Rocky III

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Rocky III

Rocky III movie poster
Directed by Sylvester Stallone
Produced by Robert Chartoff
Irwin Winkler
Written by Sylvester Stallone
Starring Sylvester Stallone
Talia Shire
Burt Young
Carl Weathers
Burgess Meredith
Mr. T
Music by Bill Conti
Distributed by United Artists
Release date(s) May 28th, 1982
Running time 99 min.
Language English
Preceded by Rocky II
Followed by Rocky IV
IMDb profile

"Rocky 3" is also a nickname for Sergei Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto.

Rocky III (1982) is the third installment in the Rocky movie series, starring Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers, and Talia Shire.

Rocky III features Mr. T, who plays the character Clubber Lang, a contender who has some characteristics of a classic boxing villain whose human side is usually hidden by his loudness.

It also features Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea as the character Thunderlips, a role which helped popularize Hogan.

Taglines:

  • A Fighter. A Lover. A Legend. The Greatest Challenge.
  • The Excitement... The Power... The Man...
  • The Greatest Challenge.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Rocky III begins with an opening montage of scenes that explains what happened in the time between Rocky II and Rocky III.

Rocky Balboa, the new heavyweight champion of the world, begins a run of title defenses, mowing down ten straight opponents from around the world. As his win streak grows, so does his fame and celebrity, as Balboa is soon seen everywhere, from magazine covers around the world, to print ads for Maserati and De Lorean, to TV show appearances (including the The Muppet Show), to T-shirts, mugs, and his own "Crunch Punch" chocolate bars. While this is all happening, Clubber Lang (played by Mr. T) is coming up in the ranks, beating everybody put in front of him and becoming the number one contender for Balboa's title.

It is now three years since "Superfight II". While Rocky lives comfortably as the wealthy and popular heavyweight champion of the world and international celebrity, his brother-in-law Paulie (played by Burt Young) still lives in the slums of Philadelphia, and is jealous of his wealthy and successful brother-in-law. After a night of drinking, Paulie walks into a video arcade off the streets of Philadelphia, and, upon noticing a Rocky pinball machine, hurls a bottle of liquor at the machine, destroying it, and earning himself a trip to jail. The next character we see is a neatly-dressed Rocky Balboa bailing Paulie out of prison. In the parking lot, an enraged Paulie throws punches at Rocky. Paulie reveals that the source of his anger is that Rocky never asked him to live with him or support him with some kind of job (although Rocky never knew this, because Paulie had never asked him for anything before). Finally, Paulie asks for a job and Rocky agrees, taking Paulie home to his mansion.

Rocky agrees to a charity boxing/wrestling match with wrestling champion, Thunderlips (Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea). Rocky, under the impression that this is an exhibition for charity, treats the whole affair as light-hearted fun, asking Thunderlips for Polaroids after the match and trying to arrange a strategy for the match to play out. Early in the match, Rocky lightly tapping the wrestler in the stomach. Thunderlips, however, is still in his wrestling character, and grabs Rocky and attacks him with a variety of wrestling moves, such as a backbreaker and suplex. After being thrown out of the ring, Rocky decides to remove his gloves and fight back, finally hurting the wrestler. In a stunning display of strength, Rocky carries Thunderlips and drops him out of the ring. Ultimately, the contest is called a draw. After the match, Thunderlips breaks kayfabe and grants Rocky his Polaroid, stating "that's the name of the game".

Rocky has a statue unveiled in Philadelphia and as Rocky expresses his thanks, he reveals his plans to retire. Clubber Lang, who was in attendance at the ceremony, challenges Rocky yet again, this time taunting Rocky that all of his fights since his rematch with Apollo Creed had been fixed and that Rocky has been ducking him. Mickey, his trainer, refuses to allow Lang to have the match, saying that Lang is a disgrace to the sport. Lang goes as far as to make a come on to Adrian, causing Rocky to jump after him and accept the challenge. Mickey, however, doesn't want anything to do with it and tells Rocky that if he wants to fight Lang, he'll have to do it with a new trainer.

Rocky catches up with Mickey at home and demands he explain, and Mickey admits that his fights after winning the championship were against opponents that were hand-picked to make sure they were good fighters, but not fighters of championship caliber, in order to protect him from another dangerous fight like his two fights with Creed. To that end, he strongly advises Rocky against fighting Lang since the challenger is not only brutal, but also has a superior fighting spirit while Rocky has become too "civilized" as champion.

