Let's all Rocky!
Every day that I commute by bike I ride to and from work via the front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the Rocky statue now resides. And every day there are lines of tourists waiting to have their picture taken with the statue, lines of tourists buying Rocky water-ice (Italian ice to you New Yorkers) and steaks from Balboa's Steaks from the nearby carts, or people bypassing these activities to run up the Art Museum steps (I kind of hate the idea of calling them the "Rocky Steps" even though I know this is what most people say now) to do a victory dance, a la Stallone.
It always strikes me how relatively unique all of this is--the persistent dedication to a fictional character from a series of films that are not quite as iconic as, say, the Godfather films, and perhaps not as respected, but like Philadelphia itself, they seem to have an underdog vibe, a kind of scrappy attitude that resonates with people in a way that few film series have managed to do (that don't feature hobbits, exploding death stars or boy wizards).
I just watched a wonderful pair of videos about the locations used in creating the Rocky films--all of them--and what a lot of the locations look like today.
Part I:
Part II:
I especially enjoyed Part II for several reasons (and despite the filmmaker using the term "Rocky Steps" to refer to the Art Museum steps). The chief reason I really enjoyed this film was that I didn't know before that the statue isn't the only film prop that you can still visit in the city, although slightly shifted from its movie location. The other prop that is still around is right inside the entrance to Laurel Hill Cemetery--the gravestone of a character who dies in the course of the series. (I won't say whose it is here, to avoid the need for spoiler space, but you'll see who I'm talking about if you watch the second film, if you don't already know about this character's death.)
The other reason I like this film is that he voices something I've thought for a long time--that just running up the museum's steps is really not that hard or that big a deal. Running all over the city, like Rocky did, and THEN topping it off by running up the steps? A much, much bigger deal and much more difficult after covering all that ground. (The filmmaker even uses a map to illustrate how much ground Rocky covered.)
I hope you all enjoy watching these videos as much as I did! I never did see the entire series of films, and now this makes me want to put all of them in my Netflix queue, to thoroughly immerse myself in this iconic Philadelphian story and try to see how many familiar locations I can spot for myself (even if they've changed over the years). Yeah, I know that not all of the films are supposed to be as good as the first and second ones (which, I suppose, is why I didn't seek them out when they were first released). But I feel now like I at least want to make that judgment for myself.
It always strikes me how relatively unique all of this is--the persistent dedication to a fictional character from a series of films that are not quite as iconic as, say, the Godfather films, and perhaps not as respected, but like Philadelphia itself, they seem to have an underdog vibe, a kind of scrappy attitude that resonates with people in a way that few film series have managed to do (that don't feature hobbits, exploding death stars or boy wizards).
I just watched a wonderful pair of videos about the locations used in creating the Rocky films--all of them--and what a lot of the locations look like today.
Part I:
Click to viewPart II:
I especially enjoyed Part II for several reasons (and despite the filmmaker using the term "Rocky Steps" to refer to the Art Museum steps). The chief reason I really enjoyed this film was that I didn't know before that the statue isn't the only film prop that you can still visit in the city, although slightly shifted from its movie location. The other prop that is still around is right inside the entrance to Laurel Hill Cemetery--the gravestone of a character who dies in the course of the series. (I won't say whose it is here, to avoid the need for spoiler space, but you'll see who I'm talking about if you watch the second film, if you don't already know about this character's death.)
The other reason I like this film is that he voices something I've thought for a long time--that just running up the museum's steps is really not that hard or that big a deal. Running all over the city, like Rocky did, and THEN topping it off by running up the steps? A much, much bigger deal and much more difficult after covering all that ground. (The filmmaker even uses a map to illustrate how much ground Rocky covered.)
I hope you all enjoy watching these videos as much as I did! I never did see the entire series of films, and now this makes me want to put all of them in my Netflix queue, to thoroughly immerse myself in this iconic Philadelphian story and try to see how many familiar locations I can spot for myself (even if they've changed over the years). Yeah, I know that not all of the films are supposed to be as good as the first and second ones (which, I suppose, is why I didn't seek them out when they were first released). But I feel now like I at least want to make that judgment for myself.