Sunday evening and say you're, oh I don’t know, an Arsenal fan? What you want after the afternoon you've had is something that will lift the spirits. Something that reminds you that even when you’re down, you are not necessarily out.
As luck would have it, Channel 5 was on hand to deliver, with possibly the 1,000th television screening of Rocky. After all has there ever been a better to way to remind yourself that it’s always darkest before dawn, than to watch Sly Stallone's Cinderella story?
Well, if you flicked over to BBC4 straight after the Italian Stallion’s valiant defeat, you’d have found plenty of other answers to that particular question.
Hollywood heavyweights: Sylvester Stallone as Rocky (left) and Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta (right) Eye of the Tiger: Rocky Balboa in the ring with Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in the 1976 classicThe documentary Boxing At The Movies: Kings of The Ring set out to remind us of the greatest fight films in Hollywood history, while it also endeavoured to explain just what the appeal of the Sweet Science has been to movie-makers across the decades.
The story is told to us by film critic Danny Leigh – familiar as the fella who sits opposite Claudia Winkleman on the BBC’s Film series, and seeing if he can make eye contact through that epic fringe of hers.
Clearly this was a labour of love for him, as he recalled how he discovered movies at the same time he did boxing – ‘watching fights with my grandfather in the front room, with the lights ceremonially switched off’.
Screen legends: De Niro on set with director Martin Scorsese during the making of their classic movieAlso what was immediately clear was that Rocky Balboa was going to be going toe-to-toe with Jake LaMotta as the star of boxing’s greatest film in Danny’s particular tale.
Raging Bull is immediately established as the yardstick by which all fight films are judged. Not simply because of Martin Scorcese’s direction, or Robert De Niro’s performance but, for what Professor of American Studies Sarah Churchwell described as its study of ‘the crisis of masculinity’.
Indeed, rather than just looking at how convincing the fight sequences were, like those involved in the films themselves, Boxing At The Movies was much more interested in the psychology and emotions of what life in and around the fight game is all about.
Undisputed champion: When We Were Kings documented Muhammed Ali's Rumble in the Jungle (above) The greatest disappointment? Will Smith as Ali in Michael Mann's film from 2001 (above and below) More from Mark Webster... And they're off! Lions put on talent show in Hong Kong as pundits play their own game to keep pace at start of a gripping month 03/06/13 Edge of the Box: Fantastic Mr Froch and brilliant Bayern... sport like this makes a Bank Holiday perfect 26/05/13 Match of the Day went out with a bang... but it's been off the boil most weeks this season 20/05/13 Edge of the Box: Tearful Beckham's toughest test yet in his farewell match... taking on Eurovision 19/05/13 Edge of the Box: Fergie has the last laugh on Old Trafford farewell 13/05/13 Edge of the Box: Sky get a thumbs up for their Championship coverage... even if mine are worse for wear 05/05/13 Edge of the box: It's play-off season on Sky... but it's the NBA that's roaring back on our screens 29/04/13 Edge of the Box: Here's Ronnie! O'Sullivan return provides sprinkle of stardust at World Championship 21/04/13 Edge of the Box: Old Masters battle hard as Monty and Harmon square up to Alliss and Grady at Augusta 15/04/13 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEFor Leigh, film noir was his golden age with, among others, Golden Boy, Kid Galahad, The Set Up and Killer’s Kiss discussed as prime examples of the genre.
The latter of these was an early dramatic excursion for Stanley Kubrick, who had originally cut his teeth on the sport with a documentary called Day Of The Fight. This format was not forgotten or ignored by Leigh in telling the tale of boxing on the big screen.
The documentary acknowledged as the undisputed champ was When We Were Kings. Eventually released in 1996, its director Leon Gast was excellent here in describing just how special it was that, by the accident of a George Foreman sparring injury, he got to spend so much time working with and eulogising the iconic Muhammad Ali.
However, capturing The Louisville Lip’s lightning in a bottle was clearly something Leigh felt Michael Mann and Will Smith decidedly failed to do in 2001’s Ali.’Some characters are just too big for any actor’, was his delicately dismissive thought on it.
It was in fact the return of The Greatest in the seventies that, according to Leigh, reignited interest in a subject matter that ‘for twenty years cinema (had) turned its back on’. And the film that did it was the tale of a no-hoper from Philadelphia getting his one shot at the title.
Leigh describes Rocky as ‘the best loved boxing movie of them all’, with ‘downbeat charm’ and a ‘hearty rush of sentiment’.
In doing so, he was also just reminding us it’s no Raging Bull, but it not only put boxing on the movie map, it also gave Stallone a Rocky-like career as a writer and actor. Because as his director John G Avildson pointed out, the producers originally thought they were actually getting the good-looking blonde actor from Stallone’s previous film The Lords of Flatbush.
On the ropes: Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby
From there on in the documentary, it was only Million Dollar Baby that was given any serious deference, and no doubt there’ll be people who’ll be somewhat peeved by the absence of personal favourites from across the years.
Nevertheless, Leigh as the narrator, as well as his various storytellers, still spoke with genuine love and authority on what is clearly one of the movie business’s most creative, productive and lucrative blank canvasses.
By the way, here’s a quick test for your friends. If any of them tell you that the theme from Rocky is Eye Of The Tiger and not Gonna Fly Now, then they officially no longer have to be your friends.
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