Rocky IV Director's Cut Rocky vs Drago - Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, figured I would try and get another post in before the end of the month and this one will be on the director's cut of Rocky IV, which I watched recently. 

Now Rocky IV has always been one of the cheesiest entries in the series with its cringe inducing dialogue and the inclusion of a robot (as a gift to Paulie!) but this director's cut promises to change all that but does it? Well let's find out!

And the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY 

So, the film starts off where Rocky III left, only with a lengthier reprise of the ending with Rocky defeating Clubber Lang (Mr T) and afterward he has a private bout with Apollo (Carl Weathers) who wants to prove that he can still beat Rocky (the result of which is left undetermined, but Rocky has a black eye!).  

After this the story moves to 1985 where Rocky is still the reigning world champion, but a new challenger comes to town in the form of the giant Russian boxer, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lungren).  Drago is accompanied by his wife Ludmilla (Brigitte Nielsen) along with his team and manager Nicolai Koloff (Michael Pataki) and in front of the press during a training session, Drago shows his formidable strength and punching power.  

Apollo takes notice of Drago and in an effort to prove himself he decides to take the big Russian on in an exhibition match, convinced that he can beat him, Apollo persuades Rocky to train him.  At a press conference things quickly turn hostile between the Apollo and Drago's camps as Apollo ridicules Drago and the big guy pushes Apollo back and leaves Drago coldly incensed by Apollo's actions.

On the night of the match, which takes place at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas, Apollo makes a spectacular entrance, wearing his old Uncle Sam boxing outfit, and with James Brown singing "Livin in America" in the background.  The bout begins with Apollo tamely landing a few punches on Drago, but things soon take a turn for the worse as Drago starts to beat Apollo relentlessly until he can barely stand.  At the sit down, Rocky pleads with Apollo to stop the fight, but Apollo refuses and insists that Rocky keep the fight going no matter what happens.  

In the second round despite some minor resistance from Apollo, Drago continues to brutally beat Apollo and Duke (Tony Burton) Apollo's former manager pleads with Rocky to throw the towel but Apollo says no just before Drago lands one last fatal blow which puts Apollo down permanently, as Rocky enters the ring, Apollo dies in his arms.  After the match Drago is interviewed and shows no remorse whatsoever over his actions and says regarding Apollo "If he dies... he dies".

Rocky as a result of Apollo's death decides to relinquish his title belt (which he places in Apollo's coffin) and he agrees to an unsanctioned 15 round fight against Drago in the Soviet union to take place on Christmas day.  Adrian (Talia Shire) Rocky's wife, expresses her fears to Rocky about how he too could get killed if he fights Drago and she thinks he can't win, regardless however Rocky goes to Russia along with his trainer Duke and his brother-in law Paulie (Burt Young).  

In Russia, Rocky is given a log cabin as his training base where he starts to train traditionally (without any sparring partners either which is mentioned in a new included scene) and in stark contrast Drago trains using very high tech equipment where he has a team of trainers and doctor monitoring his every moment.  Adrian soon decides to join Rocky in Russia as well to give him her full support, which motivates Rocky even further.  

Come the night of the bout, Rocky enters the arena where he Russian audience boo him and as Drago arrives, a huge patriotic display is put on for the Russian fighter, and from here both men get down to business as they lock horns in an intense battle of west vs east...

THOUGHTS 

Rocky IV's director cut, it has to be said in quite a few ways is an improvement over the original and it sees quite a fair amount of the cheese that peppered the original removed such as the inclusion of Paulie's robot (who he reprograms to have a sexy female voice!) as well as Brigette Nielsen's dialogue  almost entirely removed also. We also see the inclusion of some new scenes and unused takes that didn't appear in the original for various scenes and even some extended footage for both Apollo and Rocky's fights with Drago. 

