Rocky Balboa

On this Rock

ROCKY BALBOA

Cert. 12A, 1 hr. 42 mins.

Director: Sylvester Stallone

The initial film Rocky, written, directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone, hit the screens in 1976. It told the story of how an unknown, down-at-heel boxer from the back streets of Philadelphia got a shot at the world heavyweight title and did rather well.

It is an inspirational film which encourages hard work and self belief against all the odds. Its popularity drew forth a series of sequels, of variable quality, over the years and this recent release finds the old boxer tempted out of retirement to fight one more time. As pundits compare different eras of boxing and wonder ‘who is the best?’ a computerised virtual TV boxing match puts Rocky top over the current champion. This leads to an actual ‘exhibition’ match which, of course, turns into a real fight.

But the interest behind this film is that Stallone is reported to have come back to his Christian (Catholic?) roots. This final chapter for Rocky is said to reflect the star’s conviction that life is actually about following Christ, not battling out alone. This is made explicit in a number of references to Christ and the Bible. ‘You cannot train yourself’, Stallone has said. ‘I feel the same way about Christianity and about what church is: the church is the gym of the soul.’

Stallone has developed a free leader’s resource kit to help church leaders utilise the film’s Christian message. Perhaps it may be useful. It is available from http://www.rockyresources.com