by Rocky’s impact on American pop culture, or simply culture, is far greater than teaching a broad public Roman numeral. Sylvester Stallone’s breakout character showed and proved to us who, at the core, built up America following the end of the Gilded Age. Poor, hard-working people, coming from all over the world to become Americans without forgetting their roots. Stemming from this premise, you wonder what new could be added to a fourth installment. And then we get a film that spans these American virtues in a much broader context, turning from almost satire-like appearance on the surface to a very clever comment on Cold War and humanity and humility.
The film was written and directed by Sylvester Stallone again, whose understanding of story and visual storytelling is much bigger than most would acknowledge. Sly understands how to bring people together. Whether you come for the action or view film from a different angle, he brings it together, not only satisfying those coming back for the known but also adding something new to the pallet. The cast is fixed again, revolving around Burt Young as Paulie, Talia Shire as Adrianne and Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed, returning after a five year retirement together with Duke, played by Tommy Burton. Burton is one of the great performers in the franchise, adding so much depth and character to Duke. Apollo can’t face the bragging of the Soviet Union with their amateur boxer, Ivan Drag (Dolph Lundgren), and feels called to defend not only his own dignity as champion but also that of the nation, the West, the NATO – hell, the entire world – against the evil empire.
Before the decisive fight against Drago, we see Rocky and Apollo ostensibly enjoying the American Dream, surrounding themselves with useless technology and other crap while doing nothing. But this is only a decoy, a spin o a misleading concept. None of it really matters. And neither Rocky nor Apollo or their families and friends are defined by what they’re able to consume. Apollo pays the ultimate price for overestimating his own virtues and underestimating those of the enemy. He’s killed in the ring by Drago, in a fight without a title, after telling Rocky to not by any means throw the towel. Suddenly, the true American virtues re-emerge: stubbornness, roughness and the will to succeed.
If he dies, he dies.
Ivan Drago
Rocky leaves everything behind, training in a Siberian setting for his fight against Drago in Moscow, much like he trained back in Philadelphia when he had nothing. The tables have turned, as Drago is viewed training with all kinds of aids and gizmos and computers attached to him, scientists looking at screens and charts. And of course performance-enhancing substances being injected into his body like vitamins. While this looks like propaganda, it’s very clever. Stallone shows us that technology is never bigger than man, a lesson ringing true when considering two leading world nations being stuck in a military arms race that, once taken to its final stage, would’ve rendered everyone victim and no winner. We’re reminded of the good old days when America was a budding nation, not a superpower.
The showdown in Moscow is filmed superbly in its own regard, a very typical Rocky fight that is entertaining if you discard the fact that both boxers would’ve dropped dead from massive blows to the head after half a round. As expected, Rocky gradually wins over the Soviets in attendance, including party leader Gorbachev who applauds the American after he defeated the undefeatable, juiced-up to the gills Drago. This shouldn’t be viewed as American propaganda, supposed to ridicule the people living in the Soviet Union. Like Rocky declares after the fight, it’s a sign advocating that people are people, regardless of where they live.
Films like ROCKY IV seem unique now in a world where everything has to be PC and non-violent or, arguably, thought-provoking. Any criticism directed at its use of propaganda, myths and glorification couldn’t be dismissed, and yet one should notice the unexpected and surprisingly unlikely depth of this film. It’s not America that is glorified as beacon, the city upon a hill. It’s rather the almost forgotten values that created it. Values that bring people from all around the world together, as they’re universal. The same values that lured immigrants to the United States in an unprecedented nation-building process. Suddenly, we realize that some things never get old. Like essentially seeing the very same film in a different disguise for the fourth and not last time.
