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Hit you with speed, Apollo Creed -

Quote:Creed

One need not be proficient in “Rocky” lore to appreciate “Creed,” but for those who have followed the exploits of Sylvester Stallone’s Philadelphia boxer, Ryan Coogler’s latest film pays unexpectedly rich emotional dividends. “Creed” is so reminiscent of the 1976 film that introduced us to Rocky Balboa that I sense newcomers will fall for “Creed”’s characters the way viewers fell for “Rocky”’s 40 years ago. Though 2006’s “Rocky Balboa” was a fitting final chapter for its titular hero, “Creed” finds more of his story to explore. In the process, the film reminds us that, employed by the right director, Sylvester Stallone can be a wonderful actor.


Coogler’s story, co-written with Aaron Covington, unabashedly mirrors the arc of the original “Rocky”. There’s the humble boxer, his mentor and the woman who becomes his significant other and rock of support. There is also the famous boxer who gives our hero the boxing match chance of a lifetime. Armed with these elements, “Creed” then tweaks them, playing on our expectations before occasionally surprising us. It may be easy to predict where the film takes us, but that doesn’t reduce the power and enormity of the emotional responses it gets from the audience. This is a crowd-pleaser that takes its time building its character-driven universe. There are as many quietly effective moments as there are stand-up-and-cheer moments, and they’re all handled with skill and dexterity on both sides of the camera.

Coogler’s direction leaves little doubt that “Creed” is writing a love letter to “Rocky” lore while also establishing an original narrative about its own creation, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan). Coogler perfectly captures his intentions in an early conversation between Rocky and Donnie (as Adonis calls himself). Their talk is framed with Stallone and Jordan standing in front of a picture of Rocky and Adonis’ late father, Apollo Creed. Coogler fits his actors in the shot so that the background image serves as a flashback and a flash-forward; the screen contains Rocky’s past and Apollo’s future. Additionally, Stallone’s run-down physicality as the older version of Rocky stands in striking contrast to the boxer posing behind him, frozen in time. We’re moving forward, but the ghosts of the past are still coming with us.

“Creed” begins with Donnie’s past, where young, orphaned Adonis Johnson is visited in juvenile hall by Apollo Creed’s widow, Mary Anne (a fiercely maternal Phylicia Rashad). Mary Anne adopts the young man, a product of an affair Apollo had before he was killed in the ring by Drago in “Rocky IV”. Though Mary Anne raises him as her own, Donnie’s resentment about being in the shadow of a famous man he never knew nor met grows as he ages. Yet he secretly engages in his father’s sport. “Creed” shows Donnie fighting in Mexico before returning to his office job in Los Angeles 12 hours later.

That Donnie has a white-collar job is interesting. It’s the opposite of Rocky’s blue-collar existence, and it reminded me of a line in the boxing documentary “Champs,” where an interview subject states that “nobody rich ever took up boxing.” Donnie has clearly benefited from the spoils of Apollo’s legacy, yet a childhood filled with scrapes with the law and constant fisticuffs leads him to quit his successful job for one where the odds for success are far more limited. Mary Anne points this out in an excellent speech where she details the more unsavory aspects of living with a boxer whose body took so much punishment that he could barely perform simple tasks like walking up stairs or cleaning himself. Donnie hears her, but the clarion call of the ring carries him off to Philly to seek out his Dad’s former rival and best friend, Rocky Balboa.

Donnie hopes that Rocky will train him, and sets out to convince the reluctant ex-boxer to do so. But Rocky is simply not interested in becoming a mentor to the up and coming boxer who affectionately calls him “Unc”. Rocky’s lack of interest remains even after Donnie reveals that he is Apollo Creed’s son. To bring new viewers up to speed, Rocky talks about the fight that cost Apollo his life, and how Rocky was in Apollo’s corner at the time. To return to the corner, even with a different boxer, is not on his list of things to do, partially out of guilt for Apollo, but mostly out of a general sense of exhaustion. “I already had my time,” he tells Donnie. Of course, Donnie wears him down and, despite some jealousy from a coach at Rocky’s late trainer Mickey’s old gym (who had hoped Rocky would train his son), Rocky takes on Donnie’s mentorship. This eventually leads to an offer to fight Liverpudlian boxing champ Pretty Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew).

