November Sweeps - Day 650

So, you know those overpriced Fathom Events screenings where they show an old movie, or an anime, or a concert, they advertise as "One night only!" and they seem vaguely interesting?

Well, over the past year, Sylvester Stallone has been talking about a re-edited version of ROCKY IV, and it's finally out to watch (if you have Amazon Prime, or go see it in the theater that particular night).  I had talked to others, trying to see if anybody wanted to see it with me, and the only one who expressed any interest was my nephew, who was home sick from school that week, so I couldn't take him.

At the last minute, I checked to see if there were still seats (there were a couple), and drove over to watch it by myself.  

It was preceded by a half hour interview with Stallone, coming in live from Philadelphia.  He talked about the making of the movie, and how, if he could've done it over again, he would've just paralyzed Apollo Creed, rather than killed him, so he could've been a mentor character in the later films.  He also talked about all the little differences, and scenes that he had left out, because he didn't want anybody to get bored, not realizing that it's all the little human moments that make you care about the characters.*

I saw ROCKY IV when it first came out in 1985 (in Las Vegas), and this may surprise you, but after RETURN OF THE JEDI, it was the film I saw with the most exuberant crowd until, probably INDEPENDENCE DAY in 1996.  My Uncle John and Aunt Arlene had been extras in the shoot there in Vegas, and though we couldn't see them, they let us know which was their scene (the James Brown song and Apollo/Drago fight).

I am sure I had seen the movie once more in the thirty-five years since, probably when it was on television (or on cable or something), but remembered the gist of it pretty well.**

There were a couple of moments where I could recognize new scenes, and a few shots where the film quality wavered, as often happens with director's cuts, but for the most part, I didn't find there to be all that much different.  Of course, I don't remember the movie scene for scene, but there were bits I remembered from my youth that were absent here (obviously the robot scenes, but little lines and bits, especially with the [truly awful] child actor who played Rocky and Adrian's son).

And when the movie ended, I was surprised that it felt no different to me than the last time I had seen it, and I was less moved now than I had been as a kid.  Hmmm.

In fact, when I went home, I still had to do my daily exercise, so I put on ROCKY IV (the theatrical cut) and was surprised to see little things that I liked better than what I'd just seen.  Hmmm.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In November: 1233

Push-ups Today: 100
Push-ups In November: 1293

Words Today: 694
Words In November: 9484

*Gosh, I find this so hard to believe, coming from the guy who wrote the original ROCKY, a movie that is 90% little human moments, and a tiny bit of action in between.  But I suppose I get what he was saying.

**When John and I saw CREED together in 2015, when they flashed back to Apollo Creed's death, I leaned over and said, "And you were THERE, man!" which he had actually forgotten all about.