Recommendations of the Editorial team
He has the most famous demolished face in cinema: Rocky Balboa aka “The Italian Stallion”, the underdog boxer who rises against all odds to become world champion. In six films as a fighter and two as a trainer, Sylvester Stallone tells the all-American story of the rise, fall and rise again of a (fictional) sports icon.
Sylvester Stallone made his surprising breakthrough with “Rocky” in 1976, and the 30-year-old also told his own story with the fairy tale. The newcomer had to fight to be allowed to play the main role himself. The boxer drama became a synonym for belief in oneself – and laid the foundation for a film series that would shape action cinema for decades.
The new volume “Rocky: The Complete Film Saga” is dedicated to the creation of a legend from a low-budget project to a global hit. At the 1977 Academy Awards, the film beat favorites such as “Network”, “All the President’s Men” and “Taxi Driver” and won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay – Stallone won an Oscar and became cinema’s biggest action star, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, by the 1980s at the latest.
A look behind the scenes
In collaboration with Stallone and MGM, the illustrated book brings together unseen documents and photos, including shots by sports photographer Neil Leifer, supplemented by production notes and interviews given by Stallone throughout his career.
“Rocky: The Complete Film Saga” also traces the political turning points from the 1970s onwards. From destroyed dreams and losers of the post-Nixon era (“Rocky I” and “II”) to the turbo-capitalist era of Ronald Reagan, in which Rocky Balboa first becomes a fashion athlete (“Rocky 3”) and finally, at the height of the Cold War, fights against a Soviet for the title (“Rocky IV”). Anyone who sees a “Rocky” film knows exactly what year they are in.
- BAGS
- “Rocky”
- bags.com
- Hardcover, 25 x 34 cm, 3.08 kg, 320 pages
- EUR 75