In parallel, Donnie also pitches woo to his downstairs neighbor Bianca (Tessa Thompson), a hearing-impaired singer and composer whose loud music keeps Donnie from getting the required sleep he needs for his training. Like Rocky’s beloved Adrian, Bianca is a fully fleshed out character whose agency is not undermined by her eventual devotion to our hero. Thompson, so good in “Dear White People”, is even better here, singing her own songs and verbally sparring with Jordan as quickly as the real-life boxers he faces throw punches at him. Coogler relishes his love story as much as his action sequences, basking in the glow of their romance. At one point, he employs an upside down shot of the duo, laying side by side and engaging in a quick kiss that’s chaste yet sweetly romantic. A later romantic scene is far more passionate, and feels well-earned thanks to the prior one.

“Creed” reminds us that, even at its most absurd, the “Rocky” series has always been about loss. Specifically, how these losses affect the characters and how they grow from them. This is expressed in Bianca’s desire to make as much music as possible before her hearing loss becomes total and permanent, but it’s also reflected in the character of Rocky himself. The genesis of this film stems from the most absurd of the Rocky movies, yet “Creed” stitches “Rocky IV” and all the other Rocky films into its narrative with surefooted grace. The method to this madness is explained in a haunting, beautiful speech delivered by Stallone, who points out the consequences of his losses, both personal and professional, how alone he is due to the deaths of everyone he has loved, and how he no longer has the will to fight. Beforehand, we see Rocky visiting the graves of Adrian and Paulie (on the latter’s tombstone, he places some booze), and the specter of Apollo’s death hangs over “Creed”. Rocky also tells Donnie that his son has little to do with him.

Rocky’s big speech comes after a scene where he gets some bad news (which I’ll not spoil). Watch how subtly Stallone plays his reaction—he turns the simple gesture of removing his hat into a powerful lament. Coogler loves the faces of his actors, to the point where he shoots one boxing match as an unbroken take focusing on his boxers’ punch-laden mugs. He also gets an achingly beautiful and subtle commentary out of brief shots of young, brown faces looking at and admiring Donnie as he trains. Like Rocky, Donnie may be a hero for all races, but these shots of young Black children add an extra dimension by showing us rare instances of African-American admiration of a hero onscreen.

“Creed” is at its most effective when Coogler’s camera stands by, patiently letting his actors connect with us. He favors shots where two actors occupy the screen, taking care to calibrate the space between them. As a result, we become intimately familiar with the lovely young visages of Jordan and Thompson, and the gloriously craggy face of Stallone, whose once equally youthful appearance has grown and aged like the faces of those of us who were present for his first turn as Rocky Balboa. Stallone brings us back to his first, Oscar-nominated turn as Rocky, and his intimate knowledge of his character shines through in every frame. He is really, really good here.

“Creed” gives us a new hero, and Jordan is excellent at portraying him. The star, who worked with Coogler on the superb “Fruitvale Station,” conveys the confusion that many young people have while forging and accepting their identities. The moment he owns up to his heritage is intertwined with the film’s rousing, climactic boxing match but does not depend on it as a means of Donnie’s acceptance. Coogler is masterful in these shots of sportsmanship, stirring the audience into a frenzy of excitement, and he knows exactly when to shamelessly plug in “Gonna Fly Now.” Donnie Creed also gets his own version of Rocky’s triumphant Philadelphia Museum stairs run scene, re-imagined here as a street jog surrounded by motorcycles. It’s absolutely breathtaking. Note where Coogler places Stallone in this sequence, as it is the most visual representation of what his film is doing with these characters.

