Movies
Stallone’s most iconic scene hides this trick no one saw: why does Rocky move funny?
The mythical ‘Rocky’ training sequence was revolutionary in several ways, including a new filming technique unheard of in the mid-1970s.
‘Rocky’ marked a before and after in both Sylvester Stallone’s career and the Hollywood film industry, becoming a phenomenon that would transcend the boundaries of the seventh art to become part of popular culture worldwide. However, the legendary film featuring cinema’s most famous fighter also helped establish new filming techniques that became industry standards, with Rocky Balboa’s iconic training scene serving as a clear example. In addition, the editing wizardry served to add more drama to the sequence, causing Sly to move somewhat oddly during the zoomed-in camera zoom shot; the reason? The scene was edited backwards.
‘Rocky’ and the popularization of the Steadicam
In the mid-1970s, the use of the Steadicam was not at all common on film shoots. Although ‘Rocky’ was not the first to use this type of camera, it was the first renowned production to take advantage of this technique, which led to its standardization during the following decades, thus achieving a unique effect when recording moving scenes, such as Rocky’s running sequence through the streets of Philadelphia.
Thus, the creator of this new recording system, Garrett Brown, took his revolutionary camera to ‘Rocky’ director John G. Avildsen in person, which allowed him to shoot all of Rocky’s racing scenes as smoothly as possible, without jerky movements or strange lens vibrations. However, this was not the only trick applied to Sly’s iconic scene.
That part of Rocky’s celebration at the top of the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is edited in reverse; that is, it was recorded backwards from how this sequence appears in the film, and in the editing room the sense was reversed. That is why for a few seconds, when Rocky raises his arms jumping, gives a couple of punches in the air, and starts to turn on himself with his fists on his waist, we are actually watching the recording backwards.
Thus, if we sharpen our eyes and look at the movements of arms and legs, we will notice something strange, as if his jumps and wiggles did not quite fit. The reason is that the director was not very convinced of the effect of the zoom out of the scene, considering that it was better to mount the sequence with the zoom approaching the actor. And to solve this, he just had to reverse the sequence.
‘Rocky’ can be watched in the United States through platforms such as AMC+, YouTube TV, or Philo.
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