Why Is Rocky One Of The Most Impactful Characters Of All Time
Fiction and imagination have always had great importance in our lives. They are responsible for stimulating our creative senses and bringing color and vibrance into our lives, as they allow us to enter worlds of endless possibilities and realities, in which there are no limits.
Just like this, fictional and imaginary characters have also been very important in our lives, as we’ve found them to be particularly inspiring and impressionable. Be it a superhero from a comic book, or a striking character from a movie, we all relate to them and feel some sort of a personal connection towards them.
The fictional character I most identify with and relate to; one that has been the most inspiring to me is Rocky Balboa. It is the story of a struggling underdog boxer who, nearing the end of his career, gets a chance to fight the world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed for a small new year fight. It is a chance for him to prove himself, to society, to the world and to himself. He puts all his energy and determination into the fight and goes the distance.
The Rocky series is one of the most classic and successful film franchises ever in American cinema, having amassed 3 Academy Awards (including best picture), a Rocky statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, countless statues, sculptures and artwork in different countries all over the world, and inspiring generations of people to start working out and take steps to improve their lives to this day, 47 years after its first film release.
So with that in mind, I decided to once again take a close look at the (movie) series and really analyze the character of Rocky Balboa, and see what makes him so great and impactful.
(SPOILER ALERT !!)
The opening to the first film shows us a kind hearted, neighborhood “big brother” type of a guy whose life could’ve been something greater, something better, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to turn out that way and he has to accept it that way. Although he’s fighting in low clubs, and practically going with the flow, accepting his life the way it is, but still deep down he knows that he is meant for something greater, that he is meant for more. That his life could’ve been something greater than it already is, and that all he needed was a shot.
He knows that he’s nearing the end of his career, and he would have to hang his gloves real soon, but still he’s still looking for a chance, for a shot in which he can prove to himself that he wasn’t just “Another bum from the neighborhood”, that he wasn’t just another good for nothing guy, a waste, and he actually was someone who could do something worthwhile in life.
We start to relate with Rocky immediately because somewhere in that sad depiction of a “could’ve been” character, we start to see ourselves. Maybe we also felt that we had more potential and talent in us, and it could’ve been manifested for something greater, but for some reason that never happened. And now we’re stuck in a situation where we’re not happy with what we’re getting, or how our life has turned out to be, as we feel that we deserve much more. So that is a feeling that we all feel sometimes, and relate to.
So when Rocky gets his big shot and truly changes his life, as he fights his way to the top, we all feel genuinely encouraged by that. We start to see ourselves winning with him and we therefore start to root for him. Whether he fights Apollo or Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago in the further films, we always are on his side and keep rooting for him.
We see Rocky down and out, bruised, broken, shattered, with no reason left to go on, yet he’s still standing, still fighting and never backing down. Life constantly punches him hard in the guts, and knocks him down again, and again and again. But each time he gets back up, more determined than ever before, to win. This is something we find very inspiring as we view Rocky as a sort of a hero and a mentoring figure who inspires us to fight the battles in our own lives and take them head on, with the belief that we can win each and every one of them if we keep on fighting with persistence and patience.
Rocky Balboa is the story of a man who rises from nothing, and fights his way to the top, even though he is knocked down by life many times. And yet despite all the odds, he never stops pushing against them, never stops fighting. It doesn’t matter to him whether he wins or loses, he always fights, with all his heart to the last minute and keeps standing.
“Going one more round, when you don’t think you can, that’s what makes all the difference in your life”
-Rocky Balboa
Rocky appeals to the underdog, the struggler within all of us. He shows us that with determination, belief, heart and a “never give up” attitude, anything is possible. He implies that it doesn’t matter if we lose or win because in the end, what really matters is how we undertook the battles that life gave us, how we fought them. It’s the battles that tell the most about us, not the results.
He shows that no matter how successful or strong we may get, life will always knock us down with crushing blows and setbacks, again and again. But the real winners in life, the real champions are those who keep getting back up no matter how much life knocks them down. The people who keep pushing forward despite all obstacles and challenges, who keep standing and fight till the last minute, the final bell. These are the people who really succeed in life.
“The world aint all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it aint about how hard you can hit, its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winnin’ is done” — Rocky Balboa
This is the reason why this legendary character, created and portrayed by the legendary Sylvester Stallone, has left such an impressionable effect on the minds of people all over the world, and it continues to influence them till this date. Because he was an ordinary person, like the rest of us, and through hard work, determination, resilience and sheer persistence, he became a one of a kind champion, and a hero.