Speaking of the Philadelphia Museum, “Creed” ends there with a scene guaranteed to wring a bucket of tears from fans of Rocky Balboa. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling the reasons why “Creed” ends here, nor will I say who’s in the scene. But I will tell you this: The last shot of this film is a true thing of beauty. This is one of the best films of 2015

Quote:Capone admires CREED for its dual messages of fighting and living!!!

Published at: Nov. 22, 2015, 4:22 p.m. CST by Capone
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

I’m not going to bother going through the history of the ROCKY movies, or ranking them in order of which is best, worst, etc., or giving you my personal connection to the franchise that has stretched across 40 years and six previous films. And the reason I’m not going to do any of that is because none of it is necessary to fully enjoy the latest, perhaps most unexpected chapter of the Rocky Balboa story, CREED, the brainchild of FRUITVALE STATION writer-director Ryan Coogler (who co-wrote this screenplay with Aaron Covington), who takes small portions of the previous films, and rather than simply retreading familiar ground, uses them as building blocks and touchstone to build an original story about a young, wayward man seeking to build a family around him after feeling alone and isolated for his entire life. Wait, did I say this was an original story?

When we meet young Adonis Johnson, he’s still a kid, getting thrown into juvenile detention and getting bailed out by Apollo Creed’s widow, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad). Turns out Adonis is the illegitimate son of Apollo, who slept with Adonis’s mother and died in the ring before he was born. Desperate to have a part of Apollo still living and breathing in her life, Mary Anne adopts Adonis and sets his life on the straight and narrow, making sure he gets a good education and job near her home in Los Angeles. Turns out working in the financial sector isn’t enough for grown Adonis (played by Coogler’s FRUITVALE partner Michael B. Jordan), and he spends his weekends secretly boxing semi-professionally in Mexico, where he is apparently kicking ass.

Hungry for more than a desk job could ever given him, Adonis (frequently referred to as Donny) decides he wants to pursue boxing as a career, and presumably having learned all he can from his adoptive mother about Apollo as a man, he heads to Philadelphia to learn what he can about him as a boxer from the man who knew him best in that arena. Donny first meeting with Rocky (an older and wiser Sylvester Stallone) is a quiet one, in Rocky’s restaurant, talking about old times. At first, Rocky doesn’t know who this young man with all the questions is, but once it’s revealed, it’s a warm exchange, ending with Donny asking Rocky to train him.

It’s an interesting request for Rocky and the audience, since the previous film, ROCKY BALBOA, was about hanging up the gloves, both for the Stallone and the character. But what’s wonderful about CREED is that it doesn’t violate the emotional pact that Stallone made when retiring Rocky. This isn’t about the Italian Stallion making a comeback. When he finally, begrudgingly agrees to help Donny out, he stays very much outside the ring, working with other trainers, and coming up with a regimen for Donny that will prepare him mentally and physically for his first fight. Cue the training montage.

And while Donny works his ass off at the gym, he begins to open up to the company of others at his rundown apartment, especially Bianca (Tessa Thompson from DEAR WHITE PEOPLE and SELMA), a lovely musician living below him who seems captivated by his drive and put off when Donny’s hair-trigger temper rises to the surface with even the slightest perception of his honor being insulted. The CREED love story could have a major distraction in an already lengthy film, but Coogler has dared to insert a relationship of substance in this film that has nothing to do with physical accomplishments. Rocky is constantly drilling into Donny’s head the idea that the toughest opponent he will ever face is the guy staring back at him in the mirror. Mental strength is just as important, if not more so, as physical prowess, and it’s clear that Bianca is good for his mind (and maybe his body, a little bit). What’s even more enjoyable and unexpected is the way Rocky, Donny and Bianca come together as a family. They each see that together they make each other stronger, and some of the film’s best scenes involve simple sit-down meals at Rocky’s place and a few laughs among new friends.

