Post by 1godzillafan on Nov 12, 2021 2:10:37 GMT -5
It's been a while since I've seen Rocky IV, so I'm going to fly by the seat of my pants here in describing what's different about this new director's cut. I do remember the experience of Rocky IV, which is such a compact hit-and-run of the Rocky formula that you'll either love it or hate it. Rocky IV is one of my mother's favorite movies, mostly because she likes seeing sweaty Sylvester Stallone working out and the training sequences in Rocky IV turn her on the most. Tonight I treated her to the screening of the new director's cut, and she had a blast. She especially enjoyed the intro where Sly and Ben Mankowitz talk about the history of Rocky and how this new version of Rocky IV came about.
Getting into the movie, the first thing to be noticed is that the recap of Rocky III is completely redone. There is a lot more footage of Rocky III this time around, maybe because Stallone wanted to re-contextualize the film in case people hadn't seen it in decades, but it's a lot of Rocky III. Maybe too much. They show Rocky losing to Clubber Lang, throwing his helmet at the statue, getting the "Eye of the Tiger" speech from Apollo, then Rocky triggering Lang and beating him in the rematch. Then the one edit that didn't occur to me happened, they cut out the scene where Rocky and Apollo have their own little rematch in private. Maybe I shouldn't be begging for more Rocky III when we've already seen more than enough, but that's a strange place to cut off. I know it directly leads into the next scene where Rocky gets home and his kid asked him about his black eye, which is also dropped, so maybe when Sly dropped the homecoming he decided he didn't need that extra scene of Apollo and Rocky.
So, let's address the elephant in the room. Yes, the robot is gone. I don't know how to feel about it, but the movie does feel a bit more of a straightforward drama without it so maybe it's a good thing. Here's the thing though, so much of the material with Paulie in this movie involves that damn robot, and when you cut it out then you significantly reduce Paulie's role. He is uncharacteristically silent throughout the first half of the movie, finally getting a line during the press briefing for the Rocky/Drago fight. As far as I'm concerned, less Paulie is a bad thing.
Instead after the onslaught of Rocky III footage we jump right into Apollo in his pool playing with his dogs and hearing about Drago on TV. After that we get a pretty solid new scene between Apollo and Rocky where Apollo better explains why he wants to fight Drago, and I really liked this new stuff with Apollo because it makes his death in this movie feel less like a fool's errand and more like it's his will to die as a fighter. I think it gave his big final scene more meaning.
It does however feel very much like a re-edit at this point, because they jump into the Apollo fight very fast. I don't recall how long it took to get there in the original cut, but in this version it's immediately after the press scene where Apollo loses his cool. Rocky movies don't usually skip the foreplay like that and we'd get a training montage or something to show all the work that led to the fight. This movie skips the oral and dives straight into the pussy.
After Apollo's death we get the full scene of Apollo's funeral, which is a really nice addition. Rocky then talks to the boxing commission about fighting Drago and they refuse to let him, which enrichens the decision to have Rocky fight Drago in Russia because he legally couldn't in the US. Then the movie stops and gives us this scene again:
I gotta say, it's weird seeing this scene in this particular version of the movie. This version of Rocky IV has dramatic presentation that's similar to the other Rocky movies, then it just pauses for a music video. The original version of Rocky IV was pretty much a ninety minute music video anyway, so this scene goes with the flow. In this version it's pretty awkward.
What plays out after this is pretty much just Rocky IV with small things added in. Some minor mental notes I took included that Dolph Lundgren doesn't really have any new dialogue scenes or anything, but he's given a few small quiet moments that add a bit of dimension to his character. In addition to Paulie's robot, Brigitte Nielson is damn near excised from this movie. I remember her having much more dialogue than she's given here, and there is even a point during the final fight you can hear her scream "YES!" but the movie refused to cut to her face. Was the break-up really that bad, Sly? And one final change that I thought was weird was the ending theme of Hearts on Fire was changed to Eye of the Tiger. I guess it doesn't really matter, but Eye of the Tiger was Rocky III's song and Hearts on Fire is Rocky IV's. I would have just let that be.
Is it worth checking out? Sure. I'd say this is probably the better version of the movie, and its presentation makes it a bit more similar to the other Rocky movies (outside from the weird decision to crop it to a 2.35:1 ratio). But it's probably more comparable to Rocky III than it is the first two, as it's still just a flashy Hollywood action version of Rocky's formula with a fraction of the drama. But if you're curious, it's worth your time.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have this urge to watch Creed II again.
