Initial outing dealing with a small-time boxer named Rocky (he took the nickname from real-life boxer Rocky Marciano) , he is panned as a down-and-out fighter , being nicknamed as the Chicken Stallion . But he gets a supremely rare chance to fight the heavy-weight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers , real life boxer Ken Norton was offered the role , but because he was 230 pounds, it was felt he would dwarf Stallone too much, and a smaller man was sought) in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect . Rocky attempts to prove himself and his girlfriend (Talia Shire , Carrie Snodgress was originally offered the role o but dropped out due to a disagreement about money , Susan Sarandon also auditioned) , friend (Burt Young , Stallone had originally wanted Harvey Keitel for the role) and trainer (Burguess Meredith who steals the show as an old coach , though the character was initially offered to Lee Strasberg) .
This enjoyable predictable entertainment displays splendidly various elements as drama , emotion and spectacular boxing . This soaper on the ring is developed in gentleness , dignity and feel-good style . Magnificent Stallone as a tough boxer , prior to shooting, Sylvester trained for six months with legendary fight-trainer Jimmy Gambina, who was also the film's technical adviser ; during this period, Stallone also studied every available piece of footage of boxers Rocky Marciano and Ezzard Charles. Great training montage and spectacular and climatic final bout . Writer-actor Stallone first entry is surprisingly entertaining and packs good feeling . Although Stallone famously wrote the first draft of the script in 3 days, it went through nine sizable rewrites before it was purchased by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartof ; originally, Stallone's much darker script depicted Mickey/Burgess Meredith as a bitter old racist, and the film ended with Rocky throwing the fight after realizing he did not want to be part of the professional boxing world . Originally the filmmakers wanted several former heavyweight champions to appear at the beginning of the fight between Rocky and Apollo ; they put out a call for all former champions to show, but on the day of the shoot only Joe Frazier turned up ; the filmmakers thought it worked well however, because Frasier is a resident of Philadelphia, which was where the movie was shot and took place . Some immortal scenes include the iconic shot of Rocky running up the steps of Philadelphia Art Museum came about because of Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown was from Philadelphia . Most of the scenes of Rocky jogging through Philadelphia were shot guerrilla-style, with no permits, no equipment and no extras . Good production design , though for the championship fight, the filmmakers had trouble getting extras to fill the arena because it was a low-budget film that was not yet known to anyone . Stock footage of crowds was used to help this problem, but empty seats are still visible in some shots . Emotive as well as unforgettable musical score by Bill Conti and atmospheric cinematography by James Crabe . The motion picture was rightly financed by the producers of complete saga , Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and compellingly directed by John G Avildsen , being shot in 28 days. The picture achieved big success as critical as public and in 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #57 Greatest Movie of All Time and ranked #2 on the list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Sports" in June 2008.
Followed by various sequels that work at usual manner, fitting appropriately to franchise , even though we know the plot the films work, continuing the 'formula Rocky'¨, such as ¨Rocky II¨ was co-starred by Carl Weathers , in which Balboa returns to take on Apollo Creed ; ¨Rocky III¨ after being dethroned by obnoxious , corpulent Mr T from A Team ; ¨Rocky IV¨ against a massive Russian boxer played by Dolph Lundgren ; ¨Rocky 5¨with Tommy Morrison and Sage Stallone , real-life son plays Rocky Jr. and finally ¨Rocky Balboa¨ proving his estranged young son Milo Ventiglimia who still can fight .
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