Rocky, feeling he needs to prove to himself that he is worthy of his title of Heavyweight Champion of the World, begins to train for the match with Lang, while Mickey eventually agrees to assist him. Unfortunately, Rocky Balboa the celebrity gets in the way of Rocky Balboa the boxer. Rocky fails to take his training seriously, as training regimen was made open to the public. He trains in a hotel ballroom, where fans constantly interrupt him for photo opportunities or kisses. Memorabilia is sold, while Rocky trains with a band playing music. While Rocky relaxes and enjoys a stylized training, Lang's training is the polar opposite. He trains with total dedication and in isolation. Mickey fears disaster is imminent.

Clubber Lang (Mr. T, right) facing Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, left) in Rocky III.
Clubber Lang (Mr. T, right) facing Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, left) in Rocky III.

Lang and Rocky meet at Philadelphia's Spectrum. During a melee before the fight, Mickey is inadvertently shoved into a rail by Lang, and suffers a heart attack. Rocky wishes to call the fight off, but Mickey urges him on while he stays in the dressing room. At ringside, Rocky's old nemesis Apollo Creed is on hand for commentary. Before the fight, Creed is introduced to the crowd but when he tries to shake hands, Lang bad-mouths him. Creed shakes Rocky's hand, telling him to take Lang down. By the time of the fight, Rocky is both enraged and severely distracted by his mentor's condition, and despite attacking Lang fiercely in the beginning of the first round, without direction, Rocky is easily knocked out by the superiorly conditioned Lang in the second round, losing the title of heavyweight champion. When he returns to his locker room, he and Mickey have their last conversation, and Mickey, refusing medical treatment, passes away in Rocky's arms, but not before Rocky tells Mickey that the fight ended in a knockout in the second round. Rocky never overtly reveals he is the one who was knocked-out and Mickey dies thinking Rocky knocked out Lang.

After the fight and Mickey's funeral, Rocky is deep in self-doubt, and goes to Mickey's gym one night deep in thought. While there, Apollo Creed shows up and tries to talk Rocky into training with him for a rematch with Lang, telling him he needed to regain the "eye of the tiger," his competitive spirit. Rocky agrees, and he, Adrian, and Paulie head to Los Angeles with Apollo, with the understanding that when this is over that Apollo will be owed a favor, which Apollo refuses to tell. To keep Rocky's focus on the task at hand, Apollo insists on a bare bones approach; going to the same gym he had started in, checking Rocky and his entourage into an old dirty hotel in a Los Angeles slum.

Once the training starts, Apollo starts teaching Rocky how to box with rhythm, which Paulie refers to as fighting "black". He also insists that Rocky begin to learn new methods of training for fights, namely swimming and running on sand. Apollo realizes that Rocky has to train to survive a fast pace, which is the only thing it will take to defeat Clubber Lang in a rematch (most, if not all, of Lang's fights were early round knockouts).

Rocky attempts to learn from Apollo, but his regrets and fears sap his resolve and Apollo is frustrated. A heart to heart with Adrian occurs, in which Rocky admits his fears (after a little prodding on her part) and she reassures him that she will be with him no matter what. Thus inspired, Rocky returns to the training with renewed vigor. He returns to the ring 10 pounds lighter than he had been against Lang the first time, ready to regain his title.

In a rematch versus Lang, and with the world watching, Rocky fights with a level of skill and fighting spirit that no one, including Clubber Lang, expects. Defying Lang, Rocky intentionally takes a beating, gambling that Clubber Lang will tire before Rocky is knocked down, which frustrates Lang right along with the fact that Lang gets confused by Rocky alternating his fighting style during the fight. Defeating Lang with a knockout in the third round, while he manages to stay standing, he recovers his world heavyweight championship and his self-respect at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Sometime after the fight, Rocky and Apollo return to Mickey's gym, with Apollo revealing his favor: a third fight with Rocky. However, this wouldn't be in front of any crowds or sanctioning bodies - it would only be a sparring match between two friends. Apollo was still agonizing over being beaten "by one second". The movie ends with Rocky and Apollo circling the ring, and ends out with a freeze-frame of each preparing to hit the other.

