Rocky: Going the Distance
The American Hero Who Inspires Us to Get up off the Canvas Every Time
We pulled out of the parking lot in silence. I ached to say something to console my ten-year-old son Eric. It had been a rough night for our team, especially him. In a 9-4 loss, Eric had made two errors in one inning at shortstop, paired with two strikeouts at the plate.
Finally, Eric broke the ice, “I suck. I cost our team the game. I shouldn’t even be playing.” He sat in the front passenger’s seat, fighting back tears, his face turned to the window.
I said, “C’mon, you don’t suck, you can’t say that. You’re a great ballplayer, especially for being only ten. There will be nights like this. Remember, everything is a lesson. All of this is happening for a reason.”
Eric had heard me say this many times. Exasperated, he said, “But, Dad, what is God trying to teach me with this??”
I said, “To never give up. You know those shows I always watch on the History Channel? ‘The Men Who Built America?’ ‘The Brands That Built America’ show we watched last week? What do all of those people have in common?”
Eric thought for a second. “Umm… they’re all rich?”
I smiled, glad that the mood had lightened some. “Yeah, but what else?”
I waited as Eric thought. Finally, I said, “They never gave up. They ran into one problem after another and kept going.”
I could see that it wasn’t fully resonating with him. What else had I shown him?
I paused for a moment, and then it hit me - “It’s Rocky.”
Rocky in the ‘80s
The first Rocky movie I saw in the theaters was “Rocky III” (Mr. T as Clubber Lang). “Rocky IV” (Russian Ivan Drago) followed two years later. I loved the David vs. Goliath mega fights. I am still a sucker for the training scenes in those movies and the accompanying songs like “Eye of the Tiger” and “Burning Heart.” To this day, I listen to those songs when working out.
As a kid, I never fully watched the first two Rocky movies. “Rocky” and “Rocky II” moved too slowly for me. If Dad was watching one of those, it wasn’t long before my brothers and I would lose interest and run off to play. We wouldn’t come back to the living room until Dad hollered at us to watch Rocky fight Apollo Creed at the end.
Revisiting Rocky
But, within the first year of my wife’s death, something called me to watch the first “Rocky” movie again.
I enjoyed the entire film, but I still focused the most attention on the climactic Rocky-Apollo fight.
The beat of composer Bill Conti’s iconic “Going the Distance” reaches another level of intensity in round 14 as a tired Apollo pummels a bloody, battered Rocky with a barrage of punches. Rocky is too exhausted to put his gloves up for protection. In disbelief, one of the TV broadcasters asks his partner, “What is keeping him up?”
The instrumental music peaks as a violent Creed uppercut knocks down Rocky.
Tears streamed down my face as I watched Rocky writhing on the canvas, struggling to get to his feet.
Getting Up Off the Canvas
In the ten years since, I have grown much closer to God and Jesus - a relationship I wish I had at that time.
But at my lowest, what I had was a raw instinct to scramble back to my feet as soon as I could.
After writing the first draft of this article, I went for a run on my treadmill and noticed the order of the posters on the wall directly in front of me. I had purchased the posters over time, going from left to right.
It struck me that it was the same sequence I had gone through after Kristy passed away.
And while I’m now soaring high with God and Jesus and working to do God’s will every day, I still experience my share of setbacks and frustrations.
Thank you, God, for putting the Rocky story in Sylvester Stallone’s heart.
Thank you, Sylvester Stallone, for not only your imagination but the courage to stick with your vision and push through all of the obstacles to make the first movie happen in 1976. Thank you for sharing your mythical character with the world, giving us something else to draw from whenever life knocks us down.
I’ll leave you with my favorite scene from “Rocky Balboa” (2006), the most underrated movie in the series. In this clip, Rocky expresses in words the fighting spirit he embodies throughout these movies and Stallone’s life.
Links:
Trailer to “Sly” (2023 Sylvester Stallone Documentary on Netflix) (I highly recommend this - an incredible American life)
Image credit: Alamy