Amazing how time flies. One of the most iconic movies of all times celebrates its 40th anniversary, and it still works its magic on people! Yep, the awesome story of Rocky Balboa is turning 40 years and it still is an inspiration for many.
The Academy Award-winning movie, who made Stallone famous and began a series of remarkable movies, is an icon in the modern culture. I bet you don’t know most of these facts, they will blow your mind!
7. One arm push-up, clapping push-up.
This iconic scene was the result of running out of exercises for Rocky to do during training because it wouldn’t be that entertaining to see Stallone just running around Philly. And guess what, it was the first time Stallone did those type of push ups, great job!
6. The final scene was reshot.
So, the final scene was reshot and actually was shot two months after finishing the shooting, and all the extras they used were basically friends and family. This happened because Stallone decided it would be a better ending than Rocky walking down the arena.
5. Family cameo.
Thanks to not selling his script, Stallone got to include his brother, Frank Stallone and his father, Frank Senior, in the movie.
4. Low budget.
The producers made a deal with United Artist that they could make any movie they wanted as long as it was 1,000,000$. They also made a deal with Sylvester that he would write the script for nothing in exchange of starring the movie.
3. Special effects’ efficiency.
The fight scene was also shot backward, they did it like this because it was easier to start shooting with all the makeup on, and then progressively take it off. This help them to save money and time.
2. Let’s play it backward.
Remember the famous victory dance Rocky does when he get to the top of the stairs, well is played backward because the director changed his mind and wanted to zoom in the whole scene, instead of the original which is zoomed out. So, that’s why is a bit weird rocky’s dance.
1. One of the first uses of the steady cam!
Yep, the movie was a pioneer using the steadicam, in fact since they use basically a prototype they almost couldn’t use it in the most famous shot of the movie since it was really really cold that day in Philly and the battery was broken.