And with Stallone at the directorial helm again as well as on the writing duties, he uses the cold war theme between the American and Russians and the film itself even had some criticism levelled at it as a propaganda piece.  And this is certainly mirrored in Apollo's death at the hands of the ice cold Drago where the Russians draw first blood in their contest with the Americans and both sides also display fierce patriotism during both bouts. However in all fairness, the director's cut actually succeeds in making Drago a slightly more sympathetic antagonist (if you like) than in the original as there is even a moment near the end of Rocky's speech he refers to Apollo and Drago clearly looks a bit remorseful when he does.

The film was also noted for during its production where Stallone and Lundgren actually engaged in an authentic contest in early sections of their fight scene, which lead to Stallone sustaining a serious injury to his heart after a direct blow from Lundgren, and Stallone was forced to leave the production and spent eight days in intensive care.  Stallone also later stated that Carl Weathers nearly quit the film's production as a result of Lundgren's overly aggressive approach during the filming of Apollo and Drago's exhibition fight, and it took Stallone to resolve the dispute and convince Weathers to come back to the film.  So even the film's production wasn't short on drama either!

PERFORMANCES 

As for the performances well things are mostly good, but they are a bit of a mixed bag as well. 

Starting with Sylvester Stallone, who still manages to provide a pretty good performance as Rocky (although he mumbles as usual throughout!) who suffers the loss of his good friend Apollo and has to face the might of the formidable Drago.  

Stallone also portrays Rocky as being more resilient this time round after Apollo's death he actually maintains his focus while training for the fight even despite Adrian's refusal to support him, although she eventually reunites with him and does.  

As for Stallone he has some good scenes which include the one he has with Apollo as the two of watch a video of their second fight together and Rocky asks him about why he wants to fight Drago. So, Rocky says to Apollo "Can I asking you something?" and Apollo engrossed in the video asks "What?" and Rocky "This fight with the Russian, do you thin it ain't against him? Maybe like its you against you? What do you think?" and Apollo suddenly gets up and says "I don't think I wanna hear this, Stallion!". Rocky then says "Look, Apollo you're a great fighter, no doubt about that. You don't want believe it, but maybe the show is over". Apollo says "That's easy for you to say, you're still on top!" and Rocky tells him "Look at that, you don't want to believe this but that ain't us up there anymore, Apollo. We can't do that the way we did it before. We're changing". 

Then there is the scene where Rocky feels emotional at Creed's funeral where he breaks down crying as he speaks at Creed's coffin. And Rocky says "I have everything I've got and I owe everything I've got to you. You gave me a break that no one else would. You believed in me when no one else would! I really loved you man" and places his champion belt on a bed of flowers. 

And then there is the scene where Rocky and Adrian argue about his agreeing to fight Drago and he says "I am fighter.  I can't change what I am.  We can't change anything we just have to go with what we are".  And after Adrian yells at him that he can't possibly win the fight, Rocky says "You're right maybe I can't win.  Maybe the only thing I can do is take everything he's got.  But to beat me, he's going to have to kill me.  And to kill me, he's gonna have to have the heart to stand in front of me.  And to do that he's got to be willing to die himself." However in the director's cut, this scene was changed up quite a bit as the dialogue quoted from Rocky is removed and included in the scene where we see Rocky hang up some newspaper cuttings when he is in his training cabin, which I thought was a weird decision.

And his last scene where he addresses the Russian crowd he delivers his memorable, albeit corny speech where he dishes out words of wisdom to the newly converted Russian Rocky fan audience "Thank you. I came here tonight and I didn't know what to expect. I had seen a lot of people hating me, so I guess I didn't like you much either. During this fight, I had seen a lot of changing about the way you felt about me and the way I felt about you. In this fight there were two guys killing each other, but I guess that's better than killing 20 million!" and then he finishes by saying "What I'm trying to say is that if I can change, then you can change... everybody can change!". Again however they changed this to make a bit less cringe worthy as his delivery of the line "Everybody can change" is less loud and he calmly says "Thank you" at the end instead, which does mute the effectiveness of the scene a little bit.

Talia Shire is really good once again as Rocky's loving wife Adrian, although this time her character was curiously sidelined and is left largely in the background while Rocky does his exhibition stuff with Apollo or trains for the fight against Drago until she joins up with him later on.  

