At The Movies

AT THE MOVIES (August 3, 2023)

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer from working-class Philadelphia, is arbitrarily chosen to take on the reigning world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed, when the undefeated fighter’s scheduled opponent is injured. Will this chance of a lifetime be the break Rocky’s been waiting for or is he fated to be a no-name boxer forever?

“Gonna Fly Now”, composed by Bill Conti, is the immediately recognizable theme song from the movie “Rocky”. Released in 1976, the song became entrenched in 1970s American pop culture as part of the daily training regimen of the film’s main character and namesake, Rocky Balboa.

Who doesn’t love the movies and music from the Rocky franchise? And no one could ever play Rocky Balboa like Sylvester Stallone.

Enjoy this clip from Rocky featuring Bill Conti and “Gonna Fly Now”; it really gets the juices flowing!

Stallone always manages to entertain, whether playing Rocky, Rambo or even a Rhinestone Cowboy! Do you have a favorite Stallone movie?

Just a reminder that our friend Keith, The Nostalgic Italian, will be featured in our first guest post slot this Sunday, August 6. I hope to see you there at Be Our Guest.

That’s a wrap, kids; now hit the showers. Catch you back here next time.

See you on the flip side.

I’m The Sicilian Storyteller

NAR © 2023

15 thoughts on “AT THE MOVIES (August 3, 2023)”

    1. I never saw it; I don’t like the whole idea of boxing so I never will watch it. For the same reason I’ve never seen any Rambo movies. The only Stallone movie I’ve seen is ‘Cliffhanger’ which wasn’t bad.
      That said, he has a huge number of fans who like him and his movies.
      As this is a music blog, I was highlighting the song – not the movie or the actor.

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  2. I did not care for the first Rocky movie and skipped all the rest. He’s not been a favorite of mine, but I do like the Rocky song.
    Too many songs have been destroyed with commercials. The one that makes me want to vomit is a silly commercial advertising colon cancer screening kits to stilted “My Way” lyrics. Really crappy.

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    1. Yes! That was another thing I was going to mention when responding to Misky. That commercial really pisses me off! However, the one that broke my heart was hearing and seeing my beloved “Intermezzo” from the opera Cavalleria Rusticana turned into a tomato sauce commercial. Not only did the ad men degrade a glorious piece of music, the commercial itself was insulting to Italians. Perhaps it was meant to be funny; I was not laughing.

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  3. Believe it or not but I used to reenact that scene where he’s throwing punches as he’s running along, as I ran down the side of the main highway at 4am in the morning. I’m sure it gave a few people a chuckle 🤭

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  4. Rocky… will never hesitate to admit that was one loved movie hero of mine.
    As time went by,I appreciated more Sly; especially for his choice not to sell out his dream (of Rocky) when he was a nobody… and was he right!
    Rocky Balboa is a metaphore for life’s struggles and there lies its deeper appeal.
    Training-montage music from the film? Has been used countless times in just about everything! If that doesn’t qualify for iconic, I don’t know what does.

    Any AtTheMovies feature would be missing out without Rocky (I encourage anyone willing to search the origins backstory of Rocky and Sylvester Stallone)

    Favorite quote?
    “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is going to hit as hard as life.
    But it ain’t about how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” Rocky Balboa

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  5. This song is being used in an ad on telly currently with Stallone CGI’d into it, running down the street with a crowd of people. Total waste of advertising money because I can’t for the life of me tell you what product is being promoted. I have a similiar I’m-not-impressed reaction to boxing. Anyway, my mother taught me that if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything … so I’ll finish by saying that I love your enthusiatic post, Nancy.

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    1. I love your comment for so many reasons, not the least of which being you said you didn’t like the subject matter of today’s post and made it sound like a compliment! 😂
      We have the same commercial here and all it did was take a decent song and turn it into poop.
      And as far as boxing goes, I deplore it. I won’t watch it on TV and I’ve never seen a Rocky movie so, in hindsight, this may not have been my shining hour. However, this post isn’t meant to promote a brutal, barbaric, senseless “sport” – it’s all about the song; some people will like it, some won’t.
      You make good and valid points, Misky, and I appreciate that you love my enthusiasm. Your tact is impeccable. ❤︎
      Maybe we both should have gone into advertising! 😂

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