The movie contained a song by Survivor, "Eye Of The Tiger," which became a chart topper the year the movie was released, in 1982.

[edit] Bronze statue

A bronze statue of Rocky, called "ROCKY", was commissioned by Sylvester Stallone and created by A. Thomas Schomberg in 1981. Three statues were created and one was placed on the top of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the filming of Rocky III. After filming was complete, a furious debate erupted in Philadelphia between the Art Museum and the City's Art Commission over the meaning of "art." Claiming the statue was not "art" but rather a "movie prop" the city considered various alternate locations and settled upon the front of the Wachovia Spectrum in South Philadelphia. It was later returned to the Art Museum where it was used in the filming of Rocky V, as well as Mannequin and Philadelphia. Afterward, it was again moved to the front of the Spectrum. The statue was returned to the museum's steps on September 8th, 2006.

The third of the three statues was listed on eBay with a starting bid of US$5,000,000 to raise funds for the International Institute for Sport and Olympic History. It failed to sell and was listed again for US$3 million; after receiving only one bid, which turned out to be fraudulent, it has been relisted several times for US$1 million. [1]

The statues weighed 2 tons each and stood about ten feet tall.

[edit] Trivia

  • Sylvester Stallone originally wanted to use the song "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen as the main song in the movie. However he wasn't able to secure the rights so instead he had the band Survivor create the song "Eye of the Tiger" specifically for the movie.
  • The Rocky pinball machine shown in the arcade Paulie stops by during his drunken rage was a real pinball machine that many arcades had around the time that the film came out.
  • This movie has two firsts for the Rocky series. It is the first Rocky movie where Rocky loses a fight by knockout, and it's also the first Rocky movie where the audience sees Rocky not get at least to the 15th round in a boxing match.
  • During the montage scene where it shows Rocky's rise to fame and riches, the scene where he is on The Muppet Show is from the episode in which Sylvester Stallone hosted in real life.
  • Also during the montage scene you can glimpse The Official Rocky Scrapbook. This was an actual book published in 1977 written by Sylvester Stallone.
  • This movie was the on-screen debut for Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea. The then relatively unknown professional wrestler would use the exposure from this film to help launch perhaps the most famous professional wrestling career in history.
  • Sylvester Stallone and Mr. T would both go on to make appearances for the World Wrestling Federation; Mr. T would wrestle at the inaugural WrestleMania in 1985 and box on NBC's "Saturday Night's Main Event" and again at WrestleMania 2 in 1986. Stallone would eventually induct co-star Hulk Hogan into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of WrestleMania 21 weekend in 2005.
  • Many moviegoers were surprised at the revelation at his funeral that Mickey was Jewish, since his voice and mannerisms had many believing he was Irish.
  • This is the first and only Rocky movie that does not feature a press conference. Some fans noted that it is odd that this sequel did not feature any encounter with the media, considering the fact that there were two championship fights (Balboa and Lang) and even a special exhibition bout (Balboa and Thunderlips). Any and all said encounters are all done in 1-on-1 interviews (however, the film's novelization does have a scene with Rocky and Apollo calling a press conference, surprising reporters by revealing they're working together and Apollo doing a wild speech on how he'll "modernize the Italian Stallion!" Whether this was written for the book or based on a deleted scene is unknown).
  • The ring announcer for the fight between Rocky and Thunderlips is LeRoy Neiman. A painting of his with Rocky and Apollo is featured in the closing credits.
  • In the television show Family Guy, the end scene featuring Creed and Rocky is parodied instead featuring Quagmire and Cleveland.
  • Former Heavyweight contender Earnie Shavers was bypassed for the role of Clubber Lang, when he broke two of Sylvester Stallone's ribs during a sparring session.

[edit] U.S. box office gross

These figures only reflect movie theater ticket sales in the United States. The most profitable of the films by far was the original Rocky, which only spent a production budget of US$1.1 million.

[edit] External links


Rocky Series
Rocky | Rocky II | Rocky III | Rocky IV | Rocky V | Rocky Balboa
Characters
Rocky Balboa | Apollo Creed | Clubber Lang
Ivan Drago | Tommy Gunn | Mason Dixon
Related Articles
Boxing | The Distance | "Southpaw"
World Heavyweight Championship
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