Talia's best scene is when she argues with Rocky over his decision to fight Dragon and she says "Before there were reasons but I don't understand this. Even if you win, Apollo is still gone. What do you hope to achieve? Why can't you change your thinking? Everybody else does!" and Rocky tells her "Beacuse I'm a fighter! That's the way I'm made, Adrian! That's what you married!" but Adrian tells him "Its suicide!  You've seen him, you know how strong he is.  You can't win!!".

And last of all is the spectacularly selfish scene from both Rocky and Adrian (more from Adrian!) where Adrian turns in Russia having left her son behind on his own (yep!) to be with and support Rocky. So, in the scene Adrian tells Rocky "I'm with you no matter what" and Rocky asks her "No matter what?" and she says "No matter what" and they hug.

Burt Young is great once again as Paulie, Rocky's best friend although his part in the director's cut is reduced somewhat as the robot has been cut out of the film, we lose much of the comic relief he brought to the film but he still has one or two funny lines. 

And Burt does get some of the film's funniest moments such as during the press conference where he insults Drago's manager. And as Drago's manager, Koloff berates the Americans, Paulie says to him "Hey! At least we don't have people kept behind walls with machine guns!" and Koloff asks "Who are you?" and Paulie says "Who am I? I'm the un-silent majority, big mouth!".  

And when Paulie arrives in Russia in the snow laden tundras he looks around and says "|This place ain't look so tough, Rocky" but Rocky notices Paulie is wearing ear muffs and he says "Hey Paulie how come you're wearing Adrian's earmuffs?" and Paulie says "They look better on me!". But then he complains "No sparring, no TV, no nothing?! How the heck are you supposed to train here?!" and he ends up falling into the deep snow and he gets up and says "This is a good place to die!".  

And last of all is the scene just prior to the fight, Burt get's another couple of good lines where he first says to Rocky "I just wanna say if I ever wanted to unzip myself from my own skin and be someone else, I'd be you.  You're all heart, Rock!" and he kisses Rocky on the cheek and Rocky smiles and says "Thanks Paulie". And Paulie then in usual mode says "Now blast this guys teeth out!" and Rocky says "I'll try". However later after Paulie sees Drago up close in the ring he says to Rocky "You remember what I said about wanting to being you?  Forget it!".

Tony Burton also provides a good turn as Rocky's trainer and Apollo's former trainer who trains Rocky in Russia.  Burton also shares a good scene with Stallone where Duke talks to Rocky when they are in Russia, prior to starting Rocky's training he tells him "You know when Apollo died, part of me died. He was like my son, I raised him. But now you're the one, that's going to go on and keep his spirit alive. You're gonna have to go through hell.  Worse than any nightmare you've ever dreamed.  But when its over, I know you will be the one who is still standing". And after they both share a hug, Duke tells Rocky "Now you know what have to do, now do it. Do it". 

Then there is the scene later during the fight where after Rocky stuns Drago by delivering a powerful blow that cuts above his right eye and Duke fires Rocky up. So, Duke shouts at Rocky "You see cut him! You hurt him! You, see he's not a machine! He's a man! Now take it to him!"  

Carl Weathers also provides another fine performance in his last appearance as Apollo Creed in the Rocky series, as Apollo eventually meets his fate when he faces the towering Drago in a "friendly" exhibition bout which ends very badly.  

And Weathers again plays the part to perfection and displays Apollo's charisma, charm, confidence and arrogance.  

And Weathers has some great moments in the film that include the scene where he speaks with Rocky and Adrian about taking on Drago and later Rocky alone. So, Apollo says to Rocky and Adrian "I watched video of Drago from years ago, he's big and strong but he's clumsy. I know I can beat him" and Adrian asks "Why?" and Apollo tells her "Let's  just say, its something I believe in". 

