Along with Charlie Chaplin, Stallone is the only other actor in history to receive both a Writing Oscar and Best Actor Oscar at the same time. Stallone would of course write every film in the Rocky series (and direct all of the sequels except Rocky V) but this is the one that showed what a true talent he had for both writing and acting. Rocky is still a masterpiece and holds up well almost 40 years later.
Talia Shire is wonderful here and the love story between her and Rocky is the heart of the picture, the reason it rings so compelling all of these years later. Burt Young owns every scene he’s in. He’s so believable, so lovingly hate-able. Carl Weathers is electrifying as Apollo Creed. Special mention has to go to the excellent soundtrack by Bill Conti. So iconic. This is still the best Rocky film of all time.