“I must break you.” – Ivan Drago
☆☆☆
With four simple words, Sylvester Stallone created one of the most iconic villains to ever come to the big screen. The year is 1985. Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union. The Cold War is at its height. Reagan and Gorbachev are in an intense arms race. So of course the franchise of the American dream would have to address the Cold War. Rocky IV gives the world a Russian boxer built with the power of steroids and the 80’s-est of boxing technology available. Rocky IV is pure, unapologetic 80’s cheese, but it is a great tasting cheese.
Rocky IV was mercilessly savaged by critics in it’s time. However as of this typing, Rocky IV is the most financially successful entry of the series. Maybe it was because of the political landscape of the time, but it developed a massive following. For me, this is a guilty pleasure movie that I’m not ashamed about.
At its core, Rocky IV is a revenge movie. My go to genre is the revenge movie. Rocky’s friend was murdered in cold blood in the ring. So he goes to Russia and trains the hell out of his body to get revenge.
There are some great things about this movie. Let’s start off with Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago. Ivan Drago would make Clubber Lang piss his pants. Stallone does such a fantastic job building up this powerful villain who trains via steroids and technology. He was practically genetically engineered to be a Russian boxer. Dolph Lundgren says so much in a facial expression in this movie it is absolutely brilliant. When he says to Apollo Creed as he lays dying in the ring “If he dies, he dies,” that is some coldhearted and badass dialogue for a villain. He is unfazed that he killed somebody in the ring on worldwide television. I absolutely loved Dolph Lundgren in this movie and I can’t wait for Ivan Drago to return in Creed II.
Which segues to my other favorite thing about this movie: this is my favorite training montage. The first training montage in Rocky is iconic, but this is the one I always find myself going back to. Hell, while watching this movie I rewound to the training montage on my Blu-Ray.
If you want a prime example of great visual storytelling, watch the first four minutes of this training montage. Watching Rocky grow a time passage beard while training old school in a middle of nowhere, snowed in cabin vs. Ivan Drago being trained via technology gets you so pumped for this fight.
Then you have Vince DiCola’s synths powering this montage, followed up by “Hearts on Fire” by John Rafferty. Vince DiCola is one of those composers that should have been a bigger name, not to mention his next score after Rocky IV is actually one of my favorite synth driven scores: Transformers: The Movie. Sadly, Transformers: The Movie would be his last feature film score.
Looking at Rocky IV critically, come on. This is such a silly movie. How the hell does Rocky gain access to a highly advanced robot in 1985? Better yet, how the hell does PAULIE program it to be female? A quarter of this movie is montage, even the fight. Let’s not forget the awkwardly spliced in helicopter shot of Rocky climbing a mountain to yell “DRAGOOOOOOO!!!!!”
Oh, and he ends the Cold War through the power of boxing! Seriously, I highly doubt Russians in 1985 would be chanting “ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY!” mid fight when their Russian boxer is getting beat. Theres also the most cheesetastic, yet surprisingly profound speech that bookends this movie. You get TWO boldfaced Rocky quotes in this review:
“ I came here tonight, I didn’t know what to expect. I seen a lot of people hate me and I didn’t know what to feel about that so I guess they didn’t like much nothin’ either. During this fight, I’ve seen a lot of changing, the way you felt about me, and in the way I felt about you. In here, there were two guys killing each other, but I guess that’s better than 20 million. I guess what I’m trying to say, is that if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change!” – Rocky Balboa
Flaws aside, Rocky IV is a film that I feel absolutely needs a critical reappraisal. Though there are some ridiculous ideas in this film, but its heart is in the right place. At the end of the day, this was made when United Artists was going all in on the Cold War propaganda with Red Dawn and WarGames. So yes, this is going to be dated as all hell. But damn it, this movie puts a smile on my face.
*sigh* I got to watch Rocky V now, do I?
Ryan Watches 