Rocky V

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Rocky V

Rocky V movie poster
Directed by John G. Avildsen
Produced by Robert Chartoff
Irwin Winkler
Written by Sylvester Stallone
Starring Sylvester Stallone
Talia Shire
Burt Young
Sage Stallone
Burgess Meredith
Tommy Morrison
Music by Bill Conti
Distributed by United Artists
Release date(s) November 16th, 1990
Running time 104 min.
Language English
Preceded by Rocky IV
Followed by Rocky Balboa
IMDb profile

Rocky V is the fifth film in the Rocky film saga. It was released on November 16th, 1990. The film stars Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Stallone's real life son Sage Stallone and real life boxer Tommy Morrison (who, in 1993 beat George Foreman for the vacant WBO world Heavyweight championship) as boxer Tommy Gunn, an ingrate character who only uses Rocky for his connections and to try to win the world Heavyweight title. Sage Stallone played Rocky Jr., whose attempt to learn how to box also turned out to be an attempt to try to get his father's attention. The film earned a disappointing $16 million on its opening weekend and $40 million in total US box-office profits, about one-third of its predecessor's take.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the movie, Rocky returns home from Russia (following his battle with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV) to find out that an unscrupulous accountant has attempted to make money off Balboa's fortune and has lost nearly all of it. To make matters worse, the fights have taken a toll on Rocky, leaving him in a condition that forces his retirement and miss title bouts, purses that may have saved him from bankruptcy. With very few options, the family moves back to the old neighborhood and learns to live with little to nothing again. A fighter named Union Cane wins the vacant title.

Things briefly look up when a young fighter from small-town Oklahoma named Tommy Gunn seeks Rocky to help him win the title. Taking on the young fighter gives Rocky a sense of purpose, and he slowly helps Tommy fight his way up the ladder to become a top contender. The cost of this new friendship results in Rocky paying little attention to his son Robert, who becomes withdrawn and angry.

Tommy's rise through the ranks catches the eye of promoter George Washington Duke, who had been harassing Rocky about facing Union Cane in Tokyo, shortly after he flew back from Russia. Duke uses the promise of a title shot and Tommy's own anger at being compared stylistically to Balboa to convince him to leave Rocky. When Rocky tries to tell Tommy that it's the road to the title and not the title itself that makes a great fighter, Tommy drives off in a huff, leaving Rocky for good. Rocky realizes that Tommy has the skills, but not the heart of a great fighter. He also realizes his mistake with his son and reconciles with him on what is really important to him—his family.

Under Duke, Tommy does indeed win the heavyweight title by knocking out Union Cane in the first round using the training that Rocky taught him, but it is an empty victory as Duke tells him that the public will never consider him the real champion because he never fought Balboa. Tommy decides to end matters once and for all by going to Rocky's neighborhood and challenging him to a fight. At first, Rocky declines, but when Paulie intervenes and is punched out by Gunn, the stage is set for a brawl. During the course of the fight, when Rocky thinks he is going down, he sees Mickey, his old mentor, cheer him on from beyond the grave. Mickey tells Rocky "Get up you son of a bitch! Cuz Mickey loves ya." Out in the street, it is a different ball game than in the ring as Rocky uses his street skills to knock out Tommy and prove who the real champion is. He does this indeed by humiliating both Tommy and Duke with the whole neighborhood and his family supporting him.

[edit] Critical reaction

In addition to its disappointing numbers at the box office, this segment in the Rocky series left a sour taste in hardcore fans' mouths as it left the hero back where he started, arguably with nothing to show for it. The film departed from the standard Rocky formula on display in the previous four films and that made it extremely unpopular with the audience that was drawn to sequels.

[edit] Trivia

  • The first and, as of 2006, only Rocky movie to receive an MPAA rating higher than PG (it was PG-13).
  • Sylvester Stallone planned to have Rocky die immediately after the big street fight with Tommy Gunn. But after considering the glory in the previous films and realizing that Rocky is a cultural American icon much like Superman, he changed his mind and revised his script to have Rocky live on and be with his son in the final scene.
  • In the 1987 film Spaceballs, there was a scene which referred to Rocky V as a joke when a TV newscaster said, "Next up, Pongo's review of Rocky Five... Thousand!" Rocky V had not been announced at the time. The joke's timing - three years before Rocky V - was coincidental.
  • The film contains cameos by several sportswriters and boxing analysts, most notably Al Bernstein and Philadelphia's own Stan Hochman & Al Meltzer.
  • Some of the fight sequences were filmed at the legendary Blue Horizon in Philadelphia, a venue which was a mecca for boxing in the city during the 1970s.

[edit] U.S. box office gross

Anticipated to be one of the big hits of the 1990 holiday season, Rocky V finished a disappointing second in its opening weekend to a comedy that opened on the same day, Home Alone, and never recovered.

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.

Rocky V made twice as much overseas and thereby a total of $119.9 million Worldwide.

[edit] External links


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