In many ways, the boxing in CREED is less important than the character building, and not just for Donny. After winning his first professional fight in the United States quite decisively, the curious press finds out that Donny is actually Apollo’s blood (he’s been fighting and living using the Johnson name). As a result of this reveal, Donny is called upon to fight the current Light Heavyweight Champion “Pretty” Ricky Conlan, a nasty piece of Liverpool-born fighter (played by real-life boxer Tony “Bomber” Bellew), just before he goes to jail for many years. Conlan is looking for once last massive payday to help take care of his family before he heads to prison, and when his original opponent is injured (at Conlan’s hands) during a pre-fight press conference, the promoter thinks having the Creed name in the ring and Balboa in the corner will help boost ticket sales and viewership.

In an unexpected turn, Coogler requires Rocky to fight one last time, not in the ring, but for his life. In a turn that will have men and women reaching for the Kleenex, Rocky is diagnosed with cancer, something which terrifies him so much (his wife Adrian died of cancer as well) that he refuses to get treatment because he associates Adrian’s treatment with hastening her passing. But when Donny pushes Balboa to take on the cancer—in the same way he is taking on Conlan—the film transforms into a story of survival for both men, in and out of the ring. I was genuinely stunned how old, sickly and decrepit Stallone allows himself to get in this portion of the film. His chemotherapy results in all the side effects you’d expect it to, and before long Rocky’s gone totally grey and his hair begins to fall out. As I mentioned, the best parts of CREED are not in the ring, but are in the performances of Stallone and Jordan, as they struggle with their individual demons, which are actually quite similar.

Which is not to say that Coogler doesn’t give us some truly exceptional fighting sequences. Donny’s first fight is an incredible sequence, done is a single take—from the locker room to the knock out. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I would plead with the director to include some kind of Making Of extra on the blu-ray of just that sequence. The artistry is beyond stunning. The second, much longer conflict is shot more conventionally, but it remains a brutal exchange between two very different fighters, who are still quite evenly matched. Coogler is smart to show us just how their unique fighting styles lead to an extended conflict, with each man refusing to stay down. It’s an exhausting, bloody battle that will feel occasionally familiar to fans of the first ROCKY film.

Coogler drops in fun and touching references and homages to the earlier films, but he never lingers and relies on them to tell his story. Particular locations will be familiar, a joke Rocky makes about the way Donny does push-ups is very funny, a trip to the cemetery to visit Adrian and late best friend (and brother-in-law) Paulie is a nice callback, and even Donny’s swollen-shut eye in the final fight strikes a chord. But it’s a slow and wobbly climb up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum with the subtle piano version of the original Rocky theme song that got me right in the gut and gave me chills. It’s a rare moment of pure beauty in this otherwise fairly gritty film, and the words that Rocky says to Adonis/Donny once they make it to the top sum up the series with an abundance of grace.

I’ve made it through the entire review and barely mentioned Jordan’s acting, which is not surprisingly great. Jordan has nothing to prove with this film, which almost makes his commitment to the physical, as well as emotional, components all the more impressive. Donny is a character that most embody the best and worst parts of Apollo Creed without becoming him entirely. He also much embrace the Zen-like demeanor of his trainer, while exhibiting the fortitude of a boxer that can both go the distance and embrace the idea that there’s always room for improvement. That’s a big part of what the ROCKY films have been about. This was never a series about who was tougher. Rocky was a man who wanted a full life, and was willing to take a few punches if it meant having that. In the end, Rocky isn’t teaching Creed’s son how to box; he’s teaching him how to live. That’s a message I’d like to leave every film embracing.

---

God damn it, I can't wait any longer for this.

Still can't believe Stallone is the same age in this as Burgess Meredith was in the original.

Creed was so fucking good. Go see this movie.

I caved and watched a CAM.

Fucking loved it. I mean, I knew I would, but I was surprised by how much. Stallone did good.

Sad that he's retired John J Rambo, but there still more Rocky left.

