If you’re enjoying the recent Creed films (Creed III, new in cinemas earlier this year, is now streaming on both Prime US and Prime UK), why not revisit the original and the best of the whole dang series: 1976’s Rocky. Oscar’s Best Picture that year, it is feel-good in a way that has become iconic, most notably in the training montage in which Sylvester Stallone’s Philadelphia boxer prepares for his big fight, set to that famous theme and culminating in his victorious run up the towering museum stairs that had previously thwarted him. But for all that the movie centers an incredibly violent sport, it’s primarily a romance — Stallone wrote the tender and quietly observant script — about two shy, lonely people, the boxer and Talia Shire’s Adrian, finding each other and blossoming together. It’s a lovely working-class fairy tale that unfortunately got overshadowed by its over-the-top sequels. (Read my 1999 review.)
US: stream on Netflix (through September 30th) or Prime; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Prime (through September 30th); rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See Rocky at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
