![]() He wouldn’t sell the screenplay until United Artists agreed to let him star as the story’s down-in-the-dumps central figure, and the result is Stallone’s idealism, romantic simplicity, and raw emotions whipped into shape for a heavyweight winner. That’s my formula.” That’s Stallone talking to Ebert in this aforementioned interview about the formula that helped him create a legendary franchise and turned him into a star. In a way, the movie’s like a classical symphony where it involves you, it hooks you and then it builds to the big finish, the monstrous lancing of the musical boil. “People say ‘Rocky’ is realistic, but I don’t want realism, I want romance. ![]() He’s a menacing maniac on the road who’s insatiably fun to watch, but it’s in the late dinner scene when he steals it from everyone else with some clam sauce and a succinct delivery of two words: “Bull. Stallone’s Joe is a jealous and murderous slob of a human, dying for attention and the chance to beat David Carradine‘s Frankenstein. ![]() ![]() The whole thing is very satirical, mocking American and French politics, involving Thomas Paine‘s descendants in plots to overthrow the president, and hiding grenades in mechanical hands so they can be called hand grenades. The eccentric sci-fi story is set in a dystopian America in the year 2000, where a transcontinental race provides world entertainment in the form of drivers racing to the finish line and murdering people for points. But, there are two memorable performances that came in this early phase before he portrayed the iconic boxer: in the Brooklyn comedy “ The Lords of Flatbush” (1974), where his sensitive side first saw the light of day and in Paul Bartel’s crazed B-movie “Death Race 2000.” It’s the latter I’m highlighting over the rest because it sees Stallone filling the atypical shoes of a villain, playing “Machine Gun” Joe Viterbo, one of his most impetuous characters, a creature who’d fit right in George Miller’s wasteland. The pre-“Rocky” phase of Stallone’s career has all but rubbed off completely - mostly for good reason, since it includes the actor’s very first film appearance in the soft-core porno “ The Party at Kitty and Stud’s” (1970) and tiny bit parts in Woody Allen’s “ Bananas” (1971) and Melvin Frank’s Neil Simon adaptation” The Prisoner of Second Avenue” (1975) with Jack Lemmon. ![]()
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