Quote:Sylvester Stallone Is Retiring From Playing Rambo



January 5, 2016 | 10:00AM PT


Despite saying for years that he was working on a script for “Rambo V,” Sylvester Stallone revealed in a new interview with Variety that he has no intention of reprising his role as the iconic military war hero.

“The heart’s willing, but the body says, ‘Stay home!,’” Stallone, 69, explained in this week’s cover story. “It’s like fighters that go back for one last round and get clobbered. Leave it to someone else.”

Stallone noted that he was content with where 2008’s “Rambo IV” left the character, which he first played in 1982. “You know when you realize there’s nothing more to pull out?” Stallone says. “As an action film, I was very satisfied that it dealt with the Burmese situation. It had one foot in a current event, the longest civil war in history, 65 years at that time. It was so brutal, which civil war is, I was shocked they even gave me an R-rating. I didn’t want to compromise. I said, ‘This is probably going to be the last decent film of this genre that I’m going to do as a solo act.’ When that was accomplished, I never felt the same willingness to do it again.”

See More:Why ‘Creed’ Was Sylvester Stallone’s Toughest Role

He added: “There’s nothing left. When they asked me to do another ‘Rambo,’ I said, ‘If I can’t do better than I did last time, and I can’t, then why’?”

He’s also not involved in the “Rambo” TV series, which is in development at Fox and focuses on the character’s son. “I don’t want to cast aspersions,” Stallone said, “but it’s delicate to try to replace a character with his son. I’ve seen the son of Flicka, the son of Tarzan, the son of King Kong, the son of Godzilla. It’s a very difficult premise.”

For more from our interview with Stallone, where he discusses “Creed” and playing Rocky Balboa for the seventh time, read this week’s Variety cover story.

Quote: The Top 10 Shots of 2015


#1

“CREED”
Director of Photography: Maryse Alberti

“The movie talks about Adonis having to make his own legacy, to get out from underneath the name of Creed and make it his own. For this shot, I had to find a projector that could produce the clarity and intensity of light to record it. Home projectors look very cute but they don’t have the power necessary for a camera to record. So we had to bring in a big projector and cheat a little bit to show that this young man is immersed in the idea of boxing. That’s what he wants his life to be, and the ghost of his father is right on top of him. He fights the image of his father in trying to find his own path.”

—Maryse Alberti

Ryan Coogler has hired female cinematographers for both of his feature films to date. It’s important to him for female filmmakers to be given the opportunity. “Women are better filmmakers than men,” he once told me in a moment of candor. “They’re infinitely more complex.” In these collaborations, Coogler has found fascinating visual grammar, first for “Fruitvale Station” with Rachel Morrison, and now for “Creed” with Maryse Alberti, whose work on “The Wrestler” really sparked him to her propensity to capture what he was aiming to achieve. (He was also inspired by his favorite film, Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet”).

If you’re choosing an image from “Creed” for a column like this, you might be tempted to select the dazzling oner that captures an entire boxing match in a single take. To say the least, that was an amazing feat of choreography and storytelling. But I wondered about iconography. I wondered about thematic potency. I wondered about an image that told separate stories, one of a character shadowboxing the projected image of his father and what that meant to the narrative, but also of a young filmmaker with a fresh and vital voice looking to put his personal stamp on a century-old medium. I found all of that in this image, the single greatest shot of 2015.

The Top 10 Shots of 2015 | Variety

Great read...

Quote:Watching Rocky II with Muhammad Ali

by Roger Ebert
July 31, 1979 |


Right here in the middle of Muhammad Ali's mansion, right here in the middle of the mahogany and the stained glass and the rare Turkish rug, there was this large insect buzzing near my ear. I gave it a slap and missed. Then it made a swipe at my other ear. I batted at the air but nothing seemed to be there, and Muhammad Ali was smiling to himself and studying the curve of his staircase.

I turned toward the door and the insect attacked again, a close pass this time, almost in my hair, and I whirled and Ali was grinning wickedly.

