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Jones: 'Rocky' saga is a tale of America's greatest underdog

 
Michael B. Jordan, right, as Adonis Johnson and Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa in "Creed''. [Barry Wetcher/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP]
Michael B. Jordan, right, as Adonis Johnson and Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa in "Creed''. [Barry Wetcher/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP]
Published Dec. 2, 2015

"I was nobody. But that don't matter either, you know? 'Cause I was thinkin', it really don't matter if I lose this fight. It really don't matter if this guy opens my head, either. 'Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood.''

It was 39 years ago this week — Dec. 3, 1976, to be exact — that an unknown actor said those words on screen in a film that he wrote. That quiet speech perfectly captured this character, this film, this underdog story that has gone the distance to become the most iconic sports franchise in movie history.

Rocky.

The original itself was a true underdog, winning the Academy Award for best picture by upsetting such classics as All the President's Men, Taxi Driver and Network. It spawned six sequels, including Creed, which is in theaters now and earning rave reviews not only for the story but for creator Sylvester Stallone, no longer an unknown actor but a bona fide movie star whose performance as a senior citizen Rocky Balboa is getting well-deserved Oscar buzz.

I had just turned 12 years old when I saw the original back in 1976. Being just a kid, it was the most inspired I ever felt coming out of a movie. I celebrated my 51st birthday last week by seeing Creed. I walked out, much to my surprise, just as inspired and overcome with emotion, to the point of tears that I tried to hide from my 18-year-old son.

What was it? What was it about this movie, this character that caused such a flood of emotion?

It's not as if the world needed another boxing movie. Goodness knows there have been plenty and arguably better ones than RockyRaging Bull, On the Waterfront, Million Dollar Baby. And it's not as if we needed another Rocky movie, not after the sixth installment, 2006's Rocky Balboa, washed out the awful taste of the only bad chapter in the saga, Rocky V, and seemed to put a nice bow on Rocky's story.

So what, then?

Maybe it's because for those of my generation, Rocky has been with us pretty much our entire lives. He's like a good friend from back home, someone you look forward to catching up with every few years. He has marked the times of our lives.

I was in junior high when Rocky came out and in high school when Rocky II came out. I graduated high school when Rocky III came out. I was in college for Rocky IV and got married the year Rocky V came out. I had two children by the time Rocky Balboa came out. I'm celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary while Creed is out.

Everyone has such stories.

How long has Rocky been around? Gerald Ford was president when we met him.

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Sports movies have given us memorable characters over the years — Crash Davis (Bull Durham), Coach Norman Dale (Hoosiers), Reggie Dunlop (Slap Shot), Roy Hobbs (The Natural) — but we've seen those characters in a snapshot of their lives. They come and go quickly, often over the span of one season, then they're off to live happily ever after in a world we never see.

Not Rocky.

Rocky has grown up, he has grown old. We have done the same. We have done it together.

And it's not all swaying cornfields and playing catch with our dads and porch swinging with the ones we love.

Life offers more challenges and hardships, and the Rocky movies have illustrated that.

There are highs and lows, good times and bad. Special people come into our lives and death steals our loved ones away.

And we've seen Rocky go through all the things we go through.

We met him when he was young, single. Then he got married, had a child. He was a bum from the neighborhood who became the heavyweight champ of the world. Now, he's in the twilight of his days.

He started off as a nobody looking for purpose in life to being rich and famous to now — a lonely old man who, once again, is losing his purpose as well as the will to keep on fighting life's never-ending troubles. Along the way, he lost his mentor then his best friend then his wife. His son lives far away.

Yet, he gets up and lives another day the best way he knows how.

In other words, he is us.

Even those who were not born until well after the original debuted are familiar with the story thanks to cable. Who hasn't spent a rainy Saturday binge-watching on TBS?

He and his story have become a part of pop culture.

"Yo, Adrian!" and Gonna Fly Now and Eye of the Tiger and running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

He is a fictional character, yet he has his own real-life statue in Philadelphia. For many of us, what he represents is real. He's everything you want to be. He is the American way.

He's an underdog from a working-class neighborhood who reaches his goals through hard work and a never-give-up attitude. He is loyal and dedicated and humble and appreciative. He overcomes obstacles. He suffers setbacks.

For years, as the sequels came one after another, it became easy to take Rocky less seriously and a lot less romantically. For many, the character became a caricature.

That's why I'm thankful for this latest movie, Creed. Not only does it tell an interesting story, it adds dignity to the series and grace to the character. Now we can look back at all the chapters and look at them fondly without irony. The movies are not sappy, but sentimental. They are not silly. They are endearing.

In the end, Rocky has gone the distance. And it has been a pleasure to be with him every step of the way.