Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 231: Boxing Clever

So far in the 1970s we've seen a lot of worthy winners of the Best Picture accolade - The French Connection, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Godfather films. However, not all Best Picture winners can meet the lofty heights of these cinematic masterpieces. A case in point is the next film on the list - Rocky, which is often regarded as one of the films that shouldn't have won the award. I've personally viewed Rocky as a sports movie but boxing does play a very small part in the first part of the franchise.

Like with Star Wars, I feel that Rocky is sometimes judged a series of films rather than just one alone. While the sequels had a sort of camp value to them, the first Rocky film has a simple story and a good heart. Though I'm guessing most of you would've seen the film, the Rocky of the title is Sylvester Stallone's debt collector and amateur boxer Rocky Balboa. The majority of the movie is based on the current state of Rocky's life as he is kicked out of the gym he's trained at for years and chastised by his boss for being too kind. Indeed, Rocky's one pleasure life is going to his local pet store mainly because he's in love with shop assistant Adrian, the timid sister of Rocky's best friend Paulie. Rocky' life changes after world champion Apollo Creed selects Rocky to be his opponent in a special match, following the injury of Apollo's top title contender. While Apollo views the bout as nothing more than a show, Rocky treats it as a fight and trains the hardest he's ever trained. At the same time, Rocky and Adrian grow closer and I feel that the film is just as much a love story as it is a film about boxing.

It's fair to say that the most memorable scenes from Rocky are the ones involving the boxing match and Rocky's training for it. We remember his punching of the meat and his running up down the steps as well as the iconic 'Gonna Fly Now', which was nominated for Best Original song. What we don't recall is that the majority of the film is simply about Rocky going about his daily life and trying to make something of himself. His courtship with Adrian are some of the film's most compelling scenes as Rocky explains how he came to be a boxer in the first place. Though he probably lost sight of the character in later films, Sylvester Stallone really made Rocky a sympathetic character who you wanted to follow. Stallone's script was simplistic but at the same time believable and I never felt bored. All in all the film received four acting nominations for Stallone alongside Burgess Meredith as long-in-the-tooth coach Mickey and Burt Young as Paulie. For me though the best performance came from Talia Shire who transformed from meek wallflower into Rocky's gorgeous girlfriend. While I liked the film, I can't really say it was a masterpiece and it didn't really feel like a film that deserved winning Best Picture. Ultimately Rocky is a great character study with some memorable set pieces and fine performances which makes it more than just a sports movie. But you'll just have to wait and see to find out who I thought should have won Best Picture at the 1977 ceremony.

Next time a double bill of films from the director of one of my favourite films of all time.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 107: Not Watching this for my GCSE Coursework

So if you've been following this haphazard adventure up to this point you do know that I have being using a YouTube channel to watch some of these films and one of my guilty pleasures is reading the comments that others have left under the video. Before starting the viewing of the latest film, the adaptation of Of Mice and Men that was nominated at the 1940 ceremony, I read the comments most of them seemed to be from teenagers copping out from reading the book and watching this movie instead but from what I could garner this adaptation was rather tame and left out some of the more risqué elements of the text. I have to say I have heard of the book and was aware of some elements of the plot but have never seen the story told in any form up to this point. For those of you like me that aren't aware of the plot it sees two friends - the smart and quick-witted George and the somewhat slow and bulking Lenny, go to work on a ranch in Southwest California after being chased out of their previous town thanks to an incident involving Lenny (something that is never fully explained in the film but in the book he has been accused of rape after stroking a girl's hair). George keeps Lenny happy by reciting the story of the ranch that they're going to own together one day in which Lenny can keep an eye on their rabbits and this dream almost becomes a reality when fellow ranch hand  Candy agrees to pitch in some money to help with the project. However Lenny gets them in trouble once again first by punching the boss' son Curly and then for accidentally killing Curly's wife while trying to stroke her hair. I won't spoil the ending but it things don't end well for the twosome and lets just say their dream never quite becomes a reality.

Of Mice and Men is a strange one to review as in the back of my mind I can see it more as a text than a film even though I've never read it and maybe that's because I've been influenced by those YouTube commenters. The story really never sags and there is some good interplay between the ranch-hands with moments of joy juxtaposed with some really sad moments including one with Candy's dog. Of the acting Lon Chaney Jr. does a magnificent job with Lenny coming across a simple man who is picked upon because of his size and his lack of brain power. A pre-Batman pre-Rocky Burgess Meredith gives George a sympathetic edge and a very real quality to him as well and Betty Field as Curly's wife Mae plays the vampy bitch with an air of style. But this is very much a re-telling of a story, there isn't much to say in terms of camera-work or sets which are fairly basic. I wasn't particularly moved by the ending but still thought there was some solid storytelling within the film overall a decent literary adaptation but not really a film that left a major impression on me.