He explained how it was done. "You gotta make sure your hand is good and dry and then you rub your thumb hard across the side of your index finger, like this, see, making a vibrating noise, and hold it behind somebody's ear, sneak up on 'em, and they think it's killer bees."

He grinned like a kid "I catch people all the time," he said. "It never fails."

A long black limousine from NBC was gliding up the driveway, and Ali was ready to go to work. This was going to be Diana Ross' first night as guest host of the "Tonight" show, and Ali was going to be her first guest. And then, after the taping, Ali had a treat for his wife, Veronica, and their little girl, Hana. They were going to the movies. What movie were they going to see? Rocky II, of course. A special screening had been arranged, and Ali was going to play movie critic.

"Rocky Part Two," Ali intoned, "starring Apollo Creed as Muhammad Ali."

The taping went smoothly, with Ali working Diana Ross like a good fight. He kidded her about her age, leaned over to read her notes, got in a plug for his official retirement benefit, and made her promise to sing at the party.

And then the heavyweight champion of the world was back in another limousine, a blue and beige Rolls-Royce this time, heading back home to a private enclave off Wilshire Boulevard. It was a strange and wonderful trip, because during the entire length of the seven-mile journey, not one person who saw Ali in the car failed to recognize him, to wave at him, to shout something. Ali says he is the most famous person in the world. He may be right.

He gave his fame, to be sure, a certain assistance. He sat in the front seat, next to the driver, and watched as drivers in the next lane or pedestrians on the sidewalk did their double takes. First, they'd see the Rolls, a massive, classic model. Then they'd look in the back seat. no famous faces there. Idly, they'd glance in the front seat, and Ali would already be regarding them, and then their faces would break into grins of astonishment, and Ali would clench his fist and give them a victory sign. This was not a drive from Burbank to Wilshire Boulevard - it was a hero's parade.

Back home, waiting for Veronica to come downstairs so they could go to the movies, Ali sat close to a television set in his study. His longtime administrative assistant, Jeremiah Shabazz, talked about crowds and recognition. "The biggest single crowd was in South Korea. I think the whole country turned out. Manila was almost a riot; they almost tore the airport down. All over Russia, they knew him But Korea was amazing."

Ali ignored the conversation. He is a man who chooses the times when he will acknowledge the presence of others, and the times when he will not. There are moments when he seems so intensely self-absorbed, even in a roomful of people, that he seems lonely and withdrawn. He was like that now, until his daughter, Hana, walked in and demanded to be taken into his lap, and then he spoke to her softly.

"What's Veronica say?" he asked Cleve Walker, an old Chicago friend who was visiting.

"She's coming right down," Walker said.

"Then let's go."

The five cars pulled out of the mansion's driveway like a presidential procession. Ali drove his own Mercedes, second in line, following an aide who was leading the way to United Artists' headquarters out on the old MGM lot. All five cars had their emergency flashers blinking the whole way: It was the day's second parade.

Rumors of Ali's visit had preceded him to the studio and a crowd of young kids was waiting for him in the parking lot. He shook their hands, told them to hang in there, touched them on the shoulders, and left them standing as if blessed by royalty.

And then he was inside a private screening room and settling down to watch the most popular movie of the summer - the sequel to the movie that won the Academy Award as Best Picture two years ago, and made Sylvester Stallone into a star as Rocky Balboa, the Philadelphia club fighter who took on the black heavyweight champion of the world. Ali, who said he'd really liked the original "Rocky," settled down in the back row, Veronica and Hana next to him, and if he was reflecting that Rocky itself might very likely not have been made if he had not restored the fading glamour of boxing, he did not say so.

He watched the opening scenes of Rocky II in silence, not speaking until the scene in which Apollo Creed, the heavyweight champ, delivers a televised challenge designed to taunt Rocky back into the ring.