And later as Apollo and Rocky watch a film of their second fight together, Rocky asks Apollo "This fight against the Russian, isn't it you against you?" and Apollo says "I don't think I wanna hear this, Stallion". Rocky then says "Look, Apollo you're a great fighter no doubt that but we can't do that like we did before. We're changing" and Apollo says "I don't wanna change! I like who I am!". And Apollo then tells Rocky "You see you and me were born with this killer instinct you can't just turn off like some radio. And all this stuff around, man doesn't mean a thing! And without some war to fight, the warrior might as well be dead, Stallion!" and he softly says "So, I'm asking you, as a friend, stand in my corner this one last time". 

Then there is the press conference scene with Drago, where Drago is asked a question but he doesn't respond, and Apollo says "The man's tongue didn't come through customs!".  And in the scene Weathers also shows Apollo's rampant ego and how he still thinks he is the greatest despite having boxed in five years as he says "Well I've been with the best and I've beaten the best!  I've retired more men than social security!". And Koloff asks Apollo "You're not being very realistic are you, Mr Creed? You can box yes, but you are far too old if you think you can win over Drago" and Apollo asks "Oh, is that a fact?!" and Koloff says "Yes and it could be a painful one!" and Apollo angrily says "You put that heavy bag with eveballs in the ring with me and I'll show you the meaning of pain!". And as the place erupts and Drago pushes back Apollo, Apollo shouts "Alright! I've said what I feel! We'll finish this in the ring!". 

And Weathers also has a really good moment when it probably finally dawns on Apollo that he might be totally screwed when he get's in the ring with Drago and just before the fight begins he taunts him by saying "Come on its time to go to school, son.  Come on did you hear what I said?!  Do you need and interpreter?! Put your hands up, its time to go to school!" and Drago puts his gloves up and Apollo's gloves contact with them and he sees how rock solid physically Drago is, who coldly says "You will lose".

Dolph Lundgren is also very good in his role as the mighty, merciless and not very talkative Ivan Drago who provides Rocky's sternest test in his career so far, as well as proving to be Apollo's literal nemesis. Lundgren's incredible physique was well noted by Stallone, who felt that Lundgren could even have become a professional heavyweight boxer himself.  

Lundgren's main highlights in the film are his two fight scenes with Apollo and Rocky, with the latter being one of the best fight scenes in the series, as it is a really intense and fairly even contest.  Lundgren doesn't have much dialogue in the film, which is probably just as well as his delivery is so robotic, but what little he has does have still manages to make an impression, especially in the scene after he has just clubbed Apollo to death in the ring and he says "I defeat all men.  I cannot be defeated. Pretty soon I will defeat a real champion!" and when he is asked about Apollo's critical condition he says without a hint of remorse "If he dies... he dies".  

Also later on in the ring just before Rocky's bout with Drago is about to start, he says to Rocky "I must break you!".  And surprisingly near the end of the fight, you actually gain some sympathy for Drago as the crowd turn against him and his manager angrily tells him he is a disgrace and he has to win, which leads to Drago picking him up by the throat, although he let's him go, but at this point you feel the Russians are just using him as a pawn in their game against the Americans.  And he shouts to the crowd in Russian "I win for me! For ME!!".

Brigiette Nielsen on the other hand however proves to be the real weak link in the chain of the cast, as her potrayal of Drago's wife, Ludmilla. However, in the director's cut, her part has been great reduced and most of her dialogue has been cut out, so most of the cheesy lines we heard her say in the original are no longer in the director's cut, which is both a blessing and also a bit of a disappointment because Stallone appeared to overdo it here with scaling back Nielsen's performance.

And finally Michael Pataki is very good as Drago's manager, Nikolai Koloff even though he too is given his fair share of corny dialogue, which serves to heighten the tension and propaganda of the film.  

And Pataki has some good scenes that include the one where during a demonstration of Drago's incredible punching power he tells the press about what the special equipment that Drago is wired up does. So, he tells the press "It makes a man, a superman, it makes an athele a super athlete by harnessing all his strength". And when the press ask for a demonstartion, Drago delivers a brutal punch on the test machine and Koloff says "So, you see Drago here hits 1850 pounds per square inch. So, the results are obvious" and a press man asks "And what results are those?" and Koloff says "Whatever he hits, he destroys" just before we see Drago deliver another ferocious demonstration blow. 

