Why Can't I Turn Off Rocky IV?

Rocky IV, the motion picture in which the Italian Stallion faces off against Drago in Russia after Drago beat the living crap - literally - out of Apollo Creed, has been on TV a lot lately.

So, of course, because the TV writers' strike has left little for me to watch, I have been watching it. It is on again tonight, in fact. I can hear it in the other room.

Rocky IV is one of those movies, like Dangerfield's "Back to School", Chase's "National Lampoon's Vacation", and Murray's "Stripes" and "What About Bob?", that I can't just pass by when flipping channels on the remote control. I have to stop for a while, perhaps get something to eat and a blanket, sink into the couch a bit, and wait for a certain part. Sometimes, It might be Rocky training in the barn, or when he's doing crunches hanging from his ankles, or when he takes off in the snow from the Russian bodyguards. Their car, as a result, gets stuck in a snowbank. The best is the end, certainly, when Rocky takes Drago's best punches and then urges Drago to hit him harder. "C'mon," Rocky says. "Fight."

And later, after he knocks out Drago in the final round, Rocky grabs the microphone, the American flag draped around his shoulders, and says something to the effect that, "I saw a lot of changin' here tonight...and if I can change... and you can change... then we all can change!"

Then Rocky tells his son, who's watching from his living room with his friends and robot in the United States, to go to bed.

It's not that great a movie. But the first time I saw it, in 1985, I was 12, a very formative time. Much of 1985 remains a fond memory. Quick Google search shows that Cheers, Knight Rider, St. Elsewhere, Who's the Boss?, the Cosby Show, and Webster were all popular that year. On the radio, we heard LL Cool J's "Radio", aha's "Take on Me," Phil Collins's "Don't Lose My Number", and a song I could never get out in one breath but I used to try, "Everybody Wants to Rule The World," by Tears for Fears.

Clearly, it was a great year.

So, for some reason, Stallone resonated with the 12-year-old boy. A number of us in the old neighborhood watched it again and again and again, as if something different might happen each time we saw it.

Today, I happened to be reading some columns by author Joe Quennan, who is a cultural magazine critic for Esquire, Salon.com, New York Times Magazine, and he mentioned how lousy an actor Stallone was. Here is an excerpt of an interview he did with salon.com.

Q: What do you consider to have been the lowest point of our culture?
A:Whatever you thought about how things were going to turn out in the '60s, nothing could have prepared us for Stallone. I really hated it when Stallone was a big star. I thought those movies were evil. I thought the Rocky movies were racist. I don't think he has any talent.
A stupid man, making one stupid violent movie after another.
I feel that movies don't have to reflect reality, but they have to connect to reality in some way. So, if you make five movies about some short white guy from Philly who beats up a lot of black guys, what does that tell you about reality? I haven't seen any white guys winning any heavyweight championships in a long, long time.

Ouch. Kind of makes me feel a little stupid for liking Rocky IV so much.

But not enough to stop watching it when it's on again.