"That's me, all right," Ali said "Apollo sounds like me. Insulting the opponent in the press, to get him psyched out. That's me exactly."

Back home at Rocky's new house, the doorbell rang.

"You know who that's gotta be," Ali said. "That's gotta be his trainer." And, yes, Rocky opened the door and his old trainer, Mickey, was standing there on the doorstep.

"That's how Angelo Dundee used to get me," Ali remembered. "A good trainer knows a good fighter can't stand to have people talk about him bad on television."

Mickey was giving Rocky advice: "We got to get you fighting with your other hand. Use your right, save your left, protect that bad eye..."

"It just maybe could be," Ali said, "that if you started on a kid at seventeen or eighteen, by the time he was twenty-two you could change the hand he leads with. But not overnight it can't be done."

Now Mickey was drawing on his ancient store of boxing lore, making Rocky chase chickens to improve his footwork. "That's one that goes back to the days of Jack Johnson and Joe Louis, chasing chickens," Ali said. "you don't see chickens at a training camp anymore except on the table."

Mickey was leaning fiercely at Rocky, who was pounding a bag "Jab! Jab! Jab!" he was shouting.

"With a great fighter," said Ali, "you don't have to tell him that. He goes at the bag like a robot. I never had anybody tell me to jab. If you don't want to jab, what are you doing being a fighter?"

Now there was a wider shot showing Mickey's gym, with Rocky in the foreground and the background occupied by a dozen fighters working out, jumping rope, sparring.

"What you see here, if you know how to look for it" Ali explained, "is the difference between real fighters and actors. A real boxer can see Stallone's not a boxer. He's not professional, doesn't have the moves. It's good acting, but it's not boxing. Look in the background. Look at that guy in the red trunks back there. You can see he's a real fighter."

Now Rocky was in the ring with a sparring partner. "The other guy's a real fighter," Ali said. "Stallone doesn't have the moves It's perfect acting, though. The regular average layman couldn't see what I see. And the way they're painting the trainer is all wrong. Look at him there, screaming, Do this! and Do that! I never had anyone telling me what to do. I did it. Shouting at the fighter like that makes him look like an animal, like a horse to be trained."

Is there any way, I asked, that the character of Rocky is inspired by you?

"No way. Rocky doesn't act nothing like me. Apollo Creed, the way he dances, the way he jabs, the way he talks...That's me." On the screen, a moment of crisis had appeared in Rocky Balboa's life. After giving birth to Rocky Jr., his wife had slipped into a coma. Rocky had just left the bedside and was praying in the hospital chapel.

"Now he don't feel like fighting because his wife is sick," Ali said. "That's absolutely the truth. The same thing happened to me when I was in training camp during one of my divorces. You can't keep your mind on fighting when you're thinking about a woman. You can't keep your concentration. You feel like sleeping all the time. But now at this point, I'm gonna make a prediction. I haven't seen the movie, but I predict she's gonna get well, and then Rocky's gonna beat the hell out of Apollo Creed."

Back in the hospital room, Rocky's wife opened her eyes. Ali nodded. "My first prediction is proven right," he said.

Rocky's wife turned to him and said, "There's one thing I want you to do for me. Win."

"Yeah!" said Ali. "Beat that nigger's ass!"

Little Rocky Jr. was brought into the room by a nurse. The baby had a head of black hair that would have qualified him for the Beatles. Ali laughed with delight. "They got a baby to win the Academy Award. Look at that Italian hair! Rocky couldn't deny the baby in court in real life!"

Now there was a montage, as Rocky Balboa threw himself into his training regime with renewed fury. "That's right," said Ali. "He's happy now. He's got his woman back I'm gonna further predict that in the big fight, they're gonna make it look at first like Rocky's losing, and his eye will be cut and it will look the worst before he wins, and that after the movie the men will be crying louder than the women."

Rocky was weight-lifting: "The worst thing a boxer can do. It tightens the muscles. A fighter never lifts weights. But it looks good in the movie."

