First movie experiences (part two)
I'm not even sure how this happened, but somehow in late 1976, I decided that I really wanted to see Rocky. In the mid-'70s, boxing was still a massively popular sport, with Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman all in the prime of their careers. I was certainly aware of the sport, as ABC's Wide World of Sports often broadcast heavyweight (and middleweight, welterweight, etc.) fights on Saturday afternoons. So, like many other kids my age, I was a fan of Muhammad Ali because of how frequently he and his bouts were on television. I'm not sure that my mother was terribly thrilled about taking me to see a boxing movie, but she dutifully took me to see Rocky during Christmas vacation of '76. Though Rocky pales compared to movies like The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, or Serpico (to name a few), it was my introduction to that subgenre now known as the "gritty '70s drama." As an eight-year-old, I was thrown off by the movie's opening scene, which features the down on his luck club fighter Rocky Balboa sloppily slugging his way through a low-level bout in a dirty, dingy gym. Most shocking of all, however, was the fact that--spoiler alert--Rocky loses the climactic fight against heavyweight champion Apollo Creed. I was too young to realize that the point of the film was Rocky overcoming his fears and maximizing his potential in "going the distance" against the superior boxer Apollo.
The Rocky filmgoing experience led me to request the Rocky soundtrack album, which I must have acquired sometime on or near my birthday in March 1977. I still have the album (though I haven't listened to it in decades).
Summer 1977 brought the most monumental film release ever. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that. A little movie you may have heard of called Star Wars was unleashed and seemed to become an instant phenomenon. I first saw in with a large continent including my parents, my aunt and uncle, and I'm pretty sure all three of my cousins. My oldest cousin, Joe, was 17 in the summer of 1977 and had just graduated high school. He was already an enormous science fiction fan and was thrilled to see Star Wars. I distinctly remember that he purchased a special movie program that was sold at the theater concession stand. It was a glossy softcover book full of color stills from the movie and text describing the movie. I recently asked him if he still had the program, but he wasn't sure. I found examples of it on eBay, so there is proof that it actually exists and I'm not imagining it.
It's impossible to underestimate the impact that Star Wars had. Nobody had seen anything like it. By today's standards, the special effects seem primitive, but in 1977 they were groundbreaking. Also, the world that George Lucas created captured the imagination of the United States and, presumably, most of the world. Count me in among the teeming mass that was enraptured by Star Wars.
To be continued...
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