This is then followed by the scene at the Apollo, Drago press conference where Apollo brags about his ability and confidence to beat Drago and Koloff questions him over it. So, Koloff says to him "You are not being very realistic are you, Mr Creed?" and Apollo asks "Now who is this?" and Koloff tells him "You can box, yes but you are far too old to think you can win over Drago" and Apollo asks "Is that a fact?!" and Koloff tells him "Yes and it could be a painful one!". And Koloff says "I say to the press in all fairness that Drago should not even fight this man because he is a has-been!".

Then there is scene at Rocky and Drago's press conference where things get heated again as Koloff gets riled up by Paulie. And Koloff says "Yes, that's right! Insult us! It is more typical insulting behaviour towards foreigners. Perhaps the defeat of this so called little champion will be an example of how PATHETIC and weak your society has become! We go!" and he storms out. 

And last of all is the scene just before the final round of Rocky and Drago's match where a furious Koloff runs up to Drago as he angrily berates him for the crowd chanting for Rocky. So, Koloff says to Drago in Russian "You idiot! Our people cheer for him!" and he angrily pushes Drago's face and shouts "WIN!" but Drago angrily stands up and grabs a stunned Koloff by the throat lifting him off his feet only for Ludmilla to shout "Niet!" and then let's him go.

DIRECTION AND MUSIC 

Direction wise Sylvester Stallone once again does a fine job here and with the director's he does a fine job in trimming out some of the more cheesy moments of the film although the lengthy intro of moments from Rocky III is a bit puzzling instead of the reprise of just the Clubber fight. Stallone also in the film produces some great moments such as the montage of Rocky training which really pulls you into the action of his preparations for the fight.  And Stallone's direction of the fight itself is terrific and the fight is for me the best out of all six of Rocky's films, as the bout is both tense and exciting to watch.

As for the music score, well this time Bill Conti is missing (as he was occupied with scoring the Karate Kid films at that time) and Vince DiCola took over the duties of writing the music, and his score is not too bad, although it pretty synth heavy and does sound rather dated.  The film also has some other tracks by contemporary artists of the time such as Survivor, Kenny Loggins,  Robert Tepper and Go West, and most notably John Cafferty who contributes the song "Hearts on Fire" used during Rocky's training montage. However for the director's cut, Stallone did use some of Bill Conti's musical cues from previous Rocky films in certain scenes and he reuses "The Eye of the Tiger" again at the end of the film that appeared in Rocky III.

FLAWS

So, as for flaws, does the director's cut have any of note? Well yes it does. 

To start with it has to be said that while it is an entertaining film, it is also a very corny and at times cringe worthy one as well, particularly in scenes such as Apollo's overtly patriotic entrance to his exhibition bout against Drago as James Brown sings "Living in America". However that is probably about as corny as the director's cut allows itself to actually get thanks to Stallone getting rid of the ridiculous robot from the original cut.

Drago also has an equally cringing entrance to his bout with Rocky in Russia, as presumably the country's anthem plays in the background and a large potrait on a curtain of Drago is unveiled with Drago standing in the ring looking on without a hint of pride or any kind of emotion for that matter!  And once again here Stallone lays on the patriotism way too thick so much so the whole thing at this point just feels like total overkill and would be almost fair to say the film is on the verge of being xenophobic.

The film is also guilty of being a bit like a music video at times, especially with the montage of scenes where Rocky takes a long soul searching drive in his car after Apollo's death and Robert Tepper's "No easy way out" plays in the background and it replays scenes from the previous three films.  And at this stage it all feels like a long way from the down to earth reality of the first two films and more like a fantasy based film, where the Rocky series has started to lose its grip on the reality of the character and the story just seems to enter the realms of the fantastical as Rocky indulges in the excesses of his wealth and success.