In an inspirational scene, Rocky was running through the streets of his native Philadelphia, trailed by a crowd of cheering children who followed him all the way up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Rocky gave his trademark victory salute, repeated from the most famous moment in the original Rocky.

"Now that's one thing that some people will say is artificial, all the crowds running after him, but that's real," Ali said. "I had the same kinda crowds follow me in New York."

And now it was time for Rocky II's climactic fight scene - longer, more violent and more grueling than the bravado ending of the original Rocky. In his dressing room, Apollo Creed, played by Carl Weathers, was jabbing at his image in a mirror.

"Weathers told me he got the dancing and the jabbing, the whole style of Apollo Creed, from watching my movies," Ali said. "The way he's fighting in the mirror, those aren't real fighting moves, but for the movie they look good. And the motivation here is right. Apollo, he won the first fight, but some people said Rocky should have won. If you lose a big fight, it will worry you all of your life. It will plague you, until you get your revenge. As the champion, almost beat by a club fighter, he has to have his revenge."

Could a club fighter in real life stay in the ring with the heavyweight champion?

"No. What he might be able to do, he might be able to come in and absorb an amount of punishment and wait and get a lucky shot and knock him out...with the odds being very high against that. But to stay in the ring, to stay with the champion, he couldn't do that."

And now, on the screen, Rocky Balboa had fallen to his knees and was praying in the locker room, and Muhammad Ali, his daughter Hana asleep in his arms, was completely absorbed in the scene.

As Rocky got back to his feet, Ali broke the spell. "The most scary moment in a fighter's life is right now. The moment before the fight, in your dressing room, all the training is behind you, all the advice in the world don't mean a thing, in a moment you'll be in the ring, everyone is on the line, and you...are...scared."

Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa came dancing down the aisles of the Philadelphia Spectrum, and shots showed Rocky's wife at home, nervously watching television, and Apollo's wife at ringside, nervously watching her husband.

"Even Apollo's wife favors my wife Veronica," Ali observed "They're both light-skinned, real pretty girls...."

Apollo was taunting Rocky. "You're going down! I'll destroy you! I am the master of disaster."

"Those first two lines, those are my lines," Ali mused. "That 'master of disaster'...I like that I wish I'd thought of that."

And now the fight was under way, Rocky and Apollo trading punishment, Apollo keeping up a barrage of taunts, and dancing out of Rocky's way. Between rounds, in the fighters' corners, their trainers were desperately pumping out instructions.

"My trainer don't tell me nothing between rounds," Ali said. "I don't allow him to. I fight the fight. All I want to know is did I win the round. It's too late for advice."

How long do you predict the fight will last?

"Hard to say. Foreman they stopped in eight, Liston they stopped in eight...the movie might take something from that I can't predict. But look at that. There's Apollo using my rope-a-dope defense."

In the tenth round, Ali nodded: "Here's where the great fighters get their second wind, where determination steps in." On the screen, Rocky was taking a terrible beating, and his eyes, as Ali had predicted, were badly swollen.

"In a real fight," Ali said, "they would never allow the eyes to be closed that much and let the fight keep going. They would stop it."

But in Rocky II they didn't stop it, and the fight went the full distance, Ali observing that in real life no fighter could absorb as much punishment as both Apollo and Rocky had, and then the theater was filled with the Rocky theme and the lights were on and Ali's entourage was applauding the movie.

Muhammad Ali got up carefully, so as not to wake Hana, and handed his daughter to Veronica.

"A great movie," he said. "A big hit. It has all the ingredients. Love, violence, emotion. The excitement never dulled."

What do you think about the way the fight turned out?

"For the black man to come out superior," Ali said, "would be against America's teachings. I have been so great in boxing they had to create an image like Rocky, a white image on the screen, to counteract my image in the ring. America has to have its white images, no matter where it gets them. Jesus, Wonder Woman, Tarzan and Rocky."

Real Apollo Creed...