I was lucky enough to see this film in a test audience WAY back when it was first released...
I loved it then and I love it now.
I knew that it was a filmed version of a stage play and that made it all the more fascinating; simply because filming something that has been on the stage and making it work is always a challenge and is very rarely successful... but it certainly worked this time.
No one knew who Susan Sarandon or Barry Bostwick were; now of course they are both major forces in film and television.
I wonder if now they are embarrassed by this small but important film.
Even to this day, when I hear or see "Rocky" I am impelled to get up and dance or sing along with the film -- something that did not happen when I first viewed it. But shortly after my first viewing -- when it was still a fairly unknown film -- people started reacting to what they saw on the screen...
The first hint that this was a very special film came when a woman in the audience clicked finger cymbals together at an entirely appropriate moment -- I was enchanted and amazed -- this was audience participation on a level I had never experienced before.
As time went one -- as it seems to do -- audience participation grew and grew; until what was happening in front of the screen was as important was what was actually on the screen.
This is probably the first film where audience participation grew to be as important as the film itself.
I must admit that I do miss the quiet nights where a person could sit in the dark and just watch an amazing film without someone with a squirt gun or toast or cards is compelled to 'add' to an already brilliant film.
See this one at home and be amazed -- then see it in a public venue and be even more amazed.
I loved it then and I love it now.
I knew that it was a filmed version of a stage play and that made it all the more fascinating; simply because filming something that has been on the stage and making it work is always a challenge and is very rarely successful... but it certainly worked this time.
No one knew who Susan Sarandon or Barry Bostwick were; now of course they are both major forces in film and television.
I wonder if now they are embarrassed by this small but important film.
Even to this day, when I hear or see "Rocky" I am impelled to get up and dance or sing along with the film -- something that did not happen when I first viewed it. But shortly after my first viewing -- when it was still a fairly unknown film -- people started reacting to what they saw on the screen...
The first hint that this was a very special film came when a woman in the audience clicked finger cymbals together at an entirely appropriate moment -- I was enchanted and amazed -- this was audience participation on a level I had never experienced before.
As time went one -- as it seems to do -- audience participation grew and grew; until what was happening in front of the screen was as important was what was actually on the screen.
This is probably the first film where audience participation grew to be as important as the film itself.
I must admit that I do miss the quiet nights where a person could sit in the dark and just watch an amazing film without someone with a squirt gun or toast or cards is compelled to 'add' to an already brilliant film.
See this one at home and be amazed -- then see it in a public venue and be even more amazed.