play on his latest album, Conquistador, with “Gonna Fly Now” as the main track. Conti had no plans to release the score, but with continued attention to the song hitting top 40 charts, he approached United Artists to produce and release a proper Rocky album.
Funnily enough, Conti has claimed he’s never run to the running anthem. Though, he knows that Barbara Streisand has. Conti conducted the orchestra for the 49th Academy Awards and as Streisand rehearsed her Oscar-nominated original song prior to the show, she shared with Conti, “You know, every morning I run to your song and it really gets me up.” She would go on to win the gold over “Gonna Fly Now” with “Evergreen” from A Star is Born.
“If this is something you wanna do, and if this is something you gotta do, then you do it. Fighters fight.” – Rocky Balboa
This year, Rocky turns 45. Over four decades of enduring, unwavering inspiration.
And its legacy continues with Rocky vs. Drago: The Ultimate Director’s Cut releasing earlier this month (November 12th) and Creed III projected to release on November 23rd, 2022. It’s the little-film-that-could brought to you by the sheer iron will and resilience of Sly Stallone. It’s about getting knocked down and always getting back up. It’s about learning from the failures, the beat downs, the naysayers, and becoming better than you ever thought possible.
Bottom line, the hero’s journey of strength, character, and resilience, the accompanying sequels, the making of, the music, the steps, the shoes – all the ancillary components speak to Rocky’s legacy as the single most inspiring film of all time.
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