And another problem I have with the film and this applies to the director's cut also is of course Adrian's decision to travel to Russia AND LEAVE HER SON BEHIND ON HIS OWN!!!  I mean what the hell is that about???!  In the absence of his parents, the son has no guardians to look after him at all especially now that Paulie's sex bot is no longer in the film, Robert Jr is all on his own!! And it hardly shows good parenting that both Rocky and Adrian are willing to leave their son behind and when Rocky reunites with her he doesn't even think to say "Wait a minute!  Where is the kid??? Did you leave the kid at home all on his own????!".  So if Rocky at this point can't remember his kid's name, what chance has he of remembering if the kid is still at home on his own!! In short, they are both selfish and thoughtless parents here and it remains one of the big plot holes in the film. 

It also seems extremely unlikely given Drago's immense physical power that Rocky would be able to actually withstand a beating from him over 15 rounds in reality and it would be more likely that he too might have died in the ring.  But hey this is a movie after all and it is Rocky Balboa we are talking about here, and to a lesser extent Rocky V deals with the extent of Rocky's injuries in his aftermath of his battle with Drago probably as they needed to give some logical reasoning as to just how Rocky could withstand such a vicious pummeling in the ring. 

Also further to this, you look at the amount of sparring partners Drago must have had (and we only see a couple here) and you'd be surprised they survived as well. In fact it wouldn't be surprising if he had killed them too with his brute force and there was a deleted scene we don't know about where Drago's team dump the dead bodies in a heap somewhere! ;-) 

I think it was a bit stingy of the Russian government to not offer Rocky a better training camp for him other than a log cabin out in the middle of nowhere during the freezing winter!  I wonder if Rocky decided he wanted to train more naturally out in the open and using as few amenities as possible while the other guy get's to train in the most advanced high tech gym of all time!  It probably also lays on another example of xenophobia like the Russians are quite happy to leave Rocky literally out in the cold rather than give him any real comforts of a decent gym to train in as well as no sparring partners to practice with either! Ah well. 

On the upside however, they did at least not go with the cringe inducing moment of the Politburo members and the Russian premier applauding Rocky's speech at the end and instead we see them exit the arena in disgust, which feels more appropriate and a good decision on Stallone's behalf because the original was cheesy as hell!      

And last of all in regards to the actual director's cut itself, if I had one big criticism of it, it would be to do with its pacing at times, which feels a bit jarring and uneven with some rather random edits and scenes that were somewhat unnecessarily trimmed. Such an example is where we see Drago knock over the cardboard figure of Apollo for the exhibition bout as it was largely cut out and faded quickly over to the next scene but the result is quite jarring and doesn't work too well. 

Then there is the trimming of Brigette Nielsen's performance which was frankly a bit overkill here from Stallone as he cut out most of her dialogue. And yes OK I admit that her lines are pretty bad mostly especially the line where she berates the press by saying "You have this believe that you are so very good and we are so very bad!" which thankfully was cut out here but I still think Stallone was a bit harsh on diminishing her performance to the extent that he does here.

There is also an excessive amount of reaction scenes from the cast members this time around as we see the likes of Paulie, Adrian and even Apollo's wife react from various different camera angles in different scenes but all gets a bit repetitive and disrupts the flow of the film because there is so much of it going on. In fact it almost reminds me of the reaction scenes in the Family Guy parody of Return of the Jedi during the Sarlaac pit sequence where Luke, Lando and the others all nod at each other over and over!

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Rocky IV Director's Cut - Rocky vs Drago is a very solid re-edit of the original film and for the most part in succeeds in making the film that bit more credible and considerably less cheesy and thankfully it holds together better as a film than say Richard Donner's cut of Superman II. We also get to see a more human side of Drago in the film and in this re-cut version I swear he actually has more dialogue than his wife Ludmilla has! And its also nice to see so much unused footage put to good use here that offers a different perspective on the film. 

There are of course some issues with the director's cut that has some questionable pacing at times and some edit and trims to scenes that feel a bit unnecessary but that aside this is still a very solid version of Rocky IV and its well worth checking out, especially if you don't want to see Paulie's sex bot! 

So, I will rate this film:

8.5 out of 10  

So, thats it for now and I will be back next month with another post.

Until then its bye for now!