Rocky in Review, Part 2: Rocky IV and Sylvester Stallone's Improved Director's Cut
Reviewing Rocky vs Drago, a 2021 Revisitation of the 1985 Film
On Thursdays for the foreseeable future, I’ll be publishing reviews of classic movies, pieces that have never appeared here before taken from my book 200 Reviews, available now in Paperback or on Kindle (which you should really consider buying, because it’s an awesome collection!). For our first set of films, we’re looking at the Rocky series. Last week I reviewed the first three films, and today we’re continuing with Stallone’s Director’s Cut of Rocky IV.
Rocky IV: Rocky vs Drago - 1985 / 2021, Dir. Sylvester Stallone
Originally published in 200 Reviews, based on notes written February 24th, 2023
Rocky IV was never a sequel I had much affection for; outside of a few standout sequences, like the training montage in Russia, it always played as overly silly and unfocused to me, lacking neither the tonal clarity of Rocky III – which is big and dumb, but earnest and knowingly so – or the dramatic weight of the first two films. Color me surprised, then, with Sylvester Stallone’s 2021 director’s cut – rechristened Rocky IV: Rocky vs Drago – which is not only substantially different, but vastly improved, a re-edit that is particularly compelling as a companion to the first two Creed films, with Apollo and Drago’s characters coming into much sharper focus here in ways that dovetail nicely with the recent Michael B. Jordan-led sequels. Stallone’s instincts in this re-cut are very strong, turning the film into something that, while still imperfect, feels like a much more important part of the overall Rocky tapestry. This is no mere vanity project.
The whole first act is radically re-focused to be 100% about Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago – none of Paulie’s robot or any other guff. That's all gone. Where the first act of the theatrical cut was painfully slow, we get to the big fight much more quickly in the 2021 version, and the greater sense of concentration also means we have a better sense of Apollo’s motivations. Drago, meanwhile, really comes across as a sort of Frankenstein monster, a puppet told what to do, with no real will of his own. The famous "Living in America" scene is re-cut to focus less on Apollo’s showboating and more on Drago’s reactions, where entering the ring amidst the avalanche of Americana makes it seem like he’s entering an alien world.
Stallone has also reframed the movie’s aspect ratio from 1.85:1 to 2.39:1, ‘flat’ widescreen (like a modern television) to ‘scope’ widescreen (wider, like your typical Hollywood blockbuster), and while I normally wouldn’t expect that to work – it’s a very severe crop – I understand the logic here. The reframing brings us closer in on the characters. Everything’s a little more intimate, but also more claustrophobic. There’s an added visual intensity from the reframing, which alongside the new edit brings out a sense of paranoia and dread. The Apollo vs Drago fight feels properly harrowing, with Stallone not only choosing shots that emphasize the brutality and impact of Drago’s individual blows, but also images where light sources, in this framing, consume the image and disorient the viewer, the narrower frame feeling like there’s no escape.
The first Creed film has a line of dialogue mentioning how Rocky spoke at Apollo’s funeral, a scene we never saw in the original Rocky IV. Turns out it actually existed all along, and it’s been re-instated here. It’s a beautiful moment, one that’s so raw with messy, inarticulate emotion that it would have felt wrong in the original, much sillier cut of the film – but it’s essential here.
The re-edit also clarifies Rocky’s motivations for fighting Drago, subtly shifting the weight away from revenge into the guilt Rocky feels over letting Apollo die (another shift that aligns with Rocky’s motivations in Creed). Rocky’s actions come across as almost masochistic here, like he has a penance to pay for not stopping the fight. That said, Stallone's choice to leave in the “No Easy Way Out" montage confuses me; this is the scene where Rocky is driving and flashing back to moments throughout the series (with minor changes here – the old footage is in black & white now), and as in the theatrical cut, it’s much too long. I get the intent, but I wish he’d tightened it here, especially considering how montage-heavy the film is even in this re-edited form, and because the director’s cut adds a full 7-minute recap of Rocky III at the beginning, making the flashbacks of the “No Easy Way Out” montage feel even more unnecessary and repetitive.
As in the theatrical cut, the first training montage – the one with the Vince DiCola track, before Adrian arrives in Russia, with all those amazing match cuts between Rocky’s analogue training in a cabin on the mountain and Drago’s computer-assisted preparation – is just a great piece of editing, subtly improved here. All the montages in the second half, which were already great, feel a little bit tighter and punchier to me here. John Cafferty’s “Hearts on Fire,” the soundtrack to the second big montage (the one that ends with that glorious moment where Rocky screams “DRAGO!!!!!” from the mountaintop, a perfect piece of earnest pop cheese), arguably doesn’t fit with the tone of the new edit, but fuck it, that song and that montage kick ass and I’m glad Stallone basically left it untouched. It was the high point of the original cut, gloriously silly but also completely heartfelt. I love it.
Other moments play subtly differently given the rebalancing of this edit. Paulie’s little speech to Rocky before the final fight – “you’re all heart, Rock” – plays a lot more powerfully when the first half hour of the movie isn’t bogged down by Paulie and his robot antics, for instance, a clear example of how editing can work miracles. Drago's infamous “I must break you” line is still here, but it doesn’t read as a taunt in this cut – it’s just a statement of fact, the thing Drago has been built to do. Rocky isn’t fighting a person, but a piece of Soviet artillery.
A few more really smart changes come in at the end: Rocky’s closing speech is cut down, and while we still get the iconic “If I can change/you can change” line, the surrounding material is shorter and more focused on his arc of guilt, revenge, and redemption with Apollo. As Rocky leaves the ring, we get "Eye of the Tiger" playing instead of the reprised "Hearts on Fire" (which now plays second in the credits), bringing the arc of the film and Rocky's journey with Apollo full circle. A very nice touch.
In short, Rocky vs. Drago is easily the definitive version of this movie, and it's hard to imagine any reason to revisit the original now except out of curiosity. Stallone hasn't magically turned this film into a masterpiece, but he's successfully sharpened it into something much more effective, a film more tonally in line with Rocky Iand II, that better acts as a prelude to Creed I and II, while still maintaining some of its silly 1980s character. It’s not a pointless vanity project like a lot of Francis Ford Coppola’s recent re-edits, and in improving the movie, it doesn’t attempt to scrub away all the period charm people have loved over the years. It’s not perfect, but I like how Stallone has threaded the needle here. An impressive accomplishment that shows Stallone's still got it as a filmmaker.
NEXT WEEK: We’ll take a look at 1990’s much-maligned Rocky V, and see if there’s more there than its reputation suggests.
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