The Paradox of Greatness (part I): The lessons Rocky teaches about maintaining the edge

Basic cable has been a dangerous thing. H-band and I have fallen into the habit of browsing channels and getting stuck on watching old movies: Police Academy, Apocalypse now, the Highlander series...

I could have sworn that we'd caught enough of the Rocky series on Spike TV to have accounted for having seen the entire thing once, but H-band insisted on watching the original Rocky again. I must admit, I watched it with renewed eyes.

Somehow that film clarifies for me what I suspect to be a common mistake by anyone who has achieved greatness and later fails. Think of fallen celebrities, tarnished brands, start-ups in sophomore slumps; all of these failed to distinguish what the future would look like on its creator's own terms. The originators shut off their instincts and stopped listening to their visionary side. All took their authentic, "climbing" periods as a temporary means to an end only identified by being richer, easier, or more accepted, but not better.

Despite all of the discontinuities of the film, Rocky is perfect. It provides the essential ingredients of cinematic satisfaction: love, action, redemption, and glory. It inspires because it tells an extraordinary tale grounded in the possible. The plot seems so simple--a man who overcomes his self-doubt; and yet it addresses complicated family dynamics, commercial exploitation, and racial stereotypes. None of the characters are textbook; we relate to them. The style is classic 70s realism and yet it speaks to popular themes ahead of its time. We had to get through the 80s and 90s before we were allowed to return to the notion that our families came first. Remember: though Stallone fought in later Rockies to avenge his buddies and (laughably) democracy, the first major match he fought was for himself and his woman.

Rocky was the most multidimensional work that Stallone would ever produce.

The story of the making of Rocky mirrors the same underdog theme. Stallone wrote it in three days, and the film was produced for $1.1 million--a small film budget even in the 70s. Producers had to agree to stay within budget in order to keep Stallone in the leading role, taking mortgages out on their homes to make that happen. The studio wanted someone else, a more bankable star, but Stallone's performance merited a Best Actor nomination and the film ended up winning the Oscar for Best Film.

This is a pinnacle of success that people dream about, achieving greatness on one's own terms. From here the possibilities are endless, but they often end up predictable and disappointing.

As a result of Rocky's success, Stallone became richer and more famous. He was given more budget for Rockies II, III, IV, V, and now VI, but he never replicated the success that he achieved from Rocky; not on a quality level. In future films his body became harder, he was given cooler cars to drive and state-of-the-art artillery. The opponents became more gimmicky--I watched Rocky IV, which was filmed near the launch of Perestroika, with near embarrassment that 80s cinema would allow such propaganda--and the feats more unbelievable. Catching the end of First Blood II this weekend I rolled my eyes at Stallone's character when Richard Crenna (Trautman) speaks with him at the end, after Stallone's character, John Rambo, has been exonerated for eluding the authorities by saving POWs.

(Pulled from IMDB)

Trautman: John where are you going?
Rambo: I don't know.
Trautman: You get a second medal of honor for this.
[Rambo looks over at the rescued POWs]
Rambo: You should give it to them. They deserve it more.
Trautman: You don't belong here why don't you come back with me?
Rambo: Back to what? My friends died here, let me die here.
Trautman: The war, the whole conflict may have been wrong but damn it don't hate your country for it.
Rambo: Hate? I'd die for it.
Trautman: Then what is it you want?
Rambo: I want, what they want, and every other guy who came over here and spilled his guts and gave everything he had, wants! For our country to love us as much as we love it! That's what I want! Trautman: How will you live, John?
Rambo: Day by day. (Moneyless, rippled body walking off into the grassy horizon)

Rambo, and Rocky, stopped being men with fears we could identify with, probably because we couldn't identify any longer with Stallone, now a gazillionaire, now married numerous times to women who were not his spiritual or emotional matches but who matched the dictate of Hollywood stardom--the higher your box office gross, the more modelesque your women, unless; of course, you succeed at such a stratospheric level that you can choose whomever you want to be your partner and the world nods appreciatively in unison (Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise).

I couldn't stop talking about Rocky. H-band wondered why I was so strangely in awe of a film that was now 30 years old; perhaps because it took me 30 years to appreciate it. In 30 years this woman has gone from wanting it all to wanting some peace and simplicity. I seek more to relate than to aspire. I've emerged from big hair and blue-eyeliner days with the shoulder pads removed, like every other woman who made it to 1990.

I was similarly in awe of Saturday Night Fever when I saw it on television a few years ago. I was disapppointed seeing it as a kid; I thought there would be fewer depressing moments and more scenes on a lit-up dance floor. Now, however, I'm quite impressed. John Travolta was never so authentic as he was in that film, and like Stallone he would later dip his body in lacquer and come back as a featherweight version of his character in an 80s sequel, supposedly evolved and tackling Broadway, but having left his personal growth in Brooklyn.

Like Stallone, Travolta's career took similar turns into higher pay and sub-par scripts. His cinematic demise (Look Who's Talking) reversed with Pulp Fiction, a film in which he'd dropped all previous pretense of what a leading man looked like. He hasn't learned yet what Tom Hanks and, surprisingly, Tom Cruise, already know: that being truly successful means picking and choosing your projects, not getting bogged down in "big budget" but in personal challenge as exhibited by more interesting characters and deeper concepts--Eyes Wide Shut not withstanding. And sometimes "interesting" simply means ordinary with extraordinary circumstances inflicted upon them.

These lessons actually relate to the working Joe and Jane. Anyone is apt to mistake a higher-paying, but vacuous job as a step up the career ladder, but rack up too many lame gigs and you are burned out, the Hollywood equivalent of washed up. There are only so many redemptive turns that can fit into any one script. Movies, and careers, have to end at some point. Personally, I'd rather end mine with a Rocky or a Pulp Fiction than a high-paying Battlefield Earth.

Next: How Talent often breeds...Dilution.