Script To Screen: “Rocky”
A memorable scene from Rocky (written by Sylvester Stallone).
A memorable scene from Rocky (written by Sylvester Stallone).
Setup: Rocky Balboa meets Apollo Creed in a heavyweight championship bout and delivers a surprise:
ANOTHER ANGLE ANNOUNCER
... Now for the evening's main
event -- In the corner to my
right, The Challenger, wearing
white trunks -- At one hundred
an' ninety-one pounds, one of
Philly's own sons -- 'The
Italian Stallion,' Rocky Balboa!A good CROWD RESPONSE.ANOTHER ANGLE ANNOUNCER
In the far corner, wearing
red, white an' blue -- Weighing
in at two hundred and ten
pounds -- Undefeated in forty-
six fights -- the Heavyweight
Champion of the World -- 'The
Master of Disaster' -- Apollo
Creed!The arena EXPLODES and Creed puts on a display of hand speed.ANOTHER ANGLEThe REFEREE motions to both fighters... They step to the
center of the ring. As the Referee explains the rules
Apollo and Rocky stare hard into each other's eyes... The
Referee's voice fades and the fighters' expressions fill the
screen... Something soulful and frightening is being
communicated. REFEREE
... Now come out fighting.The fighters return to their corners. MICKEY
God bless ya, Rock. ROCKY
Thanks, Mick -- I'm gonna try.ANOTHER ANGLEThe BELL RINGS... Creed dances forward and boxes Rocky as
though he considers the man an amateur.ANOTHER ANGLE COMMENTATOR #1
The Champ stings the slower
challenger with jabs at
will -- Balboa blocks eighty
percent of the blows with his
face -- Creed doesn't look the
best he's ever been but is
moving smoothly -- Creed snaps
out a triple combination that
backs Balboa into a corner --
oh, a solid hook by Creed, a
master of fist-men. COMMENTATOR #2
The Champion is smiling and
toying with the man -- trying
to give the fans their money's
worth and make a show of it
with the badly out-classes
challenger -- Another left to
right combination. I feel
sorry for -- COMMENTATOR #1
Creed is down!!!ANOTHER ANGLERocky suddenly explodes with an upswing hook to the jaw.
Creed is dropped. The arena EXPLODES. Creed's eyes show
disbelief. So do Rocky's.Rocky backs into his corner... Mickey and Mike yell at him. MICKEY
You can do it! Goddamnit, you
got the power! The body, get
the body!!! Ya got him goin'! REFEREE
Six!... Seven!... Eight!...Creed is up... His playful attitude is gone... he is now all
business.
The scene in the movie:
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.