Rocky IV
Rocky IV (1985) is a movie about an American boxer named Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Rocky is an aging boxer with a history of winning (and losing) bigtime fights in very dramatic fashion. In Rocky IV Rocky is set to fight Ivan Drago, a Russian. I chose to analyze this movie because of its Cold War themes and the way that we view the Soviet Union because of it. In this class we have discussed how pop culture can strongly affect the way we view different places, types of people, cultures, etc.
This movie gives us a look into the former Soviet Union and shapes the way we view it.
Rocky IV was made near the end of the Cold War, and, along with movies from its time like The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), and White Nights exploited contemporaneous tense Soviet-American relations. However, these films conveyed a message that it was ultimately possible for both sides to breach their differences and work together.
Rocky IV was the highest grossing sports movie of all time until The Blind Side came out in 2009. This movie became so popular in part because of the themes it presented and the timing of the movie. The movie has many Cold War themes and came out near the end of the Cold War.
This movie gives us a look into the former Soviet Union and shapes the way we view it.
Rocky IV was made near the end of the Cold War, and, along with movies from its time like The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), and White Nights exploited contemporaneous tense Soviet-American relations. However, these films conveyed a message that it was ultimately possible for both sides to breach their differences and work together.
Rocky IV was the highest grossing sports movie of all time until The Blind Side came out in 2009. This movie became so popular in part because of the themes it presented and the timing of the movie. The movie has many Cold War themes and came out near the end of the Cold War.
Rocky vs. Drago
Here we have Rocky about to face Ivan Drago, and the picture shows us that he is obviously the underdog in this fight. Not only is he shorter, but he has less reach, and not as strong as Drago.
This is rather cliche and typical of a movie like this, but is representative of general Americans' feelings toward this topic.
Rocky and Drago have an epic back-and-forth battle where Drago is the clear favorite and dominates Rocky early, but as the fight wears on it becomes a hard hitting slugfest that will come down to whoever is last to fall down from exhaustion.
As one can see so far from just the two pictures on this page, there are several promotions of banal nationalism, both for Rocky (United States) and Drago (Soviet Union). In the picture above Rocky is clad in shorts donning the American flag more or less as a logo. And if that doesn't give one a sense of banal nationalism, then the flag he is holding should. We see in the picture to the right we see Rocky, his shorts representing the U.S. and Drago with his shorts representing the USSR. Drago is portrayed as the big bad guy who is robot-like and bigger than Rocky. As they prepare for their fight, things don't look good for Rocky...
This is rather cliche and typical of a movie like this, but is representative of general Americans' feelings toward this topic.
Rocky and Drago have an epic back-and-forth battle where Drago is the clear favorite and dominates Rocky early, but as the fight wears on it becomes a hard hitting slugfest that will come down to whoever is last to fall down from exhaustion.
As one can see so far from just the two pictures on this page, there are several promotions of banal nationalism, both for Rocky (United States) and Drago (Soviet Union). In the picture above Rocky is clad in shorts donning the American flag more or less as a logo. And if that doesn't give one a sense of banal nationalism, then the flag he is holding should. We see in the picture to the right we see Rocky, his shorts representing the U.S. and Drago with his shorts representing the USSR. Drago is portrayed as the big bad guy who is robot-like and bigger than Rocky. As they prepare for their fight, things don't look good for Rocky...